bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Genital Cutting, Female
Authors: Makene Fortunata Songora , Boyle Elizabeth Heger
Published: February 2014

Activists intervened to reduce the occurrence of female genital cutting practices (FGCs) on the basis of a right to health before the actual health consequences of the practices had been studied. This led to an exaggeration of the health consequences and a failure to differentiate among the different types of FGCs. In reaction, some scholars began to claim that the health consequences of FGCs were insufficient to justify eradication efforts. Others questioned whether countries should criminalize FGCs, arguing that this increased the potential harm by forcing the practices underground. Ultimately, a large‐scale, systematic study by the World Health Organization quieted the debate when it revealed that FGCs had serious health consequences, even in clinical settings.
Medical Knowledge
Authors: White Kevin
Published: February 2014

Medical knowledge appears to be objective, scientific fact. From the perspective of the sociology of history and the sociology of medicine it reflects social, economic, and political factors and obscures the social relations of sickness and disease.
Addiction and Health Care
Authors: Campbell Nancy D. , Netherland Julie
Published: February 2014

Historically, addiction has been defined as a social problem, a medical problem, and a criminal justice problem. This range of definitions has led to the study of addiction by a variety of disciplines, including medical sociologists, sociologists of deviance or social problems, scientific and clinical researchers, and law enforcement and legal scholars. The relationship between addiction treatment and health care in the United States differs depending on the setting within which health care is delivered to addicted individuals, as well as the social, political, and legal context. The relationship between addiction treatment and health care is also shaped by legal and scientific definitions of addiction prevailing at the time.
Health, Workers’
Authors: Koh David , NAING LIN
Published: February 2014

Many of the world's estimated 3 billion workers are employed in conditions which do not meet international health and safety standards. Approximately 2 million work‐related deaths and 330 million work‐related accidents occur every year despite global efforts to address occupational health and safety concerns. Creative methods of surveillance and management are required to address changing trends in the work and health landscape such as globalization, work in the informal sector, emerging health threats, migration, vulnerable workers, and discrimination at work. The workplace is an excellent platform for prevention of diseases, injuries, disability, and premature death, and also for health promotion. A holistic approach, combining health protection, disease prevention, health promotion, tackling social determinants of health, and reaching out to workers’ families and communities, is essential because the health of the worker is determined by a multiplicity of factors. These include occupational risks, social inequalities, health‐related behavior and lifestyles, and access to health services. Solutions to health problems of workers often require inputs and collaboration with partners beyond the health sector. There is potential to prevent and solve many occupational health and safety problems through incorporating workers’ health into policies of employment, social and economic development, education, trade, and environmental protection.
Health Care Delivery System: Japan
Authors: Anesaki Masahira
Published: February 2014

In modern Japan, before World War II, German medicine was the model; and since World War II, American medicine has been influential. The provision of medical care has been dominated by the private sector. But in the 1920s the German type of health insurance was introduced, and in 1961 a universal health insurance scheme was achieved. Private sector dominated medical care provision under the universal health insurance has been a characteristic of Japan's health care. The Japanese have achieved the highest health status with the lowest ratio of total expenditure on health care among the OECD member countries. But they are now facing the big challenges presented by the unregulated tradition of health care and the rise of health care costs under the universal health insurance scheme. The government has to start radical reforms.
Gender, Illness, and Social Construction
Authors: Simoni Zachary
Published: February 2014

Interactions between individuals and powerful institutions in society contribute to the social construction of gender and illness. A social construct is a collective/agreed‐upon meaning or belief about a particular phenomenon in society. This entry will discuss how collectively held beliefs affect gendered health disparities, how the body is shaped, how illness is experienced and the practice of medicine.
African Americans, Health of
Authors: Brandon L. Jerome
Published: February 2014

Several empirical challenges arise in estimating the health status of racial/ethnic populations and especially African Americans. African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of sub‐Saharan Africa. There are racial/ethnic health disparities that appear to result from genetics, environment, and access to health care and cultural preferences. African Americans have higher relative morbidity and mortality rates than other racial/ethnic groups in the United States across all health areas: chronic disease, communicable disease, injury, and child health. A further indication of health disparity is that the average life expectancy for European Americans in 2007 was 4.8 years greater than for African Americans. However, the difference was down from 5.5 years in 2000. African Americans account for a higher proportion of HIV infections at all stages of the disease from new infections to deaths. The number of new HIV/AIDS cases in African Americans is slowly decreasing. In conclusion, on a relative basis, the health of African Americans is not good, but the good news is that their health is improving.
Cosmetic Surgery
Authors: Stooksberry Jodi N.
Published: February 2014

The field of cosmetic surgery was established approximately 2500 years ago with its origins in India and Italy. What began as an international phenomenon became primarily associated with the United States as a result of World Wars I and II. Trench warfare during those wars caused immeasurable injuries to the facial profiles of soldiers, and cosmetic surgery became the means of combating disfiguring war wounds. This surge in application and popularity garnered esteem for cosmetic surgeons and their field. In 1921 cosmetic surgeons established the American Association of Plastic Surgeons to certify doctors and professionalize the field of cosmetic surgery.
Beauty Products and Health
Authors: Yang Jie
Published: February 2014

Researchers suggest that beauty and health are interrelated and that beauty products can both benefit (i.e., cosmaceuticals) and harm (i.e., toxicants) one's health. In addition to the impacts on physical health, cultural values attached to certain notions of beauty can also impact women's mental and psychological health. The study of beauty products and health focuses on gender, medicine, and their relationships to culture, class, and consumer capitalism. Such studies are often based on a binary of seeing certain products as being harmful or beneficial. Researchers have recently moved beyond this divisive approach by demonstrating the complicated history of the beauty industry and its corollary cultural, economic, and sociopolitical effects. Besides gendered exploitation (i.e., low wages) in such a doubly gendered beauty industry, scholars have examined the potential health risks of long‐term exposure to toxic beauty products faced by women who produce beauty products or offer beauty services.
Scientific Motherhood
Authors: Carter J. A.
Published: February 2014

Scientific motherhood refers to an ideology that places social pressure on mothers to seek out and heed scientific and medical advice regarding “proper” mothering techniques. More specifically the term has been used to describe the scientific and medical discourse on childrearing created in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. This advice emphasizes the positive and/or negative qualities of schedules and routines surrounding child breastfeeding, eating, bathing, potty training, sleeping, and other mothering techniques.
Online Health Information Seeking and Gender
Authors: Seçkin Gül
Published: February 2014

As the technologies for health information and communication develop, the adoption of social computing technologies by health care consumers has been of growing interest. The ultimate objective for online health information seeking is to assume an active role in achieving health and wellness, and to be an informed care partner with health professionals in managing personal or loved ones’ care. The Internet has also become a resource where users not only receive information but also produce experiential knowledge and support. Exchange of experiential information in online communities of information sharing and support reconstructs lay knowledge as part of an informational self‐help from which others benefit. Narrators of illness experiences become producers of experiential and practical knowledge and give impetus to their self‐definition as consumers of health care. Hearing the perspectives of others in cyberspace provides a form of complementary health information, and helps information seekers find answers to their questions from those who understand their issues from a patient perspective. Research is needed to evaluate whether and to what extent online health information improves users’ medical outcomes.
Disability and Chronic Illness
Authors: Livneh Hanoch
Published: February 2014

The onset of chronic illness or disability can have a significant impact on the quality of life of the individual. Chronic illness and disability (CID) may be assessed by their type of onset, life threat implications, course, level of controllability, and degree of imposed functional limitations. Among the most frequently experienced functional limitations are those of: mobility, manipulation, sensory, communication, consciousness, fatigue, cognitive, and social. Numerous internal and external variables typically interact to influence the individual's psychosocial adaptation to CID. Most frequently researched psychosocial reactions to the onset of CID include those of: anxiety, denial, depression, anger, and acceptance.
Global Health
Authors: Janes Craig R.
Published: February 2014

Global health is a field of research and practice that examines how assemblages of global processes converge on a health issue, problem, policy, or outcome within an identified social context. The goal of global health is to reduce health inequities and to contribute to the development of salutogenic social systems. This entry focuses on the five dimensions of globalization and health that form the core of social and behavioral sciences inquiry: (1) the social causes or determinants of health inequities; (2) the global circulation of science and technology and its impact on local populations and communities; (3) the development, circulation, and implementation of health policy; (4) global health governance; and (5) the effects of global environmental change on health.
Health Care Delivery System: Thailand
Authors: Hughes David , Srithamrongsawat Samrit
Published: February 2014

Thailand became a pathfinder for lower‐ and middle‐income countries when it introduced universal health care for its citizens in 2002. The country has a mixed but predominantly public system, with an extensive network of administrative offices, hospitals, and health centers at provincial and district levels. This entry describes the three public health insurance programs: the Universal Coverage Scheme (UCS), the Social Security Scheme (SSS), and the Civil Servant Medical Benefit Scheme (CSMBS), and the entitlements provided for members. Special attention is given to the UCS and its strengths and weaknesses. Research evidence suggests that the UCS has had strong positive impacts on access to care, equity of access, financial risk protection, and reduction in unmet need, but has brought more limited gains in building primary care capability in rural areas and developing disease prevention and health promotion.
Gender and Life Expectancy
Authors: Emslie Carol
Published: February 2014

Life expectancy at birth is an estimate of the number of years that a newborn baby will live – based on current age‐specific death rates – and is used as a measure of health status. Women have a longer life expectancy at birth than men in nearly every country. This gender gap in longevity is influenced by both biological and sociocultural factors, but very little research has tried to integrate these different perspectives. The dramatic variation in gender differences in life expectancy across the world illustrates how the biological vulnerability of males interacts with the ways that men and women are treated in different societies. Social and cultural explanations for the gender gap in life expectancy draw on men's and women's social roles, health behaviors such as smoking and drinking alcohol, and traditional notions of “masculinity.” Researchers have commented on the supposed “paradox” of women living longer but having worse health than men (“women are sicker, but men die quicker”). However, this observation has been found to be simplistic; research which compares men and women in similar situations has found that gender differences in physical ill‐health are either inconsistent or relatively small.
Gendered Health Discourse
Authors: Brenton Joslyn
Published: February 2014

Gendered health discourse is an emerging concept that combines the tradition of discourse analysis with gender theory to understand how patterned ways of communicating about health contribute to the façade of “natural” and oppositional differences between men and women. Discourse is defined as a patterned system of texts, message, talk, and dialogue. Gendered health discourses are widely shared discussions or ways of talking about health, geared toward one sex or the other, that promote the idea of gender differences and support gender inequality. Gendered health discourse is conveyed primarily through media outlets, and shapes how people think about, identify, and treat health issues, as well as how men and women interpret their bodies’ meaning and worth. Analyzing gendered health discourse reveals cultural values and belief systems with regard to health and gender, as well as how gender inequality is reproduced.
eHealth
Authors: Hale Timothy M.
Published: February 2014

eHealth is a relatively new term that refers to the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to improve health and health care services. eHealth is different from the field of medical informatics in that eHealth highlights the use of networked digital information and communication technologies, primarily the Internet, rather than the closed and fixed technologies used in medical informatics. Thus, eHealth encompasses a broad and rapidly growing number of applications, including dissemination of health information; patient–provider communication; participation in online support groups; creating, storing, and sharing personal health records (PHRs); electronic medical records (EMRs); decision support for clinicians and patients; and use of wearable sensors to collect data on physical functioning and health status. eHealth is widely believed to be an essential part of public and private sector efforts to improve health care and reduce costs. Given the increasing age of the US population and the fact that chronic diseases are the main cause of morbidity and premature mortality, eHealth is seen as key to fostering healthy behaviors to reduce the risk of chronic diseases and providing consumers with the health information and records they need to better manage their medical conditions if they become ill.
Gender and Self‐Salience
Authors: Gibson Philip A.
Published: February 2014

Self‐salience theory is a recently developed perspective on the relationship between gender and mental health. It proposes that differences between men's and women's expression of psychological distress are linked to differences in the relationship between self and other. These differences are based in the history of men's and women's participation in the public and private spheres of society. Self‐salience theory proposes that women experience more internalizing psychological distress due to the historical socialization of women toward caretaking roles which are carried out within the private sphere of society, particularly the home. Women's social expectations therefore inhibit them from prioritizing the needs of the self, resulting in internalizing expressions of distress such as depression. Men, conversely, have been socialized historically toward independence and personal achievement in the public sphere, such as the workplace. Men's social expectations therefore facilitate the external expression of distress, such as alcohol abuse. Self‐salience theory describes the mechanisms by which gendered social expectations lead to different self‐concepts, resulting in dispositions toward gendered expressions of distress.
Disease Ecology
Authors: Oppong Joseph R. , Huddleston Jody
Published: February 2014

The incidence, spatial distribution, and timing of disease outbreaks reflect the interactions of human populations with disease causing organisms in the environment. Disease ecology seeks to understand the interrelationship of disease, humans, and their common environment. It studies the principles that influence the spatiotemporal patterns of diseases – specifically, why the patterns of disease occur as they do.
Health Care Systems of the World, Changing
Authors: Okma Kieke G. H.
Published: February 2014

This entry analyzes the funding, contracting, and provision of health care as well as administration and government regulation as “core” functions of selected health care systems across the world, and assesses recent changes in those systems. Despite major differences in those core elements, the entry illustrates similarities in basic policy goals, policy challenges, and programmatic change across countries: separation of funding and contracting health care, and a general shift towards case‐based hospital payment. Another finding concerns “exit” behavior: offered a choice between public and private schemes, consumers indeed act – in particular, the young and healthy find private insurance more attractive than public schemes. Income level, (public) health spending, and health are closely associated. Nevertheless, statistical correlation does not equal causality, and some countries fared better than others in improving the health of their population. Political instability obviously undermines government capacity to safeguard access to basic health services. Fiscal stability and public trust in a well‐functioning banking and finance system, too, are essential to prevent dramatic loss of real incomes and to develop systems of collective savings for pre‐paid health insurance.
Culture‐Bound Syndrome
Authors: Griffith Laura
Published: February 2014

Culture‐bound syndromes are disorders that are thought to occur in certain cultural contexts or among particular ethnic groups. The term “culture‐bound syndrome” originated from an attempt to recognize ways of describing maladies that fell outside the framework of contemporary biomedicine. There has been considerable debate about whether these syndromes are locally specific variants of a universal disorder (e.g., different forms of anxiety or depression) or whether they are independent entities that are best considered in terms of their local meaning within their societies of origin. These syndromes often rely on fixed psychological and cultural explanations rather than on placing the syndrome within its changing cultural, political, historical, and biological milieu.
Circumcision, Male
Authors: Morris Brian J. , Green Edward C.
Published: February 2014

Circumcision of males is one of the world's most common and oldest surgical procedures. It is practiced by a wide diversity of cultures worldwide but is also a matter of considerable social and medical controversy. Advocates claim that it has substantial lifetime medical and health benefits, particularly in countries with high rates of HIV, where there is evidence that it may have a protective effect. Critics claim that it is an unnecessary mutilation, particularly when carried out on an infant who is unable to consent to the procedure. In their view, the risk/benefit ratio does not justify the intervention, particularly in developed countries. US doctors have traditionally been more enthusiastic advocates than their counterparts in the United Kingdom and Europe. Social scientists may be called upon to provide accurate information regarding contemporary circumcision practices. There is also a considerable research agenda on the sexual politics of circumcision and the various faith and material interests involved in the controversy over the risk/benefit balance in developed countries.
Mental Illness and Discrimination
Authors: Gong Fang , Xu Jun
Published: February 2014

Discrimination refers to unequal treatment of individuals and groups. It exists at different levels from interpersonal to institutional and comes in different forms from overt to covert. Mounting research has documented significant associations between various types of discrimination and poorer levels of mental health status. There are multiple pathways through which discrimination is linked to mental illness. Discrimination may impair one's physiological and psychological functioning, trigger health risk behaviors, and increase one's exposure and susceptibility to negative environmental and/or social conditions, all of which may in turn lead to mental health problems. Research on discrimination and mental illness can be further advanced by utilizing more nuanced measures of discrimination, exploring different sources of discrimination, studying perpetrators as well as victims, analyzing macrolevel data, and investigating the variations in perceptions and attributions of discrimination.
Physician–Patient Interaction and Gender Differences
Authors: MacArthur Kelly Rhea
Published: February 2014

Given the significance of physician–patient interactions for health and illness, it is important to determine the factors that affect the quality of communication between physicians and their patients. Gender is one of the strongest predictors of various communication patterns, with women patients and women physicians consistently reporting higher levels of communication that are thought to be desirable. But the effect of sex differences on patient satisfaction is more tenuous, perhaps due to differential expectations of female and male physicians regardless of their actual behavior. However, there is evidence that patient satisfaction increases when the doctor is a woman and, in turn, this increases the likelihood of adherence to physician recommended medical regimens. Thus, physician–patient interactions are a strong determinant of health and illness, and patients could benefit from increased training and education of physicians that focus on improving the quality of these interactions.
Inequality and Health Care
Authors: Adelson Naomi
Published: February 2014

Inequality in health care is as much about access to care as it is about the ways in which health care is embedded in larger political, economic, social, and cultural conditions and constraints. Medical anthropologists explore relations of small‐ and large‐scale power relations in the inequitable distribution of health and health care worldwide. Theoretical and methodological orientations highlight local and global inequities through questions of identity, subjectivity, biopolitics, and power. Further, in bearing witness to the day‐to‐day realities of inequities of care anthropologists are increasingly taking action to reduce these inequalities and disparities.
Social Support and Mental Health
Authors: Chernomas Wanda M.
Published: February 2014

A significant body of literature indicates social support is a complex multidimensional construct. Evidence is accumulating that describes the ways in which individuals help each other within the context of relationships to influence health and well‐being. As a recognized determinant of health, social relationships influence development over the lifespan. Understanding the challenges in studying social support is also reflected in this same literature, including differentiating related concepts, addressing the importance of individual perception in determining quality of support, and recognizing that strains and conflicts within relationships further complicate the provision and receipt of support. Models that include several features of social support and situate an understanding of social support within a broader sociocultural context are promising in advancing knowledge about contextual factors and how they impact social relationships and health.
Lesbian Health
Authors: Irwin Jay A.
Published: February 2014

The health of lesbian identified women is of growing interest in the United States. This entry defines sexual orientation, gives a brief historical overview of lesbian health research, and describes what is currently known regarding health disparities by sexual orientation. Disparities are discussed as they relate to both physical and mental health outcomes. Health outcomes with possible disparities include depression and mood/anxiety disorders, suicide, smoking, drinking, weight, cancer, and heart disease. Structural barriers, such as doctor knowledge and social stigma, are also discussed as they relate to difficulty in obtaining needed and competent care.
Physicians and Professionalism
Authors: Calnan Michael
Published: February 2014

This entry considers the social position of physicians and outlines both the past and more recent sociological explanations for the position of professional power and status attained by medicine and the extent to which that position is under threat.
Medical Geography
Authors: Meade Melinda S.
Published: February 2014

Medical geography studies public health using the concepts, theories, methodologies, and perspectives of the discipline of geography to analyze spatial patterns of disease, their relationships to the natural and social environment, and their expression in the health of people in places. Concerns include the natural and social environmental health conditions created by human agency; emergence of new diseases and their diffusion through settlement systems by population movement; processes behind epidemics of non‐communicable diseases; locational optimization of health services and accessibility; and the social construction of health and caregiving in places. Researchers analyze population dynamics; land‐use changes and vector ecology; transformational technologies of information, spatial data management, and, amidst globalizing connectivity of economics and communication, the processes, groupings, and systems of power and money that organize justice and salubrious landscape in social space. Disease ecology, spatial and locational analysis, and health geography are approaches to these studies.
Human Tissue
Authors: Morrison Michael
Published: February 2014

While the use of human tissue in medicine has a long history, it is only during the twentieth and twenty‐first centuries that widespread mobilization and utilization of human tissues for medical purposes has become possible. A diverse assortment of human cells, tissues, organs, and fluids is currently sourced from patients and members of the public for medicine and medical research, including, blood, oocytes (eggs), solid organs, bone marrow, corneas, breast milk, skin, umbilical cord blood, fetal and embryonic tissue, heart valves, and spermatozoa (sperm). These tissues serve a range of ends including therapeutic transplantation, fertility treatment, research materials and tools, and as the basis of novel living‐tissue‐based therapies. This expansion in scope has necessitated, and been facilitated by, the implementation of large‐scale social management of human tissues. Accompanying these changes in scope and scale of medical use of human tissues is an increasing entanglement in relations of economic and commercial value. As the life sciences become ever more intertwined with practices of economic investment, speculation, and capital generation, human tissues and cells are becoming reconfigured as sources of “biovalue” to be unlocked by (bio)technological manipulation and transformation – mobilizing body parts as the raw material in new, global tissue economies.
Therapeutic Landscapes, Health, and Healing
Authors: Williams Allison M.
Published: February 2014

The therapeutic landscape concept was born in the geography discipline, having its theoretical origins in a mix of different approaches, including structuralism and humanism. The concept provides a framework for the analysis of a range of environments, characterized by a variety of elements addressing the natural, built, social, symbolic, and spiritual environment, as they contribute to healing and health. The concept continues to develop as a useful framework for inquiry in three long‐standing substantive areas: (1) physical places known for health; (2) applications in health care sites; and (3) spaces of significance for particular populations.
Food Risks and Scares
Authors: Raude Jocelyn , Fischler Claude
Published: February 2014

Though our food may, objectively speaking, be much safer than in the past, incidence of food safety crises has increased in developed societies. Thus the dominant view in the West is paradoxically that food risks are much higher than in the past. Beyond the seeming irrationality of consumers, this entry uses recent literature to examine the anthropological and sociological foundations of contemporary food scares, as well as their evolution throughout history. It also seeks to highlight the main institutional and contextual factors – connected to social change – which tend to amplify experiences of food safety crises. Finally, it reviews the public policies that have been implemented in recent decades in order to restore consumer trust in the safety of their food.
GIS
and Health Geography
Authors: Kwan Mei‐Po
Published: February 2014

As public health outcomes and the environmental factors that influence them often have distinctive spatial patterns, geographical information systems (GIS) are powerful tools for mapping and analyzing geographic distributions of health, disease, environmental risk factors, and population at risk. GIS can help researchers explore and identify the association between risk factors and health outcomes, and to address specific health issues through investigating the spatial patterns and diffusion of disease. Results obtained through GIS‐based analysis can be useful for developing intervention strategies that seek to mitigate health disparities, control the spread of disease, and improve the utilization of health care services. GIS functions useful for health and disease studies can be grouped into three broad categories: spatial data handling, mapping and visualization, and spatial analysis.
Race and Medical Education
Authors: Barr Donald A.
Published: February 2014

For nearly half a century, medical schools in the United States have worked to increase the racial and ethnic diversity of students selected for admission. Early efforts focused on affirmative action approaches, often setting aside a specific number of slots for minority students. In 1978 the Supreme Court found this approach to be unconstitutional. In response, medical schools shifted to an approach that views racial and ethnic diversity among students as essential to providing a high‐quality medical education. By maintaining an adequate level of diversity, schools are able to enhance the cultural competency of the physicians they train – an essential step to reducing documented racial disparities in quality of care and access to care. In addition, minority students trained as physicians are often more likely to focus their practice careers on disadvantaged, under‐served patient populations. Problems have developed, however, in maintaining the “pipeline” of minority students in college who hope to enter medical school, with many of these students at risk of losing interest in a medical career. Efforts to support these students in their preparation for medical school will continue to be central to maintaining the racial and ethnic diversity of those trained as physicians.
Medical Research
Authors: Will Catherine M.
Published: February 2014

Since the earliest days of medical sociology, when Talcott Parsons emphasized the importance of research for the growth of medicine, sociologists have also investigated the potential distance or tension between research and care, and the often slow path from laboratory science to changes in clinical practice. Regulatory science has also been the subject of sustained investigation, as a key site for government regulation of medical practice and of the pharmaceutical industry and its research. More recent work has explored the epistemological, methodological, and ethical contents of apparently new types of research to inform practice – such as “evidence‐based medicine,” “health services research,” and “translational research” – and their epistemological and methodological contents. The changing meaning and character of patient participation in medical research of different kinds is also an ongoing concern.
Medicine, Evidence‐Based
Authors: Goldenberg Maya J.
Published: February 2014

Evidence‐based medicine (EBM) is the standard of best practice in most areas of health care. Evidence‐based decision‐making relies on evidence, which, in turn, is supposed to support informed and unbiased reasoning. EBM first set out to revolutionize medical education, teaching new clinicians to critically assess the research rather than relying on the expert opinions of senior faculty to inform patient care. The later addition of structured abstracts, meta‐analyses, and systematic reviews assisted busy clinicians with the enormous volume of scientific literature. Despite its appealing mandate, EBM has still received its share of criticism.
Animal Research
Authors: Hudson‐Shore Michelle
Published: February 2014

Animal research is the use of live non‐human animals in scientific experiments, education and regulatory testing. In general “animal research” describes research on vertebrate animals although some invertebrates (such as cephalopods) may also be included in the discussions and regulations related to the topic. There is a long history of animal research beginning in the fourth and third centuriesbce, and there is great variability in legislation controlling it. Animal research is conducted for a wide variety of purposes and is very controversial with ethical and scientific arguments forming the basis of the debate. Alternatives to animal research and the concept of the Three Rs (Replacement, Reduction, and Refinement) provide a mechanism to reconcile some of these issues.
Preventive Health Behavior and Health Education
Authors: Jensen Jakob D. , O'Keefe Daniel J.
Published: February 2014

Researchers across many disciplines (e.g., health communication, public health, health psychology, nursing) have designed and evaluated interventions to impact preventive health outcomes. Interventions have been carried out in a variety of settings, including health care facilities, schools, worksites, and via media channels. Successful approaches have been grounded in theory (e.g., the Health Belief Model), designed to address individual differences (e.g., low health literacy), and employed various message strategies (e.g., tailoring).
Body, Sociology of the
Authors: Phipps Alison , Bendelow Gillian
Published: February 2014

The concept of “embodiment” emerged as sociology finally began, in the late twentieth century, to tackle questions around what it really meant to have, or “be,” a body. Although arguably the classical sociologists had grounded their ideas implicitly in an embodied subject – for instance, Marx's concept of alienation or Durkheim's work on suicide – the body was taken for granted as a biological entity or seen as a blank canvas for the operation of the social, and was implicitly assumed to be that of the white, heterosexual, able‐bodied man. “The body” itself began to emerge as a major theme from the 1980s onward as social scientists addressed how perceptions, experiences, and even corporeality were influenced and produced by social structures, discourses, and interactions. This required sociologists to engage with the lived aspects of intersections between aspects of identity such as gender, class, “race,” sexuality, age, and (dis)ability – in other words, the diversity of bodies rather than the implicitly “normal” and unquestioned “body.” It is impossible to summarize the enormous range of sociological thought and research that has emerged since, but in this brief entry we attempt to chart the approaches and themes which have the most apparent salience for health and illness.
Geographies of Ethnicity and Health
Authors: McLafferty Sara
Published: February 2014

Health and access to health care are associated with ethnicity in complex ways that differ within and among ethnic groups and are linked to the spaces in which groups live, work, and interact. This entry discusses key themes in understanding geographies of ethnicity and health including: the impacts of neighborhood contextual factors on health, the Ethnic Density Hypothesis, time–space activity patterns, place‐making activities, therapeutic networks, socio‐spatial stigmatization, and public health responses to ethnic health concerns.
Assisted Reproductive Technology
Authors: Kirkman Maggie , Hammarberg Karin
Published: February 2014

Assisted reproductive technology (ART) encompasses techniques that involve handling human eggs and sperm to establish a pregnancy, primarily to treat infertility. The most common ART procedures are
in vitro
fertilization (IVF) and intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). By 2012, at least 5 million children had been born as a result of ART. There can be emotional and psychological ramifications for those who undergo the procedures. Because of its role in human reproduction, ART is associated with sex/gender constructs, which have strong cultural ties, including the meaning of fertility, infertility, and parenthood for women and men, and their relation to femininity and masculinity. Inequity of access to ART is among the reasons for the growing trend to cross‐border reproductive care. The elimination of unequal access to ART is a complex problem requiring economic and social changes. The existence of ART opens new possibilities for conception, most of which provoke intense debate.
Health Care Delivery System: Taiwan
Authors: Lee Shoou‐Yih Daniel , Ma Ke‐Zong
Published: February 2014

This entry provides an overview of the health care delivery system in Taiwan, followed by a discussion of the country's national health insurance program – the major source of financing for the health care delivery system – its design and operational features. Next we examine the challenges that the health care delivery system faces and the response of the government. We also discuss the role and future of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in the Taiwanese health care delivery system.
Mental Illness and Culture
Authors: Wurtzburg Susan J. , Rocchio Christopher C. C.
Published: February 2014

Culture plays a strong role in mental illness, recognized by many mental health practitioners given increasingly multicultural client groups in most nations. Mental illness may be diagnosed using theDiagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders(DSM), created by psychiatrists. Western medical care separates the body and the mind, in contrast to many members of minority, cultural communities, who may have a more integrated, holistic view of health. In addition to different understandings of mental illness, group members may demonstrate culturally endorsed symptoms, reactions, and curing ideas, among other features. In fact, some types of mental illness are only found in certain cultural groups, and in 1994 the DSM recognized these illnesses, using the term “culture‐bound syndromes,” also identified by social scientists as “ethnic psychoses.” Contemporary treatment of mental illness typically involves greater awareness of the effects of culture, and more use of complementary treatment strategies.
Sex Selection: Issues and Concerns
Authors: Bandyopadhyay Mridula
Published: February 2014

Son preference is not a new phenomenon. It is quite common and has existed in some degree throughout the world. Usually son preference leads to sex discrimination in many parts of the world. But extreme desire for a son in many Asian societies has led to excessive abortion of female fetuses in the late twentieth century. Earlier, sex selection was achieved by infanticide, abandonment, out‐adoption, underreporting of births, and/or selective neglect and abuse of girl infant or child. However, with the easy availability of modern reproductive technologies, sex determination has become readily available, leading to disproportionate sex selection, achieved by aborting female fetuses. Sex selective abortion is a major public health issue contributing to high levels of female mortality in societies where son preference is strong, affecting the male–female sex ratio. Since the 1980s several million female fetuses have been aborted in China, India, and South Korea, altering the sex ratio at birth. Declining fertility levels, increasing preference for small families, strong son preference, increasing technological availability, easily available abortion services, erratic population policies, gender bias, and low status of women and girls are all contributing to sex selection in middle and higher socioeconomic households in all age and educational groups.
Post‐Traumatic Stress Disorder
Authors: Coughlin Steven S.
Published: February 2014

Post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a serious anxiety disorder that can occur among persons exposed to a traumatic event involving threatened death, serious injury, who respond with intense fear, helplessness, or horror. Symptoms of PTSD can include nightmares, intrusive thoughts, or other re‐experiencing phenomena, the avoidance of situations that remind the person of the traumatic event, a feeling of numbness or being socially detached from family and friends, and hypervigilance or hyper‐arousal. A number of factors may explain why some persons develop PTSD following exposure to severe trauma while others do not, including individual, social, and cultural factors, and heritability.
Race and Mental Health
Authors: Taylor John
Published: February 2014

Race‐associated disparities in mental health have been well documented by previous research. Yet, the social factors that underlie racial/ethnic disparities in mental health are not yet well understood. This entry provides a brief overview some of the major issues in the study of race and mental health. It provides definitions of race and ethnicity. This is followed by a discussion of the measurement strategies employed in assessing racial/ethnic differences in mental health, as well as a summary of the racial/ethnic distribution of mental health in the United States today. A few of the major theories on racial/ethnic variation in mental health are presented. The entry then concludes with suggestions for future research.
Disease Clusters
Authors: Sabel Clive E.
Published: February 2014

Disease cluster studies are at times a controversial, but nevertheless critical, part of quantitative spatial epidemiology. They investigate unusual occurrences of cases, either spatially or spatial‐temporally. Often arising from media alerts, investigations are frequently complicated by incomplete case data, methodological shortcomings, and complex statistical analyses. A large number of disease cluster packages or tools are now available to support analyses. Both infectious and non‐infectious diseases can be examined, with the aim to provide clues as to the causation or source of the outbreak. Cluster studies are often seen as a form of pre‐epidemiology, generating hypotheses worthy of follow‐up.
Socioeconomic Status and Health
Authors: Saint Onge Jarron M.
Published: February 2014

Socioeconomic status (SES), a measure of income, education, and prestige, is inextricably linked to health behaviors, diseases, and mortality with higher levels of SES typically associated with better overall health. Given the persistence of this relationship, research has focused on the most important mechanisms that shape the SES–health relationship. SES shapes health outcomes over the life course through key domains including the physical environment, social environment, socialization and experiences, and health behaviors. Each component affects health in unique ways throughout the life course and these combine to have lasting impacts on disease and death. Understanding the underlying factors and mechanisms that drive the SES–health relationship are particularly important to design effective public policies to reduce social inequalities and to improve population health.
Socioeconomic Status and Mortality
Authors: Saint Onge Jarron M.
Published: February 2014

Socioeconomic status (SES), frequently defined by education, income, and prestige, is a central and driving force of population health, with high levels of SES generally linked to better levels of health and lower levels of mortality. The SES–mortality relationship highlights both the persisting and increasing relevance of social inequalities and provides insights into changing disease patterns across the world. SES has a long‐lasting, pervasive, and graded relationship with mortality, with each higher level of SES associated with a decrease in mortality rates. SES impacts mortality through a variety of mechanisms including social and physical environments. The relationship exists in a number of countries and is persistent throughout the life course.
Health, Cultural Competence in
Authors: Prentice Rebecca
Published: February 2014

Cultural competence refers to the ability of an organization or a professional to deliver appropriate and effective health services to patients from various ethnic, religious, or cultural backgrounds. The movement for cultural competence in health services emerged in Europe and North America during the 1990s to address two related concerns. First, as international migration has increased the diversity of patient populations, health care institutions have had to respond to new linguistic, cultural, and religious needs in the communities that they serve. Second, given significant and enduring racial and ethnic disparities in health, cultural competence has been proposed as a strategy to improve health care quality through a patient‐centered approach that emphasizes the specific needs of minority populations.
Migration and Health
Authors: Larchanché Stéphanie
Published: February 2014

Significant changes in health risks and therapeutic options accompany migration, but vary in relation to features of immigrant populations and to the sociopolitical context of host societies This entry explores the determinants of immigrant health and influences on immigrant utilization of health services. It underlines key issues such as the social representations of immigrants and their impact in different health domains, namely reproductive health, mental health, occupational health, and sex work. It addresses epistemological evolutions in the study of both infectious and chronic diseases among members of this group.