Personal respsonsibility is a prevailing catchword in health policy. Following a predominant understanding which is oriented at the principle of causation, personal responsibility is interpreted in economic terms: Patients should be given a share in the costs of their treatment in cases when they are jointly responsible for their illnesses. Considering obesity as an example of a complex health
... [Show full abstract] condition with a multifactorial aetiology, the present study identifies the weaknesses of this approach. In the following, an ethical, legal and psychological reflected understanding of personal responsibility, which aims at enabling and activating health promoting behaviour, is developed. Consequently, the focus has to be shifted from the responsibility for the causation of a health disorder to the responsibility for the modification of the health status. The definition of personal responsibility as the possibility and capability of individuals to influence their health status in a positive way has implications for prevention: First, a reorientation of the currently predominant model of obesity prevention which focuses on individual behaviour and second, the inclusion of various (social, political, economical) stakeholders in preventive efforts. Extending the possibilities of individual acting by promoting capabilities and modifying environmental factors that have an effect on individual behaviour is a promising, appropriate and ethically sound strategy of prevention.
