ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I aim to answer four questions: What is the content of the obesity recommendations? Can one find an explanation for the chosen focus? What role does the institutional setting play for the recommendations given? What is the role of research and evidence in the recommendations? The text I studied to answer these questions is a draft of the 2019 Recommendations to Municipalities on Lifestyle Intervention Addressing Severe Overweight (Recommendations) published by the DHA. Thus, as the name of the document reveals, from the very beginning, it was restricted in its focus; it should address people’s behaviours and intervene among individuals. The recommendations were aimed at professionals in the municipalities, at hospitals and in general practice who work with people with severe overweight. The Recommendations were preceded by a report commissioned by the DHA on the evidence for the effects of lifestyle interventions and were written by a group of researchers from the University of Copenhagen. The DHA did not wish other interventions to be considered such as surgery and medical treatments. Structural interventions were not mentioned – they were seemingly not considered.
