Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Lifestyles

  • Reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Global Bioethics

  • 37 Accesses

Abstract

There is an increasing recognition that noncommunicable diseases are overtaking infectious diseases as the world’s leading cause of morbidity and mortality. Many of the major risk factors contributing to noncommunicable diseases are potentially modifiable lifestyle factors. Normative controversies persist about governments’ role in protecting people from the adverse consequences of individual lifestyles. Justifications for interventions involve notions of risk to others, protection of incompetent individuals, risk to self, and justice. Further, lifestyle-induced diseases put strain on public health care, and there is a recurrent debate on the possibility to ration health care based on individual lifestyle information. As long as lifestyle choices are shaped by circumstances, such as social institutions, belief systems, and class orientation, lifestyle rationing should not be unconditionally supported.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 1,799.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 1,999.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Childress, J. F., Faden, R. R., Gaare, R. D., Gostin, L. O., Kahn, J., Bonnie, R. J., Kass, N. E., Mastroianni, A. C., Moreno, J. D., & Nieburg, P. (2002). Public health ethics: Mapping the terrain. Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics, 30, 170–178.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cockerham, W. C. (2005). Health lifestyle theory and the convergence of agency and structure. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 46(1), 51–67.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dworkin, G. (2014). Paternalism. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, (Summer 2014 Edition), E.N. Zalta (ed.), http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2014/entries/paternalism/.

  • Feiring, E. (2008). Lifestyle, responsibility and justice. Journal of Medical Ethics, 34, 33–36.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gostin, L. O., & Gostin, K. G. (2009). A broader liberty: J.S. Mill, paternalism and the public’s health. Public Health, 123, 214–221.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hausman, D. M., & Welch, B. (2010). To nudge or not to nudge. Journal of Political Philosophy, 18(1), 123–136.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kesse-Guyot, E., Adreeva, V. A., Lassale, C., Hercberg, S., & Galan, P. (2014). Clustering of midlife behaviors and subsequent cognitive function: A longitudinal study. American Journal of Public Health, 104, e170–e177. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2014.30212.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lim, S. S., et al. (2012). A comparative risk assessment of burden of disease and injury attributable to 67 risk factors and risk factor clusters in 21 regions, 1990–2010: A systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010. The Lancet, 380, 2224–2260.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marmot, M., Allen, J., Bell, R., Bloomer, E., & Goldblatt, P. (2012). WHO European review of social determinants of health and the health divide. The Lancet, 380, 1011–1029.

    Google Scholar 

  • Martin-Diener, E., Meyer, J., Braun, J., Tarnutzer, S., Faeh, D., Rohrmann, S., & Martin, B. W. (2014). The combined effect on survival of four main behavioural risk factors for non-communicable diseases. Preventive Medicine, 65, 148–152.

    Google Scholar 

  • Planzer, S., & Alemanno, A. (2010). Lifestyle risks: Conceptualisation of an emerging category of research. European Journal of Risk Regulation, 4, 337–339.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thaler, R., & Sunstein, C. (2008). Nudge. Improving decisions about health, wealth and happiness. New Haven: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Voigt, K. (2013). Appeals to individual responsibility of health. Reconsidering the luck egalitarian perspective. Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics, 22, 146–158.

    Google Scholar 

  • Willcox, B. J., He, Q., Chen, R., Yano, K., Masaki, K. H., Grove, J. S., Donlon, T. A., Willcox, D. C., & Curb, J. D. (2006). Midlife risk factors and healthy survival in men. JAMA, 296(19), 2343–2350.

    Google Scholar 

Further Readings

  • Mello, M. M., Studdert, D. M., & Brennan, T. A. (2006). Obesity – The new frontier of public health law. New England Journal of Medicine, 354(24), 26012610.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilson, J. (2011). Why it’s time to stop worrying about paternalism in health policy. Public Health Ethics, 4(3), 269–279.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Health Management and Health Economics, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

    Eli Feiring

Authors
  1. Eli Feiring
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Eli Feiring .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Healthcare Ethics, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Henk ten Have

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

Feiring, E. (2016). Lifestyles. In: ten Have, H. (eds) Encyclopedia of Global Bioethics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09483-0_273

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation