Love and lifestyle: how 'relational healthism' structures couples' talk of engagement with lifestyle advice associated with a new diagnosis of coronary heart disease.
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Date
2023-12
Open Access Location
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Taylor and Francis Group
Rights
(c) 2022 The Author/s
CC BY 4.0
CC BY 4.0
Abstract
Objectives
Healthy lifestyle change improves outcomes in coronary heart disease (CHD), but is rarely sustained. To better understand barriers to lifestyle change, we examined couples’ talk of engaging with lifestyle advice after one partner receives a diagnosis of CHD.
Design
A longitudinal qualitative design, in which a poststructuralist discourse analysis was performed on 35 interviews, conducted with 22 heterosexual British people in a long term relationship. The interviews occurred over three months after one partner was referred to a cardiac rehabilitation programme designed to support lifestyle change.
Results
Couples understood their health as a shared practice underpinned by an ideological framework of healthism, creating a form of ‘relational healthism’. Practicing relational healthism was not straightforward because the practices of surveillance, control, and discipline related to healthism often contravened relationship norms of support, acceptance and respect for the other’s autonomy. Couples struggled to resolve this tension, dynamically adopting, resisting, and occasionally transforming discourses of health and love in ways that worked for and against engagement in lifestyle change.
Conclusion
In foregrounding the discursive and relational contexts of behavioural change engagement, we show the considerable complexity for couples, including costs related to engagement with lifestyle advice.
Description
Keywords
Lifestyle change, coronary heart disease, couples health, discourse, healthism
Citation
Robson M, Riley S, Gagen E, McKeogh D. (2023). Love and lifestyle: how 'relational healthism' structures couples' talk of engagement with lifestyle advice associated with a new diagnosis of coronary heart disease.. Psychol Health. 38. 12. (pp. 1606-1622).