Socio-Psycho-Economical – University of Copenhagen

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Food, Fitness & Pharma > Research > Socio-Psycho-Economical

Social Sciences and Humanities

Main hypothesis:

Political and social factors influence the prevalence of lifestyle diseases and how they are addressed by public and private actors. Interdisciplinary approaches, combining different areas of social science, will serve as a strong platform for analyzing this.

There is a need to learn more about how populations’ everyday practices and understandings influence health related habits and effects of public health policies, to evaluate social-psychological intervention strategies with respect to changing eating and physical activity habits  and to analyse how public and private regulation in this area may be combined with due respect for key ethical values. Historical analysis of how ideas about the ‘cure’ and prevention of lifestyle diseases have changed combined with ethical evaluations of unanticipated side effects of modern health policies such us stigmatisation, restricted freedom etc., will contribute to the development of new, efficient and socially robust policies.

This part of the UNIK is about:

  • Historical development of social constructions of the notion of a life-style related disease and reflection of these in preventive and treatment strategies will be addressed. Ethical, social and health political dilemmas related to this area will be systematically identified and analysed.

  • The role and interaction of public and market regulation as important factors influencing the choice of consumers, clients and patients in regards to consumption of food, drugs and fitness will be analysed. A platform for optimizing public and private regulation, and their interactions, in the prevention of lifestyle-related diseases will be developed.

  • How bodily signals and sensations, such as hunger and satiety, are conceived, interpreted and reacted upon by groups of different socio-economic status will be examined. Pattern of physical activity will be studied in the same groups, and interrelations between physical activity, fitness and eating practices will be addressed.

  • Social-psychological intervention methods for life style changes (food and physical activity) will be developed and their effectiveness tested. Effectiveness, suitability and life style consequences of biological versus social versus combined bio-social interventions will be addressed. Different strategies for socio-psychological intervention will be examined.
     

This part of the UNIK is expected to lead to:

  • New, in-depth knowledge about how individuals’ daily health-related practices are influenced by socially mediated factors.

  • Contextual and qualitative understanding of individual practices regarding eating, physical activity, and reactions to health messages including compliance.

  • Comprehensive analysis as platform for novel regulatory measures combining public and private regulation, including food and pharmaceutical industries.

  • New strategies for social-psychological interventions for replacing unhealthy habits with healthier once.

  • Strategies, that are ethically analysed and take possible unanticipated side-effects into consideration


Impact/Implementation:

 

State of the art: Expected outcome: Impact/Implementation:
It is known that most strategies employed to make people change behaviour have little or no impact. More needs to be known about why people act as they do and which interventions they respond to. New platforms for optimizing public and private regulations taking ethical issues into account.
Knowledge about influences on everyday health related habits and about the effect of social psychological and mind-affecting methods for reducing overweight.
 		 We expect to be able to suggest socially and ethically robust preventive policy measures and regulation and new social psychological methods for reducing overweight.