Health capital: New health risks and personal investments in the body in the context of changing Nordic welfare states

Abstract

Throughout the Western world, patterns of diseases and disabilities have changed as new forms have emerged (OECD 2010). While many old social risks affecting people’s health, such as inadequate nutrition and hard, physical labour, were related to scarcity, today we are witnessing health risks such as obesity, type II-diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, certain forms of cancer and so on that in intricate ways may be associated with abundance. Similarly, old social health risks, including dangerous work environments and poor housing conditions, were related to outward physical threats and are as such still present as risk factors, while new health risks appear to be more intangible and seemingly lifestyle related, sometimes even self-inflicted, like eating disorders (e.g. bulimia, anorexia) and deliberate self-harm. And in contrast to the old health risks, often manifested in conspicuous handicaps, the new health risks are less visible, and hence often labelled as ‘diffuse’ - for example, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, clinical depression and anxiety (cf. Øverbye 2005).