bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Eugenics
Authors: Kaelber Lutz
Published: February 2014

The term “eugenics” was coined by Sir Francis Galton in 1883 to denote being “well born,” and the pursuit thereof as a new science. Advanced by advocates of social Darwinism willing to apply sociologist Herbert Spencer's principle of “survival of the fittest” to human populations, it came to stand for the idea that a society could be advanced if it managed to improve the hereditary qualities of its people. The advancement could occur by encouraging reproduction among those judged valuable (“positive eugenics”) while providing disincentives to those who were considered “defective” or “deficient” (“negative eugenics”). Eugenics promised to provide a biological solution to what were considered core social problems in the first decades of the twentieth century, including poverty, criminality, and vice. Its implementation included sterilization laws that led to 350,000 sterilizations in Nazi Germany and 70,000 sterilizations in the United States, and in Nazi Germany even to “euthanasia,” the murder of people with disabilities.
Stress, Mattering, and Health
Authors: Fazio Elena Marie , Nguyen Kim B.
Published: February 2014

A central concern of social stress research is to understand the diverse psychosocial resources that condition the influence of stress exposure on health and well‐being. As articulated in the stress process, positive self‐conceptions are thought to act as mediators and moderators of stress, which in turn diminish the deleterious impact of stress on mental and physical health. In this regard, self‐concepts such as mastery and self‐esteem have consistently emerged in the literature as playing significant and powerful buffering roles against stressors. Mattering, on the other hand, despite its demonstrated efficacy in protecting against manifestations of stress, has received far less attention as a critical intervening link in the stress–health relationship. This entry provides an overview of the conceptual and methodological issues that have guided research on mattering before elaborating on findings related to mattering's role in the connection between social stress and health‐related outcomes.
Mental Health and Self‐Esteem
Authors: Maddux James E.
Published: February 2014

To esteem something is to value it and to view it as having worth. Self‐esteem (sometimes also referred to as
self‐worth
), therefore, refers to valuing one's self and viewing one's self as having worth. There is a cognitive component (beliefs about one's value and worth) and an emotional component (how one feels – happy, sad, angry, fearful) to evaluating the self and appraising one's own worth. Self‐esteem is usually distinguished from
self‐concept
, which is a set of beliefs about one's characteristics, attributes, and abilities but without the evaluative component. Self‐esteem is the result of the evaluation and appraisal of one's characteristics and attributes as more or less positive, adequate, and competent or more or less negative, inadequate, or incompetent. Self‐esteem is also distinguished from
self‐efficacy
, which is a set of beliefs concerned with one's abilities to accomplish valued life goals.
Qualitative Research Methods
Authors: Guest Greg , Tolley Elizabeth E. , Wong Christina M.
Published: February 2014

The use of qualitative methods in public health inquiry can be traced to some of the earliest civilizations, and has continued through the centuries. And although qualitative methods have not historically comprised the vanguard of public health research, they have gained increasing acceptance, particularly over the past four decades. Qualitative research is now commonly used and accepted within most fields of public health. In this entry we describe some of the common features of qualitative research, including a range of data collection techniques and approaches to data analysis. We then briefly discuss criteria for assessing the quality of qualitative research studies and their findings. Finally, we provide several examples of studies that employed qualitative methods in order to highlight their potential use in formative or evaluation research, or in primary or secondary data analysis.
Medical Systems and Practices
Authors: Oldani Michael J.
Published: February 2014

Globalization presents unique challenges for fully understanding the myriad medical systems and practices in operation today. Medical ethnography continues to play an important role, descriptively and theoretically, in fully articulating the range of modern and alternative systems, practices, and treatments available to patients. Unique methodologies are necessary in order to capture the increasingly hybrid manifestation of medical systems/practices and the ways in which global health care infrastructures are being impacted by neoliberal reforms as well as powerful market forces. The ethnographic study of pharmaceuticals presents a paradigmatic example and methodology of how to critically examine systems/practices in the current global context.
Cancer
Authors: Wei‐Yen Lim
Published: February 2014

Lifestyle modifications by the individual can play a significant role in lowering the risk of cancer, and up to one‐third of all cancers are preventable. Such modifications include abstention from smoking and alcohol, adopting a healthy diet composed mostly of plant‐based food such as unprocessed cereals and grains, non‐starchy vegetables and fruits, and low in red and processed meats, and increasing levels of physical activity. The key challenge facing public health practitioners today is to develop effective strategies that encourage healthy behaviors. Practitioners need to work with professionals and researchers in the related fields of sociology, anthropology, and social science in order to better understand the complexities of human behavior and the influence of the physical and sociocultural environment on behavior, so that they can design more effective public health strategies to promote healthy lifestyles
Geographies of HIV/AIDS
Authors: Reid‐Henry S. M.
Published: February 2014

HIV/AIDS has often been described as a disease of the age of globalization. It is also understood as a disease of inequality because it effects the most vulnerable and is readily entrenched within niches of social, economic, and political vulnerability. There are therefore clear geographical dimensions to the disease. This entry explores three principle moments in the history of geographical thinking about HIV/AIDS: initial attempts to map the spread of the virus and the geographical critique of these efforts; a set of more political (and at times policy‐attuned) analyses of the experience of living with and responding to HIV; and a recent body of work on the political geographies of HIV/AIDS as a global health issue.
Environmental Health Geography
Authors: Luginaah Isaac N. , Oiamo Tor H. , Armah Frederick A.
Published: February 2014

Environmental health geography is the study of how local environments are involved in experiences of health disparities, vulnerabilities, and systematic inequalities within population health. Using both quantitative and qualitative methods, environmental health geographers have been involved in work that examines the geography and diffusion of infectious diseases and epidemics, environmental exposure analysis and other environmental influences on health, environmental justice, environmental dispossession, and neighborhood effects. Environmental health geographers also study the place‐specific aspects of access and utilization health services, and how all these relate to and inform environmental health policy.
Phenomenology
Authors: Purcell Carrie
Published: February 2014

Phenomenology is concerned with the structures of human consciousness; the “lived experience” of the everyday world (or “lifeworld”); and individual meaning‐making within that world. Phenomenological perspectives – such as those influenced by the theories of Alfred Schutz and Maurice Merleau‐Ponty – aim to set aside presuppositions about the intersubjectively constituted social world in order to examine and contextualize first‐person experience as accounted for in individuals’ own words. Key phenomenological contributions to understandings of health and illness include accounts of pain and the “dys‐appearing” body, and a range of feminist critiques of normative embodiment and health care.
ICT and Stress
Authors: Berkowsky Ronald W.
Published: February 2014

With the growth in popularity and availability of information and communication technologies (ICTs), there has been a move toward a new Internet‐influenced social environment, in which individuals are becoming increasingly embedded in an online social network that offers more relationships and resources which can be utilized to combat social‐, economic‐, and information‐based problems. Yet with this move toward a new technology‐centered social network comes a host of issues as well: individuals become socially obligated to devote time and energy to learning and mastering new technologies to remain “plugged in” to the evolving social network. In addition, being constantly available to social contacts through ICTs has the potential to increase workloads, as increased communication through ICTs can help dissolve typical boundaries between work and home, as well as between public and private life, thus forcing individuals to engage in work activities while with family and vice versa. As such, Internet connectivity and ICT use have the potential to contribute significantly to stress in both a positive and a negative fashion, which in turn can affect health.
Adolescence
Authors: Breton David Le
Published: February 2014

The etymology of the term “adolescence” invokes notions of growth, transformation, and evolution. The period of adolescence extends from the transformations of puberty to full entry into adult life. It is an intermediary stage – the period of life when a young person is no longer a child and is no longer perceived as such, but does not yet possess all the privileges of an adult. The adolescent must become an actor and partner in the world of others, and do so with a sexual identity. The characterization of adolescence depends on the way a collective perceives the young person during their sexual maturation and progressive entrance into the responsibilities of adulthood within the group. Young people are granted a particular status in relation to sexuality and social responsibilities according to their gender. All human societies define an intervening period between childhood and adulthood. For certain societies the passage toward adult responsibilities is imperceptible, and takes place without ritual mobilization. In other societies this passage is carefully marked by initiation rites, which are a necessary sign of the young person becoming an adult man or woman through a series of stages determined by tradition.
Gender, Stress, and Health
Authors: O'Neal LaToya J.
Published: February 2014

The relationship between gender, stress, and health is characterized by differential health outcomes resulting from the different ways in which stress impacts men and women. Successful navigation of the social environment requires individuals to adapt to continually changing stimuli. Stress impacts health by impairing an individual's ability to adapt. Impairments in the ability to adapt may result in significant challenges to mental and physical well‐being in the form of psychological distress and/or the development of chronic disease. Men and women are often exposed to different types of stressors and different levels of stress, and tend to respond differently to stress. This results in varying health outcomes. Inquiries into the relationship between gender, stress, and health have increased understanding of the processes by which adaptability is compromised. Gender is one of the major ways in which individuals organize their lives, and most people fail to realize its strong influence on social life.
Embodiment
Authors: Davis Jenny L.
Published: February 2014

One does not
have
a body; one
is
a body. Embodiment refers to the cultural, social, physical, psychic, and experiential nature of being a body. Theorists take several different approaches in defining embodiment, sometimes integrating the physical, mental, and cultural, and at other times falsely dichotomizing embodiment's complex interrelated components. The body is a site of pleasure, pain, difference, and politics simultaneously. The body is agentic and lived, yet inscribed upon. Social actors both negotiate embodiment and take embodiment – their own and others’ – for granted. Embodiment is affected by the technologies of the time, from language to medicine, to present‐day integrations with mechanical and digital objects.
Surveillance
Authors: Harris Karen
Published: February 2014

The definition of surveillance has changed throughout history, and has always been part of social systems. Surveillance literally meant to watch over or to watch from above. However, as society and technologies have developed and improved, the definition of surveillance has expanded to include information gathering on everyone, not just those suspected of wrong‐doing. Surveillance has become invisible, commonplace, and internalized, resulting in a surveillance lifestyle. Data are collected on everyone, everyday, from many different sources, including the Internet. Sociological surveillance is interested in the analysis of aggregate data collected, not in individual data. Using aggregate data in public health can help society by identifying patterns of disease and illness, by helping guide policy in public health crises, and by determining illness and health behaviors.
Place, Stress, and Health
Authors: Winstead Vicki
Published: February 2014

Place is a multidimensional concept which can be defined geographically as well as by its social characteristics. Its geographical definition references its unique spatial attributes as distinct from the other surrounding spaces. However, places are varied by the environments by which they are surrounded which can differ politically, socially, culturally, and economically. Over time, the importance of place as an influence on physical and mental health has been recognized by social scientists. However, research in this area in the social sciences was sporadic until the late 1980s with much of the research literature limited to examining determinants of health at the individual level rather than examining structural influences on health that are place‐based. Since then researchers have found that place of residence of an individual can impact both the physical and mental health of that individual. The context of place references both the physical context of where a person lives as well as its social and cultural characteristics. So, rather than considering only individual level characteristics as determinants of health, researchers in fields such as sociology began to focus more on social determinants such as place of residence.
Substance Abuse and Adolescent Psychological Distress
Authors: Page Randy M.
Published: February 2014

Psychosocial distress has been linked to adolescent smoking, as well as to the use of alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, and opiates. Depression, the most commonly studied form of distress, has been shown to be a predictor of smoking initiation and possibly associated with nicotine dependence in adolescents. Other indicators of psychosocial distress that have been studied in connection with adolescent drug use include hopelessness, loneliness, anxiety, subjective worrying, and the lack of affiliation with friends or social acceptance.
Health and Physical Activity
Authors: Lim Chin Leong
Published: February 2014

Regular exposure to the appropriate volume of stresses imposed by physical activity (PA) induces psychophysiological responses that promote health and well‐being. In contrast, the absence of regular PA‐related stress exposure promotes the development of conditions that can be detrimental to health. Research evidence consistently supports the notion that an active lifestyle is beneficial to health, and, in contrast, that a sedentary lifestyle contributes to the development of common diseases such as cardiovascular disease (CVD) and type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM). People who participate in regular PA have a lower all‐cause mortality rate and lower mortality rates associated with lifestyle‐related diseases, such as CVD and DM. This inverse relationship between regular PA and mortality rates is likely due to a better state of the common health indicators, such as blood pressure, blood lipid profile, glucose tolerance, and body mass, which are commonly reported in active individuals. PA also promotes mental well‐being by increasing self‐confidence, mood state, and mental resilience. Senior citizens who maintain an active lifestyle enjoy a better quality of life as a result of greater physical functional capabilities in their daily living activities compared to age‐ and sex‐matched sedentary senior citizens.
Deviance
Authors: Stringer Kristi Lynn
Published: February 2014

The sociology of deviance examines cultural norms, their change over time, rule/norm enforcement (formal and informal), and the effects of social control on individuals and society as a whole. Deviance, in general, refers to attitudes, behaviors, or conditions which do not conform to socially constructed ideas of normality. Deviance refers to a departure from a norm. Because deviance is defined against social norms which vary across time and space, ideas of deviance also vary social situations, cultures, and time periods. The concept of deviance, by its very nature, entails a value judgment: something that is normatively accepted is judged to be “good” and desired, whereas something that is considered “bad” or undesirable is labeled as deviant.
Schizophrenia
Authors: Doubt Keith
Published: February 2014

Schizophrenia affects 1 percent of the world's population. It is not, as popular culture sometimes understands it to be, the actually rare phenomenon of split personality; nor is it now viewed by clinical psychologists, as it once was by some, as a person's creative, desperate response to an untenable family situation. Today, most medical researchers, physicians, and advocates in organizations such as National Alliance for the Mentally Ill view schizophrenia as a complex, physical pathology, a disease of the brain.
Spatial Epidemiology
Authors: Cockings Samantha , Shelton Nicola
Published: February 2014

Spatial epidemiology (or geographical epidemiology) is a subdiscipline of epidemiology and part of the subdiscipline of health geography. Epidemiology is concerned with the study of population health and disease. Spatial epidemiology focuses specifically on the spatial components of this to understand and explain why health and disease vary by place. Classic examples of its use would be modeling levels of leukemia close to a radioactive point source or, historically, the mapping of cholera deaths. Definitions of approaches to spatial epidemiology vary, but usually include disease mapping, geographical correlation studies (also termed ecological studies), risk assessment in relation to a point or line source, and cluster detection and disease clustering
Medicine, Sociology in
Authors: Usher Carey L.
Published: February 2014

“Sociology in medicine” is a label first used by Robert Straus in 1957 to distinguish the work of the medical sociologist, which is based on goals, setting, and disciplinary context. Sociology in medicine is applied work motivated by the goals of the medical establishment rather than by those of sociological inquiry. The sociologist in medicine typically works within the medical system with other health practitioners, using a foundation of sociological knowledge to study health and illness or medical issues. Sociology in medicine has been criticized for straying too far from the parent discipline.
Pain
Authors: Meldrum Marcia L.
Published: February 2014

Chronic pain is probably the most common cause of recurrent and permanent disability in the world today. The second half of the twentieth century saw a great expansion of research into, and clinical interest in, the problem of pain, led by the International Association for the Study of Pain, but there is still no definitive and uniformly effective treatment for chronic pain, and many patients continue to suffer without relief.
Alcohol
Authors: Anderson Peter
Published: February 2014

Alcohol, or more specifically ethanol, is a toxic, intoxicating, and dependence‐producing drug that is consumed by just over half the global adult population. It is estimated that in 2010 it caused 2.7 million deaths, a one‐third increase in the number of deaths since 1990. It ranks as the world's fifth cause of ill‐health and premature death after hypertension, tobacco, household air pollution, and a diet low in fruits. It is a teratogen, a neurotoxin, and a carcinogen. The world's average drinker consumes 24 g of alcohol a day, a dose that exceeds a toxicological threshold for such a toxin by some 500 times. Yet it is a product that carries no health warnings and is the only such drug not covered by an international treaty.
Race and Distrust of Medicine
Authors: Wasserman Jason Adam
Published: February 2014

As a social institution, medicine has historically tended to reflect the biases of the various social contexts in which it is based. In fact, the social history of medicine documents its sometimes very active role in the utilization of race as a fulcrum of social oppression. The result of this long‐standing social discrimination against racial minorities is an often palpable distrust among them of social institutions in general, and of medicine in particular. This entry examines the causes and consequences of a distrust of medicine that is rooted in social structures of race and discrimination.
Feminism
Authors: Cacchioni Thea
Published: February 2014

“Feminism” is an evolving term encompassing a range of intellectual and social movements dedicated to exposing and challenging sexism and intersecting forms of oppression. Whereas the first “wave” of Western feminism was dominated by white middle‐class women's struggle for access to education, suffrage, personhood, citizenship, and property rights, feminisms have evolved over time to address a wide array of social, economic, and political agendas as defined by a diversity of women. Contemporary feminisms tend to reject binary and universal theories of women and gender, and instead address issues of race, class, ethnicity, nation, and sexuality in local and global contexts. As reflected in phrases such as “The personal is political,” feminist scholars and activists have long politicized patriarchal and racist definitions of health and illness, the commodification of health, barriers to health care access and reproductive control, and the social determinants of health and wellness.
Homelessness and Health Care
Authors: Kertesz Stefan G.
Published: February 2014

The serious health care challenges associated with homelessness are underscored by high mortality rates and frequent use of hospital care. Some health challenges are intimately associated with being homeless, including exposure to extremes of weather, and trauma from assault. More often, however, homeless persons face problems common to all adults, such as hypertension, diabetes, and cancer. However, these problems are harder to manage without a stable residence. Mental illness and substance use disorders are also common and often contribute to homelessness. Homelessness is associated with a greater likelihood of health care needs going unmet, in part because a regular source of outpatient care is often lacking. Intervening problems are often managed emergently, at high cost, through hospital emergency visits and inpatient admissions. Unique services have evolved to address challenges in homeless health care, including medical respite programs for recuperative care, and primary care clinics tailored to a homeless clientele. The provision of supportive housing through the Housing First approach has been successful in enabling people to escape homelessness while reducing health system costs. Whether these interventions can actually improve health while reducing total costs to society is likely to vary depending on both the individuals being served and the community context.
Homelessness, Stigma, and Health
Authors: Pauly Bernadette
Published: February 2014

Homelessness is a form of extreme poverty characterized by poor health, barriers to accessing health care, and premature death. Homelessness is associated with multiple stigmatized and interlocking identities associated with poverty; substance use and mental illness; disease conditions such as addiction and HIV/AIDS; as well as structural discrimination related to class, gender, age, sexual orientation, and ethnicity. Stigma and discrimination contribute to poor health and the social exclusion of people experiencing poverty and homelessness. Intersectionality is an approach that highlights how multiple identities and structural conditions form interlocking systems of oppression and privilege which benefit some and disadvantage others. Recognizing both constructed and taken‐for‐granted identities highlights the way in which people are positioned in society, especially in relation to policies that constrain choices, structure experiences, and provide access to resources for health and well‐being. Recognizing and challenging multiple constructed identifies and shifting power balances to enhance the social inclusion of people experiencing homelessness is central to addressing the multiple stigmas of homelessness. Structural and systemic discrimination derive from policies that are implicated in the development of homelessness; an understanding of these shifts the responsibility for solving homelessness from individuals to the society in which they live.
Health
Authors: Cockerham William C.
Published: February 2014

There is no single, all‐purpose definition of health that fits all circumstances. However, there are many concepts about it, such as normality, the absence of disease, or the ability to function. One of the most often cited definitions is that of the World Health Organization, which regards health as a state of complete physical, mental, and social well‐being, and not merely as the absence of disease or injury. This definition calls attention to the fact that being healthy involves much more than simply determining if a person is ill or injured. Being healthy also means having a sense of well‐being.
Dentists
Authors: Hamilton Harry
Published: February 2014

The profession of dentistry is premised on a traditional biomedical model focusing the attention of practitioners on the oral cavity. Nevertheless, oral health is related to a number of social variables, not least among them age, gender, class, race, ethnicity, and location (rural versus urban). The social interaction between dentist and patient is likewise related to treatment outcomes, and dentists may be both professionally and legally responsible for reporting suspected abuse. An awareness of drug abuse by patients, as well as of the pitfalls of drug abuse by practitioners, is also important to a successful practice. Finally, as per the American Dental Association's principle of beneficence, dentists enter into an implied contract with society to improve social welfare, which can include treatment of the indigent.
Mental Health
Authors: Mossakowski Krysia N.
Published: February 2014

A large literature in the sociology of mental health has investigated the social causes and consequences of mental illness. The social causes of mental illness have been examined by focusing on disadvantaged social statuses and stressful environments or experiences. The social consequences of mental illness have mainly been examined by research using theories about labeling and stigma. Furthermore, the measurement of mental illness in sociology has been a controversial issue. As a whole, the sociological perspective emphasizes the social causation of mental illness as well as the relationship between mental health and society via social contexts, institutions, relationships, roles, and statuses. In contrast, the biological or medical perspective currently focuses on genetics and a chemical imbalance in the brain as the causes of mental illness. Overall, the past, present, and future of the sociology of mental health will be discussed.
Nutrition and Health
Authors: van Dam Rob M.
Published: February 2014

Nutrition refers to the effects of food and its components on maintenance, repair, growth, and functioning of the body. A lack or excess of specific food components can affect physiological processes and ultimately impair health. Until the middle of the twentieth century, most research on nutrition and health focused on lack of specific nutrients that are directly responsible for deficiency diseases. This research has led to the identification of a wide range of essential nutrients and recommendations on adequate intakes of these nutrients. More recently, nutrition research has also focused on the role of diet in the development of chronic diseases such as cardiovascular diseases and cancer. Different types of research (observational and experimental) and different approaches to research (reductionist and more holistic) have contributed to the successful identification of dietary patterns and specific dietary components that can modify the risk of chronic diseases.
Community Intervention Trials
Authors: Labrique Alain B. , Katz Joanne
Published: February 2014

Few research approaches have dominated the landscape of epidemiologic investigation as have intervention trial methods. Over the past four decades, numerous refinements have been made to the methods used to define the efficacy of public health and clinical strategies, from drugs to behavioral interventions. In contrast to observational methods, intervention studies or trials strive to demonstrate, to the extent possible, causal associations between the public health strategy and the health outcome under investigation. Community intervention trials aim to measure the feasibility, efficacy, or effectiveness of a putative public health strategy, beyond the confines of clinical facilities, in the free‐living populations where these strategies are likely to be implemented. The evidence generated by robust, rigorous, sometimes randomized, controlled community intervention trials often serves as the basis for the design and implementation of public health programs.
Mental Illness in Childhood
Authors: Avison William R.
Published: February 2014

Sociological research on mental illness in childhood has focused on four major topics. Studies have examined the effects that family structure has on children's mental illness. Research has also focused on the intergenerational transmission of mental illness in families. It is also clear that poverty is importantly associated with children's mental health problems. Recently, sociologists have studied the impact of neighborhood contexts and their effects on mental illness in childhood. New developments in the study of mental illness in childhood include investigations of the impact of victimization in childhood on children's mental health. In addition, sociologists have examined how social influence processes may result in the increased diagnosis of children's mental health problems such as autism.
Pharmaceuticalization
Authors: Gabe Jonathan
Published: February 2014

Pharmaceuticals have been studied by sociologists since the 1970s but interest has grown in recent years in recognition of their increasing role in people's lives and the expanding power of the companies that manufacture them. Some have suggested that a new concept of pharmaceuticalization is needed to understand the contemporary importance of pharmaceuticals and their manufacturers. This entry reviews the argument in favor of this new concept, the dimensions that mark it out, and the differences between those who advocate its use. In the process, the factors which distinguish pharmaceuticalization from medicalization will also be considered.
Bioethics and Sociology
Authors: De Vries Raymond
Published: February 2014

Bioethics is an approach to medical morality that emerged in the mid‐twentieth century. Unlike previous incarnations of medical ethics, all of which kept the oversight of physicians in the hands of the medical profession, bioethics introduced non‐physicians, including social scientists, to the work of monitoring the morality of medical practice. Sociology has played an important role in understanding the organization, deployment, and reception of bioethics, but bioethicists have not always welcomed the work of sociologists. While the skills of social science are useful to understanding and resolving the moral quandaries of medicine, critical analyses of the place of bioethicsvis‐à‐vismedicine suggest that bioethics, like earlier versions of medical ethics, may be more attuned to the interests of medicine than to the interests of patients and research subjects.
Race and Class, Intersections of
Authors: Hinze Susan W.
Published: February 2014

A large and rapidly growing body of literature has investigated the relative importance of social class and race/ethnicity for health outcomes. However, close examination of how social class intersects with race/ethnicity to produce health is of critical importance and a more recent focus in health research. The enduring survival gap between those in the upper social echelons and those in the lower social echelons persists across times and places, even as causes of mortality shift from infectious disease to chronic illness. Being disadvantaged by social class and underrepresented minority status is double jeopardy, but moving beyond an additive approach to an intersectional approach – especially once gender is included – reveals race and social class as relationships not captured in additive models. Although race/ethnicity and social class have independent effects on health status and health care treatment, their connectedness puts disadvantaged minority groups at risk as income inequality increases in the United States.
Reflexive Modernization
Authors: Hinote Brian P.
Published: February 2014

Introduced by German sociologist Ulrich Beck, reflexive modernization is a relatively recent conceptual development in sociological theory. Many researchers and other writers have drawn upon the ideas surrounding this concept in countless discussions and analyses in multiple disciplines, but medical sociologists have scarcely applied Beck's ideas, with few exceptions. Nonetheless, the concept of reflexive modernization lies at the core of a quite useful framework with which to analyze recent developments in health, health care delivery, clinical practice (in multiple disciplines), public health, social epidemiology, and medical sociology.
Children's and Adolescents’ Health in the United States
Authors: Baker Elizabeth H.
Published: February 2014

Children and adolescents differ from adults because their environment and behaviors are largely structured for them by outside influences, including parents or caregivers, schools, and daycare. This is especially true among younger children. Heath indicators among infants include birth weight and gestational age. These health indicators are strong predictors of health in childhood, adolescence, and even adulthood. Measures of childhood health examined here include cognitive ability, developmental disabilities, vaccinations, and parental ratings of global child health. As children enter adolescence they are granted more autonomy; thus the study of adolescent health includes health decisions made by the adolescents themselves, including risky behavior, sexual activity and health, and substance use. Additionally, another important indicator of child and adolescent health is obesity. Disparities exist on many indicators of child and adolescent health such that non‐Hispanic white children, children whose mothers have higher educational attainment, and children with higher household incomes have better outcomes on many health indicators.
Mental Illness, Sociology of
Authors: Hughes Michael
Published: February 2014

The sociology of mental illness studies the social causes and consequences of mental illness and the processes and consequences of societal reactions to presumed cases of mental illness. Three primary theories in the area are stress theory, structural strain theory, and labeling theory. Epidemiological studies indicate that just under half of the US population has ever had a mental disorder, and just over a quarter of the population has had one in the past year. Though mental illness is stigmatizing, there have been recent increases in the use of mental health treatment facilities.
Death and Dying, Cross‐National Perspectives
Authors: Bodnar‐Deren Susan , Carr Deborah
Published: February 2014

We provide a brief summary of the demography and epidemiology of death throughout the world in the early twenty‐first century. We then provide a brief overview of cross‐national variations in how death is perceived and how decedents are mourned. Finally, we conclude with an overview and cross‐national comparison of public policies and practices surrounding death, especially the use of palliative care at the end of life.
Informal Care
Authors: Cresson Geneviève
Published: February 2014

Informal care refers to care that is provided outside professional systems. It is essentially a negative definition, a definition by exclusion. The question of what the hard core or the essence of care might be is not directly addressed. The concept of care involves a set of oppositions and implicit hierarchies that conceal both tensions and complementarities between formal and informal care.
Race, Medicine, and Genocide
Authors: Lee Sean
Published: February 2014

The infusion of biology and racism into a pseudoscientific justification for social hierarchies can and has formed a troubling justification for genocide. While the dangers of racism veiled behind science perhaps find their clearest expression in Nazi Germany, varying forms of genocide have been bolstered by and in some cases founded on supposed medical science.
Health Psychology
Authors: Schroder Kerstin E. E.
Published: February 2014

Health psychology is concerned with the cognitive‐emotional and behavioral processes that impact health and illness, the prevention and management of disease, and health care effectiveness and utilization. Health psychology is based on the biopsychosocial model emphasizing health and disease as the result of the combined influence of physiological, psychological, and social‐environmental factors. Apart from illuminating these factors, health psychology provides the theoretical models that explain what motivates, facilitates, or hinders engagement in health‐promoting behaviors and that provide the theoretical rationale for the development of behavioral and psychosocial interventions. Health psychology emphasizes and applies methodological rigor in developing evidence‐based intervention solutions targeting the prevention and treatment of preventable acute and chronic diseases. Further, health psychology investigates the links between stress, coping, and disease; provides the background for an understanding of pain perception and pain management; examines the factors that affect patient adherence and patient–provider communication; and aids in the development of solutions toward an improved health care and chronic disease management. Future challenges include the development of programs to sustain the highest levels of functioning and independence in an increasing population of elderly patients suffering from multiple chronic diseases. Intervention solutions through eHealth provide a promising venue and an important field of study for the near future.
Genetics and Genomics in Public Health
Authors: Ambrosino Elena
Published: February 2014

Genetic and genomic sciences are constantly generating new information. They hold great potential to bring about new understanding of the causation of diseases and their pathways, and of the variations within a population that could account for the differences in health outcomes. At this point the extent of the impact of these discoveries on medical practice and public health is still hard to predict. Nevertheless, it is unquestionable that the dramatic increase in genetic and genomic information has the potential to greatly change the way that medicine is practiced and public health interventions are designed and implemented. Along with this enthusiasm, the new discoveries in the field also bring major challenges. The first is the lack of effective translation from scientific discoveries into health care. A second major challenge is that policies will have to be formulated that promote the safety, quality, and worldwide accessibility of such genetic tests and genome‐based services. Ensuring that genome‐based discoveries will in the future be implemented for the benefit of health across the globe is an imperative task. The integration of genetics and genomics into public and global health should therefore continue and be strengthened.
Technology
Authors: Berner Boel
Published: February 2014

Clinical practice, health care provision, and medical research cannot be performed without the help of a large variety of medical technologies, from neonatal technologies to technologies of aging and terminal care. Many are the results of recent technoscientific innovations in molecular biology or computer science, or of combinations of biotechnology and information technology. They are used for maintaining bodies with the help of machines, pills, devices, and “foreign” tissues and organs; for representing and visualizing bodies; and for reproductive purposes, both as contraceptive techniques and as techniques for infertility treatment, testing, and screening. Medical technologies evolve within social and political networks. They circulate globally in an international “technoscape” of medicines, devices, machines, procedures, and understandings. Their use may alter existing practices, cultures, and institutional structures, but they are also shaped by them and by a multitude of different actors, including medical professionals, regulators, multinational companies, and patient communities.
Patients
Authors: Konrad Monica
Published: February 2014

Examples are provided to illustrate some of the ways in which recent medical anthropological research draws upon diverse theoretical approaches to analyze forms of patienthood. Attending to the ambiguities, dissonances, and limitations accompanying attempts to represent patient subjectivities in illness is shown to be one means by which to generate revised classifications of patients’ rights, identities, and social status. Just as the anthropological study of patient perspectives emphasizes the complexity and variability of interactions between social and medical domains, so the value of analytical complexity over reductionism is highlighted in knowledge acquisition processes for health care professionals and medical anthropologists alike.
Medical Anthropology
Authors: van der Geest Sjaak
Published: February 2014

This entry sketches the field of medical anthropology, its predecessors and history, and four prominent theoretical orientations: ecological, semiotic/interpretive, agency focused, and critical/political‐economic. Attention is also given to its applied character and to the recent turn toward biomedicine.
Childbirth Practices
Authors: Clausen Jette Aaroe
Published: February 2014

Childbirth is a highly medicalized field. It is a process monitored by professionals, and their intervention rates are high. Historically, normal birth was understood as birth without medical interventions; “normal birth” is an ambiguous concept in an environment where intervention rates are high and terms like “natural cesareans” have found their way into obstetric publications. There are different approaches to childbirth, like the medical model of care and the midwifery model of care. The medical model places little emphasis on the iatrogenic effects that follow from the use of interventions such as electronic fetal monitoring, active management of labor, and cesarean sections. The midwifery model of care subscribes to social support and non‐intervention in childbirth. The home and birth clinics are places that enhance the likelihood of spontaneous birth. Women's right to give birth at home has been tried at the European Court of Human Rights.
Adolescence and Stress
Authors: Rohrman Shawna
Published: February 2014

The stress that adolescents experience is different from that experienced by adults because they spend their lives in different social spheres than adolescents do. Research on adolescent stress and risk tends to follow an ecological model, which emphasizes the importance of social contexts for shaping youths’ well‐being. Three commonly discussed contexts are family, peers, and school. Stress manifests within each of these domains, but the domains are also interconnected. Stress may spill over from one context to another, and the social support youth receive in one sphere may help them cope with stress from other spheres.
Sexually Transmitted Infectious Diseases and Epidemics, Prevention of
Authors: A. Herlitz Claes
Published: February 2014

This entry gives a short description of the work designed to prevent sexually transmitted infectious diseases and epidemics worldwide, with the following five main sections: (1) some basic notes concerning the epidemiology of sexually transmitted infections and diseases; (2) a description of various measures to create a more safe‐sex behavior among the general public; (3) a survey of biomedical interventions; (4) a summary of structural factors obstructing successful preventive work, including an overview of social interventions undertaken; and (5) a discussion of challenges in future work to prevent the spread of sexually transmitted infections and diseases.
Health Care Delivery System: India
Authors: Modi Ishwar
Published: February 2014

Health care in India features a universal health care system run by the constituent states and territories of India. After Independence, India adopted the welfare state approach, and in pursuance of the same a large number of public hospitals and primary health centers (PHCs) were established all over the country. The basic health care delivery system in India is implemented through the PHCs and the auxiliary nurse midwives based therein. There exists considerable disparity in the state of health between rural and urban areas in India. The launch of the National Rural Health Mission attempted to bridge this gap and aimed to provide effective health care to India's rural population. It has also made a significant impact on health care delivery. However, like every rapidly developing country, India is faced with the challenge of how to manage growth with distribution, how to balance equity with efficiency, and how to ensure that as parts of the Indian health care sector enter the worldwide elite, the masses are not left behind. In spite of health remaining one of the most neglected aspects in India, it can hardly be overemphasized that the health care delivery system in India has made great strides in both the public and private sectors.
Health and Life Chances
Authors: Hinote Brian P.
Published: February 2014

Research in multiple disciplines provides ample evidence suggesting that health, and conversely disease, are about much more than individual‐level risk factors and disconnected choices among atomistic individuals freely moving within a particular society or set of social groups. Rather, individuals are inextricably embedded in multiple social contexts from the level of immediate experience and interaction (e.g., norms, roles, power, etc.) to broader social groups, institutions, and structures (e.g., neighborhoods, economy, health care, etc.). For individuals, this means that the ability to make specific choices among varieties of possible alternatives is constrained and enabled by specific sets of social opportunities. Put another way, rules and resources constrain behavior by limiting plausible or possible alternatives, while those same structures enable action by increasing the range of options from which individuals may choose. The concept of life chances conceptualizes these structures and the probabilities of choice that they influence.