Challenges of Weight Loss Surgery for Adolescents with Obesity
May 9, 2017
Janet Childerhose, PhD
As a medical anthropologist focused on bariatric surgery, I’m thrilled to have this opportunity to share my story with the #obsm community. My passion for understanding the challenges that adolescents with obesity experience is an extension of my compassion for those who face bullying. Adolescents with obesity are especially vulnerable to bullying. Even when able to escape explicit bullying, adolescents with obesity are more likely to be socially marginalized. Rather than the chronic disease we now understand it to be, society still treats obesity as a character defect. These inequities have far reaching consequences: children with obesity lag behind their normal-weight peers in educational attainment.