Grant: Doctoral Award - Frederick Banting and Charles Best Canada Graduate Scholarships

Considering significant health risks related to obesity, it is crucial to study the socio-cultural mechanisms that lead to obesity and weight loss amongst various socio-economomic status groups. In women, midlife is strongly characterized by weight gain and increased health risks related to metabolic changes associated to menopause. Therefore prioritizing obese postmenopausal women is particularly relevant regarding this issue. To our knowledge, no social class analysis has focused on the susceptibilities of obese aging women to follow a weight-loss program. This research proposal focuses on disposition to loose weight of clinically obese postmenopausal women from contrasting social classes. The aims of this study are: 1) To identify the norms and values of clinically obese postmenopausal women of diverse socioeconomic background with regards to the ways of treating and caring for the body and to outline the socio-cultural processes which incline (or not) these individuals to pursue a weight loss strategies 2) To develop a theoretical and empirically-grounded account of the discursive and embodied effects of health and obesity discourses on obese aging women, 3) to understand how obese women are interpellated by dominant and/or alternative discourses on obesity. From a practical standpoint, this project will: A) develop knowledge that will assist health professionals in their contextualized interventions to improve obese women's health and weight management; B) inform those programs and policies that are intended to promote their participation in physical activity and other health practices; and C) provide information to help develop interventions that will better serve the goal of obese women's increased health and well-being.