Conclusion

This free course, Exploring health: is your lifestyle really to blame?, has considered the concept of lifestyles and how these are thought to have an impact on adult obesity. It has drawn your attention to some of the lifestyle factors that are particularly pertinent to a person’s health and wellbeing, and you have been asked to consider these factors in relation to your own current lifestyle. You have also been introduced to quantitative and qualitative research as ‘ways of knowing’, and have also been asked to consider the usefulness of a quantitative metric like BMI in relation to making sense of a contemporary issue such as adult obesity.

There are a range of organisations and professionals who are in some way responsible for addressing the challenge that is adult obesity. Providing people with adequate knowledge about what they eat, in addition to ensuring government, industry and individuals work together, will assist in encouraging healthy behavioural change. Strategies are already in place, and theories of behavioural change are utilised, but it is likely that greater efforts will be required to ensure the upward trend in obesity in high-income countries is reversed.

This OpenLearn course is an adapted extract from the Open University course K219 Critical issues in health and wellbeing [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] .