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Do-it-yourself heart health? 'Lay' practices and products for disease prevention

journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-08, 15:37 authored by Catherine WillCatherine Will, Kate Weiner
This paper considers how ‘health behaviours’ are imagined and practised in contemporary society, considering the combination of commercial products such as over the counter (OTC) statins and functional foods with more established ‘healthy behaviours’ in everyday life. Using data from users of low dose statins licensed for OTC sale in the UK and functional foods, we consider policy fears that such products would dilute efforts at healthy living. In line with sociological literature, we encountered resistance to pill-taking and accounts of health behaviour that show this to be a complex category that may involve functional or mundane foods, and supplements, may be highly targeted at heart health, or more defuse goals, or involve a degree of vagueness as to what is being used and why. Thinking about these practices as a form of ‘DIY’ provides a useful supplement to sociological interest in lay rationality, drawing attention to the objects rather than knowledges enrolled, and the provisional nature of health practices.

History

Publication status

  • Published

Journal

Health Sociology Review

ISSN

1446-1242

Publisher

e-Content Management

Issue

1

Volume

22

Page range

8-18

Department affiliated with

  • Sociology and Criminology Publications

Full text available

  • No

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2013-11-05

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    University of Sussex (Publications)

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