bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder
Authors: Figert Anne E. , Counts Amanda J.
Published: February 2014

Premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) is related to, but distinct from, premenstrual syndrome (PMS). Whereas PMS is an umbrella term for emotional, behavioral, and physical symptoms that result in general “discomfort” before a woman's period, PMDD is a diagnosis listed in theDiagnostic and Statistical Manual(DSM‐IV) of the American Psychiatric Association (APA) as a severe, debilitating form of premenstrual distress. Since the 1980s, there has been extensive debate and public controversy over whether or not a PMS‐related condition should be considered a psychiatric disorder. The controversies over the creation and inclusion of a premenstrually related diagnosis involve multiple groups, including psychiatrists, clinicians, feminists, gynecologists, and the media. PMDD is an important site of sociological study because of three primary issues: the politics of gender, medicalization, and the construction of diagnoses and contested illness.
Gender Beliefs: Susceptibility to Sexually Transmitted Diseases
Authors: Jones Tara L.
Published: February 2014

Vulnerability to sexuality transmitted diseases (STDs) is different for men than for women because of the varying ideologies and beliefs about what counts as socially acceptable behavior among them. Biological, cultural, and social explanations help to explain these differences in susceptibility. While sociological discourse on gender beliefs and susceptibility to STDs most often includes interest in social and cultural explanations – such as relationship dynamics, relationship power, and racially and culturally based ideologies that influence sexual behavior within relationships – biological explanations – such as greater male–female transmission as a result of vaginal bleeding, vaginal tears, and the amount of virus transmitted from males to females during intercourse – cannot be overlooked. Because of their gender (i.e., sex), females and males are subject to socially accepted practices, ideologies, and beliefs that often define their roles and drive their behaviors within sexual relationships, thus influencing their susceptibility to STDs.
Criminal Victimization
Authors: Davies Kim , Foley Allison
Published: February 2014

Criminal victimization can be defined as being harmed by crime, which may appear straightforward but, until late in the twentieth century, individuals harmed by crime were largely ignored by criminal justice agencies and the public in many Western countries. This entry will discuss how the victims’ rights movement successfully brought victims’ issues to the attention of the government and the criminal justice system. Additionally, it will report on the measurement and prevalence of criminal victimization, before discussing the consequences it can have for those who experience it. These consequences may be financial, physical, or psychological; they might be short‐lived or long‐lasting, and are felt by more than those who experience it directly.
Caregiving and Gender Roles
Authors: Drentea Patricia
Published: February 2014

This entry examines caregiving and gender roles. It first looks at what caregiving actually is, and then discusses the caregiver burden. It then turns to gender roles and examines men's and women's caregiving.
Care, Managed
Authors: Scheid Teresa L.
Published: February 2014

This entry provides a definition of managed care and describes the various ways in which health care is managed. The history of managed care in the United States and elsewhere is described. Managed care represents a major change in the delivery of health care services. Sociological research has examined managed care constraints on professional autonomy, and the ethical dilemmas health care providers may experience when demands for cost containment conflict with professional standards. More research is needed on how managed care has changed access to health care for different populations.
Medicalization and Medicines
Authors: Norris Pauline
Published: February 2014

Medicalization refers to the processes by which problems come to be understood and treated as medical conditions. Medicalization often results in the use of pharmaceuticals. There has been a dramatic increase in the amount of medication consumed in the Western world in the past few decades, and this has led to concern about the medicalization or pharmaceuticalization of an increasingly wide range of phenomena, including aspects of the normal aging process, and risk factors for disease (such as high cholesterol). Attention has been paid to the gendered nature of medicalization but less to the socioeconomic and ethnic variation in medicalization. Differences in access to medical treatment have been widely and extensively documented, but these have rarely been linked to the concept of medicalization.
Adolescent Fertility and Early Marriage
Authors: Rizzo Helen Mary
Published: February 2014

Across the globe adolescent fertility, particularly pregnancy and childbirth before the age of 20, is a serious social and health concern. Adolescent fertility increases the probability of maternal and infant deaths and morbidity and it is also associated with increased risks of dropping out of school and limited opportunities in the job market, which can negatively affect the well‐being of young women and their children. While most adolescent fertility in industrialized countries is the result of unplanned pregnancies by unmarried teenagers, in many places in the global south, adolescent fertility is a result of early marriages and most pregnancies are wanted. However, even under these conditions, early pregnancies are associated with health risks to both mothers and children.
Mental Illness and Stigma
Authors: Pescosolido Bernice A.
Published: February 2014

While all illnesses present concern and, often, fear to individuals and their caretakers, some conditions are singled out as stigmatized. Stigma refers to the prejudice and discrimination associated with the conditions that are enacted through social relationships and that devalue the person's humanity. Mental illness represents a classic example and, as a result, has been the focus of much theory and empirical research. Different types of stigma (public, self or internalized, provider‐based, courtesy) have been identified. The documented effects of stigma are profound, including restricted opportunities and even a shortened lifespan. Recent research has questioned claims about trends in stigma over time and across countries.
Biomedicalization
Authors: Clarke Adele E.
Published: February 2014

Biomedicalization theory argues that biomedicine is being transformed from the inside out by densely elaborating technoscientific interventions such as computer and information sciences as well as biosciences such as molecular biology, genetics, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, and pharmacogenomics, and medical technologies such as visualization.

Accompanied by growing responsibilities for our biological/somatic citizenship, these technosciences allow and provoke new kinds of interventions, changing how we think about and live “life itself.” The “bio” in the concept of biomedicalization signals the increasing importance of life sciences and technologies to biomedicine and the centrality of Foucauldian questions of biopolitics. There are five central (and overlapping) processes of biomedicalization: (1) major political economic shifts; (2) a new focus on health, risk, and surveillance; (3) the technoscientization of biomedicine; (4) transformations of biomedical knowledges; and (5) transformations of bodies and identities. While medicalization as the increasing jurisdiction of medicine over new areas of life continues, biomedicalization is expanding rapidly and transnationally. Biomedicalization is characterized by a strong orientation toward the future, socioculturally paralleling its bioeconomic/biopolitical focus on speculative biocapital development. Crucially, biomedicalization theory is neither inherently nor solely a critique of biomedicine. It is an insistence that the increasing centrality of sciences and technologies in biomedicine be addressed.
Obesogenic Environments
Authors: Jones Andy P.
Published: February 2014

The idea that characteristics of the environment may be associated with the development of obesity is not new, but the concept has recently gained considerable prominence. The term “obesogenic environment” refers to the role environmental factors may play in determining both nutrition and physical activity. Relevant components of the environment include “microenvironments” (e.g., school, workplace, home, neighborhood), which are influenced by broader “macroenvironments” (e.g., education and health systems, government policy, and society's attitudes and beliefs). While ways in which these environments may influence obesity‐promoting behavior among individuals are not well understood, obesogenic environments are widely accepted as a key driving force behind the obesity epidemic.
Tissue Economies
Authors: Waldby Catherine
Published: February 2014

The idea of a tissue economy is that donated human tissues (e.g., blood, embryos, organs, sperm, oöcytes) have a productivity that can be ordered in different ways. While still inside the donor's body, tissues are part of the self and help to sustain the person. Once donated, they can sustain the life and health of the recipients (e.g., blood and organ donation), they may be banked for future use (e.g., cord blood), or they may become elements in laboratory research (e.g., embryonic stem cell lines). In each case, tissues are procured, managed, banked, and circulated in a system designed to maximize their latent productivity. The “tissue economy” approach provides some methodological, empirical, and theoretical tools to analyze how this productivity is ordered, and the ways in which it intersects with other kinds of institutional, provincial, national, and global economies.
Health Psychology and Behavior Change
Authors: de Vries Nanne
Published: February 2014

After describing challenges in changing behavior with consequences for health, the development from health education to new and more comprehensive strategies for behavior change is discussed. A framework for classifying and constructing interventions is presented, taking the interaction between individual and environmental factors into account and allowing for different policies and complementary strategies.
Drug Abuse/Dependence
Authors: Bryan Page J.
Published: February 2014

Consumption of drugs by human beings has had a long history, extending millennia before the first written accounts of wine consumption or the smoking of opium. Because drugs take so many different forms and are consumed in so many different ways, the most inclusive definition of “drug” is desirable. Alcohol is certainly a component of human drug repertoires, and archaeological evidence indicates that it is one of the most ancient of plant‐derived drugs. Human trends in drug consumption have moved in the direction of increasing purity and potency of plant‐derived preparations, for example, distilled spirits that evolved from fermented brews of grape juice, malt water, or corn mash. Concepts of drug abuse and drug dependence emerged as potent preparations gained popularity and established perceptions of chronic intoxication. Both of these terms appear aimed at denoting consumers of drugs who are not necessarily addicted to them. “Drug abuse” and “alcohol abuse” have become parts of the names of two national agencies in the United States dedicated to the study of drug‐using patterns. “Drug dependence” denotes a condition similar to addiction but without the additional stigma of vulnerability to withdrawal.
Medical Malpractice
Authors: Ritchey Ferris J.
Published: February 2014

Medical malpractice involves patient injury or death attributed to negligent behavior by a medical practitioner. Establishing a case of medical malpractice is complicated by the complexities and uncertainties inherent in medical practice as well as patient variation in disease prognoses. Establishing a malpractice claim is further complicated by the fact that death and injury (e.g., surgical incisions) are normal parts of medical practice, making it difficult to distinguish medical errors from probabilistically normal treatment outcomes. This ambiguity opens the door for litigation and introduces legal complexities. Over the past four decades changes in medical technology, health care organization, and tort law, and the development of an audit culture, have resulted in malpractice litigation becoming an expected part of medical practice, especially for high‐risk physician specialties. Fear and threat of litigation affect not only individual practitioner treatment choices but also standards of practice and patient–doctor interaction.
Measuring Race/Ethnicity for Health
Authors: Aspinall Peter J.
Published: February 2014

Ethnicity and race are among the most important variables in epidemiology, usage of which has grown significantly in the worldwide medical science literature. Ethnicity data from the decennial censuses has transformed our knowledge of minority ethnic health and health care. Census ethnic categories are now routinely used in public health for the stratification of data and also in population profiling for public health risk assessment. However, debate continues to focus on what should be the conceptual base in race/ethnicity measurement, the use of color categories, and how successfully classifications can capture increasing ethnic diversification. The principle of self‐identification in data collection and the use of categories that yield consistent data are prioritized and concealed heterogeneity in the categories has been addressed by more finely grained ethnicity classifications.
Critical Care
Authors: Goodwin Dawn
Published: February 2014

Critical care relates to the health care given to patients with threatened or established organ failure whose condition, while possibly life‐threatening, is potentially recoverable with close observation and invasive treatment. Admission criteria to intensive care units focus on advanced respiratory support or multi‐organ failure and its technological support, but for social scientists, the field is defined by rather different foci. This entry explores the critical care literature relating to the organization of work, uncertainty and decision‐making, and the relationship between technology and personhood.
Health Professions, Marginalized
Authors: Saks Mike
Published: February 2014

This entry begins by articulating the distinction between marginalized and orthodox health professions. It then gives consideration to the range of groups in the former category and highlights the links with marginalized professions as a whole – drawing attention to debates about the explanations of marginality. The relativity of the marginalization of health professions is demonstrated both within and between societies, which underlines the fluidity of their socially ascribed position. In addition, the strengths and weaknesses of the regulatory framework of such groups are contrasted with those of orthodox health professions – including in relation to both practitioner and client. Finally, it is argued that there is a strong case for further research in this comparatively neglected area.
Homelessness and Distrust of Medicine
Authors: Song John
Published: February 2014

It is well established that trust is essential for the successful delivery of health care and to the support of one's health. Scholars consider it a collective good that is necessary for an effective health care system. And, as trust is in part geographic and related to proximity, it would follow that those most socially disenfranchised would suffer the health effects of poor trust the greatest. Homelessness is not only a social disaster; it is also a public health catastrophe. How trust impacts the uphill challenge to remain healthy while homeless is profound, and contributes to these poor outcomes at every point of contact with health care. There are many contributors to homeless individuals’ distrust for the health care system and health care providers. Many of the causes of mistrust are the same for domiciled populations. However, there are additional reasons for homeless individuals to lose (or never have had) trust in health care systems and practitioners. Also, homeless persons are mistrustful from previous encounters with society, the health care system, and providers. There are many ways to foster and rebuild the trust of homeless persons, some more attainable than others.
Patient–Physician Communication
Authors: Stepanikova Irena
Published: February 2014

Communication is a key element in the diagnostic and therapeutic process. I discuss the history of approaches to the study of communication in the context of physician–patient relationships, selected dimension of communication (instrumental versus socio‐emotional communication and verbal versus non‐verbal communication), factors influencing communicative processes, including race/ethnicity, age, gender, education, organizational/institutional context, and Internet/media, and finally the outcomes of communication, including patient satisfaction, compliance/adherence, health outcomes, and malpractice litigation. I conclude with the discussion of approaches and methods used to study communication in physician–patient encounters.
Poststructuralism and Postmodernism
Authors: Fox Nick J.
Published: February 2014

Poststructuralism covers a number of associated analyses of the relationship between power and knowledge, which have in common the view that knowledge is always contextual, partial, and fragmentary, but also is never neutral and shapes the power relations between individuals or groupings. Poststructuralists reject the notion of a single “truth,” and criticize grand theories or systems of thought that make claims to uncover truth, including religion, science, and social scientific realism. They also suggest that this relationship between power and knowledge can have consequences for subjectivity and identity. Postmodernism is closely associated with poststructuralism, and seeks to undermine the grand narratives of modernist social organization and domination including capitalism, patriarchy, colonialism, and heteronormativity. It adopts poststructuralist epistemologies and ontologies in preference to structuralist explanations, to expose the contradictions within these grand narratives of control or domination. In so doing, it also suggests means to resist and refuse domination.
Gender Paradox (and the Health Myth)
Authors: Liu Hui
Published: February 2014

One of the most robust findings in epidemiologic research throughout the past century is the long‐documented gender difference in life expectancy. In the United States, life expectancy at birth is 75.5 years for men and 80.5 years for women. Although women live longer than men on average, researchers find that women are more likely to report poorer health, suffer higher rates of morbidity, and use more health services than men. This is often termed the “gender paradox” in mortality and morbidity. This entry discusses the prevalence, history, and causes of this paradox.
Genetics
Authors: Vailly Joëlle
Published: February 2014

Genetics, defined as the science of heredity, calls upon a rapidly developing field of knowledge and a fertile imaginary, both of which have altered drastically over the past 30 years. The genetic knowledge that is disseminated in society, the alliances that it mobilizes, and the media interest it generates, as well as the attention garnered by patient associations, come together to give a certain precedence to genetic diseases. In this context, various social science analyses show the specificities but also the constant features of these social dynamics around life itself, putting forward notions such as geneticization, biosociality, genetic citizenship, and biocapital. More broadly, they highlight the need to distinguish between the ambitions outlined by the actors involved, the phenomena that can actually be observed, and the idea that a given society harbors of both.
Population Resilience
Authors: Mitchell Richard
Published: February 2014

Resilient people or places are those doing unexpectedly well in the face of significant adversity or risk; they are “beating the odds.” Interest in population resilience is part of a wider shift in public health towards studying factors and processes which protect or promote good health. Resilience is, by definition, unusual, but of growing interest as policymakers seek to understand how to help populations avoid the health consequences of chronic and acute adversity.
Geographies of Health Care Access
Authors: Ricketts Thomas C.
Published: February 2014

Geographies of access to health care are multiple in purpose and form. Access is a complex concept and spatial accessibility is conditioned by social and political decision and imperatives. There is no consensus measure of access, let alone spatial access, though almost all agree that the geographic characteristics of health services use and accessibility are key to optimal health outcomes.
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
Authors: Rafalovich Adam
Published: February 2014

This entry provides a brief overview of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. The following components are covered: first, a brief history of the disorder since the late nineteenth century; second, a breakdown of the epidemiology of ADHD; third, a discussion of the neurological, psychodynamic, allergenic, and sociological etiologies of the disorder; fourth, a discussion of the prevalent treatment approaches to ADHD; and finally, an explanation of ADHD through a “medicalization” framework.
Middle‐Range Theory
Authors: Siegrist Johannes
Published: February 2014

A theory is defined as a set of logically connected explanatory statements that link two or more single observations in a causal way by referring them to a general rule. In the behavioral and social sciences the range of generalization of theoretical statements is restricted, for at least two reasons. First, establishing causality is difficult given the probabilistic nature of most associations under study. Second, human behavior and human societies are complex, variable, and changing over time, thus precluding any simple reduction to universal statements. This entry describes examples of middle‐range theories taken from the social and behavioral sciences with reference to health, such as the “theory of reasoned behavior” and the theoretical models of social support and of an adverse psychosocial environment. All theories, including those of a middle‐range nature, need to be tested empirically. Respective procedures are briefly described, with emphasis on Karl Popper's principle of falsification.
Social Causation of Disease
Authors: Siegrist Johannes
Published: February 2014

Medical sociology and social epidemiology are the two main disciplines involved in the scientific inquiry into social determinants of health and disease. A condensed description of the substantial scientific progress achieved in this important area is organized in three parts. The first part demonstrates new insights into socio‐environmental impact on health resulting from the application of multilevel analysis (e.g., “neighborhood deprivation,” “income inequality”). Second, comparative studies on social inequalities in health reveal robust evidence for a social gradient of health in all modern societies, leaving those with lower socioeconomic status at higher risk. The main explanations for this gradient are briefly discussed. Third, a life course approach to social causation of disease is described, illustrating the significance of adversity in early childhood for later health, and emphasizing new societal challenges in the “third age” for healthy aging.
Stress and Work
Authors: Siegrist Johannes
Published: February 2014

Work and employment have undergone significant changes over the past several decades. While their social and psychological importance in adult life has not decreased, significant changes have occurred with regard to their effects on the health and well‐being of working people. Physically strenuous work is often replaced by psychomental stress. This entry defines the scientific approach to analyzing stress at work, with a particular focus on two theoretical models of a health‐adverse psychosocial work environment that have been tested with some intensity in epidemiological studies: the demand–control (or job strain) model, and the model of effort–reward imbalance. Following a brief description, selected results underlining their contribution towards explaining links between work and health are given. The final part points to policy implications of this new scientific evidence.
Patient Outcomes in Mental Disorders
Authors: Gallagher Bernard J. , Streeter Jessica L.
Published: February 2014

A myriad of treatment options exist for clients with mental illness: hospitalization, community mental health centers, talk therapy, group therapy, and medication constitute but a few. While our ability to treat mental illness through these treatment options has improved greatly over the last several decades, our mental health system still faces numerous problems. Long‐term state hospitals have largely disappeared, while short‐term hospitals focus on medication at the expense of more traditional therapies. Community mental health centers neglect the more severely ill, and often face unwelcoming neighborhoods. And the promise first offered by psychiatric medications in the 1950s has fallen a bit flat, due to highly undesirable side effects, compliance concerns, and their inability to address the social causes of mental illness. These issues, and others, are further compounded by the patient's specific diagnosis, as well as social class, race, gender, sexuality, religion, and culture. As a result, mental health outcomes, while greatly improved, still face numerous barriers, many of which negatively affect the contemporary patient.
Gendered Occupational Hazards
Authors: Caronna Carol A.
Published: February 2014

Workers’ exposure to and experience of occupational hazards are shaped by the gender segregated labor force; gendered labor regulations; gender stereotypes; and the ways daily life is gendered, including the division of unpaid household labor. Scholarship about occupational hazards is shaped by the meanings of “work” and “hazard,” which are contextual and may be gendered. Scholarship about gendered occupational hazards is shaped by the meanings of “gender” in ways that may reify essentialist conceptions of gender as static and dichotomous. Dynamic national, cultural, and social contexts are important to consider as scholars examine the intersections of gender, work, and health.
Social versus Biological Conceptions of Race
Authors: Machery Edouard
Published: February 2014

What are races? What does it mean for two individuals to be classified or to classify themselves as belonging to the same race or to two distinct races? This entry discusses two opposing approaches to these questions: the biological and the social approach to races.
Pharmacists in Patient Outcomes, Role of
Authors: Ballantyne Peri J.
Published: February 2014

Professional pharmacists provide a broad range of health care services and endorse the holistic practice model of “pharmaceutical care” as a means to optimize therapeutic and health outcomes for individual patients. Yet, evidence of how the public views the pharmacist's role is mixed. In this entry, selective evidence for three distinct outcomes deriving from pharmacists’ involvement in health care is discussed: patient satisfaction with health services; the level of patient knowledge or information about illness; and the level of adherence to prescribed medications. Mixed findings and specific concerns about the role of pharmacists in patient outcomes are revealed. Key implications are the need for detailed assessment of the integrity of study designs for capturing (the various possible) pharmacists’ impacts; and the possibility that members of the public require an ongoing relationship with a pharmacist in order to optimize the use of medicines for specific indications, and over the life course.
Arab World, Health Issues amid Turmoil
Authors: Maziak Wasim
Published: February 2014

The Arab world is host to some 300 million people in 22 member states of the Arab League. It is in this region that humanity first learned the basics of civilized association, witnessed the birth of the three major religions, and ignited the spark of the European renaissance. Notwithstanding the complexity of generalizing to such a vast and diverse region, there is a striking sense of unity and destiny among Arabs, and an ironic commonality of problems facing them nowadays. At present, no Arab country, rich or poor, is free from internal strife, regional conflicts, or the threat of terrorism. Most Arab regimes until very recently have been based on some form of authoritarian governance, with no real participation by or accountability to the people. All this started to change, in a profound way, in 2011, as a wave of popular uprisings swept through the Arab world, toppling very strong regimes, threatening others, and pushing the rest towards serious democratic reforms. As population health is influenced much by the system of governance and level of engagement of the public in solving their own problems, the Arab Spring is expected to have a huge impact on people's health in the Arab world.
Medicalization
Authors: Conrad Peter , Waggoner Miranda
Published: February 2014

Social scientists have explored the topic of medicalization since the 1970s. Studied by sociologists, anthropologists, historians, feminists, and medical scholars, medicalization has become a common term in the social science and medical literature and to a degree in the public media. While it literally means “to make medical,” medicalization refers to a process in which previously non‐medical problems become defined and treated as medical problems, usually as diseases or disorders. In this entry, we provide a brief overview of the development, characteristics, and consequences of medicalization over the past four decades.
Blood
Authors: Busby Helen
Published: February 2014

The symbolic dimensions of blood have long been a subject of interest for social anthropologists and sociologists, as human blood has an extraordinary capacity to carry meanings related to life force and healing on the one hand, and danger and transgression on the other. Notable among those conducting sociological investigations of the latter kind was Richard Titmuss, who saw blood donation in terms of an enactment of an impulse towards altruism that was socially – as well as practically – vital. Today, millions of patients worldwide continue to rely on transfusion with blood components and on plasma derived products. Sociologists have found that blood is “good to think with,” and continuing dependence on it testifies to the interdependence of human beings, even in an age of biotechnological inventiveness.
Social Capital
Authors: Song Lijun
Published: February 2014

The concept of social capital has grown into a burgeoning theoretical tool in multidisciplinary research and public discourse on health during the last two decades. The key figures who popularized this concept and stimulated its theoretical development include three sociologists, Pierre Bourdieu, James S. Coleman, and Nan Lin, and one political scientist, Robert D. Putnam. Their diverse definitions and operationalizations of social capital have stimulated extensive confusion and debate over its measurement and health consequences. Two perspectives are distinguishable (Song, Son, and Lin 2010; Song 2013a): the network‐based approach by Bourdieu and Lin, and the normative approach by Coleman and Putnam. The normative approach, Putnam's notion of social capital in particular, absorbed by public health researchers, has dominated the health literature. It is necessary to introduce these different frameworks of social capital and their applications in the health literature separately.
Madness
Authors: Wilce James M.
Published: February 2014

The importance of madness as a label with power, as a cross‐culturally variable set of experiences, as a window on complex human potentials, and as the subject of debate within the social sciences can hardly be overestimated. Is “madness” merely another name for “mental illness,” or is the mental illness label one among many symptoms of the medicalization of madness or even non‐conformity? How should we understand the variable manifestation of madness in the world's cultures? Given evidence of such variability, and of historically particular concepts of humanity and madness, the increasing global dominance of Western psychiatric models of madness demands attention. Finally, opportunities to apply social scientific insights to this complex phenomenon – for example, in the context of international aid organizations that may employ anthropologists – must be seriously considered, but approached with full awareness of the complexity and local variability of “madness” in whatever contexts social scientists are called to work.
Geographies of Space, Place, and Population Health
Authors: Twigg Liz
Published: February 2014

Recently there has been a resurgence among epidemiologists, sociologists, public health practitioners, and geographers in attempts to understand what it is about place that influences health outcomes. Where a person lives is as important as who they are when it comes to explaining their health status. This entry focuses on the main debates which have dominated this topic over the last few decades, illustrating how early studies were concerned with estimating how much spatial variation in health outcomes could be ascribed to individual characteristics (composition) and how much was due to place effects (context). Attention then shifted to more theoretical arguments that challenged the simple composition versus context dualism. Here workers began to acknowledge the continual recursive interplay between people and places. Theoretical debates continue to focus on causal pathways within a complex framework which recognizes that social practice is undertaken recursively within social structures, and within places constituted at various scales in various ways at different times.
Third and Fourth Ages
Authors: Gilleard Chris , Higgs Paul
Published: February 2014

This entry outlines the terms “third age” and “fourth age” and the various ways this division of later life has been used. Beginning with a consideration of Laslett's use of the term “the third age” to define a new stage of life characterized as an era of personal fulfillment and “the fourth age” as a period of dependency, decrepitude, and death, the entry then describes other models of this division of later life, based on either chronological age, health, and functional status or a more cultural approach grounded in Bourdieu's concept of a cultural field. The entry concludes with a review of some of the criticisms that have been made of the third‐age/fourth‐age distinction and outlines some of the alternative reconceptualizations that frame the divisions of later life primarily as sources of inequality.
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Stress
Authors: Irwin Jay A.
Published: February 2014

The health and well‐being of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people, including their stress experiences, is a growing field of study. This entry defines LGBT identities and summarizes the forms of stress that LGBT people are likely to experience in their lives. Evidence shows that LGBT individuals experience a wide variety of stressors, as well as stressors that are distinct to sexual and gender minority members. These stressors perpetuate LGBT mental and physical health disparities, such as suicidal behaviors, substance abuse, and depression. Limitations of the current research include a lack of inclusion of bisexuals and transgender individuals, as well as a reliance on large metropolitan areas for sample selection.
Patient–Healer Communication
Authors: Ruusuvuori Johanna
Published: February 2014

Patient–healer communication is a social and reciprocal process of social interaction where the participants aim at attending to and solving the patients’ health related problems. Patient–healer relationships can be approached from a macro‐sociological perspective, depicted as mediating larger relations in society, or from a micro‐sociological perspective, where the focus is on the process of communication as it unravels in actual encounters of health care. It is widely agreed that communication is an important part of the healing process. This idea is in the focus of research on issues such as empathy and rapport, the ultimate aim being the development of the quality of communication in the hope of simultaneously enhancing the quality of care and, consequently, the health of patients.
Substance Abuse and Parenthood
Authors: McArthur Morag , Moore Tim
Published: February 2014

The substance abuse issues of parents invariably negatively affect their children. Parental substance abuse can impact on the family's level of connectedness, its ability to cope with adversity, and its capacity to provide the resources and protections which help children grow and develop. Often characterized by chaos and instability, the parent–child relationship can be problematic. Coupled with coalescing poverty, social isolation, and domestic violence, substance misuse can have long‐term consequences for children's health, well‐being, behavior, participation in education, and adolescent substance use. They are often at high risk of child abuse and neglect.
Location–Allocation Planning
Authors: Tomintz Melanie N. , Garcia‐Barrios Victor M.
Published: February 2014

The development of location–allocation models began in the 1960s. Different disciplines such as regional sciences, mathematics, and operational research as well as geography contributed to the foundation of location–allocation studies, and with this there was increased interest by health geographers. Location–allocation planning can be seen as planning support for new facilities or for optimizing existing facilities and is applied in different areas such as regional planning, retail, and public health care. The location of a facility is highly important, as it is a crucial factor in people accessing a service. Longer travel distances result in higher travel costs, and hence when the costs of travel (or time) reach a certain critical threshold people are less likely to use the service, emphasizing the importance of geography or distance–decay effects. Demand, supply, and accessibility are necessary to implement location–allocation models. Demand is defined as point locations, often referring to population (sub)groups; supply is defined as locations of facilities; and accessibility is either defined as Euclidean (straight line) distance or based on the road network between supply and demand. An advantage is that models can be customized to a particular application to meet specific objectives.
Neoliberalism and Health
Authors: Coburn David
Published: February 2014

Neoliberalism is a market fundamentalist version of capitalism. Neoliberalism arose in the 1970s as a consequence of the rise of global corporate power. The Anglo‐American nations exemplify the more neoliberal societies. The more neoliberal of the rich nations have worse health than do the more social democratic countries. Laissez‐faire policies were enforced on poor and middle‐income countries globally. These policies had disastrous consequences for the work, family, and social life of many nations, brought frequent economic crises, and slowed down global health improvements. Neoliberal doctrines internationally have produced massive between and within nation inequalities in wealth and in health. The discipline of economics, focusing on economic growth and economic efficiency, tends to favor market‐oriented policies, while the non‐economic social sciences emphasize neoliberalism's inadequate social theory and its negative effect on population well‐being.
Resuscitation, Cardiopulmonary
Authors: Nurok Michael
Published: February 2014

The word “resuscitate” can be found in manuscripts dating to biblical texts; it is derived from Latin, meaning to raise up or revive. By the mid‐twentieth century resuscitation was recognized as a medical paradigm aimed at restoring life to patients at risk of or near death.
Health Psychology and Psychobiology
Authors: O'Connor Daryl B.
Published: February 2014

Health psychology applies theories and methods from across the entire discipline of psychology in order to better understand how our perceptions, beliefs, and behavior can maintain health or cause illness. Central to health psychology is the biopsychosocial model. This model proposes that health and illness are influenced by psychological factors and social factors as well as biological processes. In particular health psychology has made substantial advances in understanding how psychological factors interact with biological processes, which, in turn, result in physical health problems. One of the most important advances relates to the development of the field known as psychoneuroimmunology. Health psychologists have had a long‐standing interest in understanding the stress response as an important mechanism linking psychological processes to health outcomes. Over the last 25 years considerable research has shown that psychological stress affects numerous bodily systems and is linked to illnesses such as cardiovascular disease and cancer.
Biopolitics and Biological Citizenship
Authors: Greenhough Beth
Published: February 2014

Biopolitics refers to how, since the eighteenth century, Western governments have learnt to see their population in biological terms and sought to intervene in order to maintain the health of that population. Biological citizenship refers to any project whereby citizenship and belonging are defined in biological terms. Biological citizenship can be state led, based in biopolitical beliefs about the state's constituent population and interventions which focus on maintaining their health. It can also be citizen led, when individuals or communities draw on a shared biological identity to place claims on the state for support and recognition.
Geographies of Bioscience, Medical Technology, and Health
Authors: Greenhough Beth
Published: February 2014

Bioscience, in the broadest sense, refers to the appliance of scientific theories and research methods to the study of life and living beings. Geographies of bioscience focus on how bioscience is transforming nature–society relations. Topics range from exploring the impact of bioscience in agriculture to a more recent concern with biomedicine and its impact on health and society. Geographers have studied bioprospecting and the global pharmaceutical sector; the production and global circulation of bodily commodities, patients, and medical professionals; the impact of biomedicine on people's day‐to‐day lives; and inequalities in access to the resources bioscience provides.
Medical Pluralism
Authors: Johannessen Helle
Published: February 2014

In all societies a variety of therapeutic health care options coexist, and in medical anthropology the concept of “medical plurality” refers to this coexistence. Available therapies differ from one locality to another: one can find any mixture of medical products, as well as various physical, psychological, and spiritual forms of therapy. Previously many of the available therapies were locally based, but today we witness a spread of techniques and products across the globe, and the emerging pluralism is not organized in stable medical systems. Instead, a number of networks on different levels and across levels can be found; these networks emerge in shared concepts and forms of praxis among lay people and in clinical and educational institutions but are never inhabited by stable and loyal populations of patients and healers. The medical pluralism of today can be conceptualized as open networks based on elective affinity that come into existence through praxis. When moving between different networks, sick persons, families, and health care providers juggle with issues of identity and the social as they seek solutions that may provide healing for the suffering body and at the same time provide for meaningful relations of the self.
Risk and Health Care
Authors: Hoeyer Klaus
Published: February 2014

Risk relates to dangers which are not present and, as such, it invites a call for action and governance. This entry outlines some of the ensuing forms of risk management. Risk can relate to populations at large (who may be exposed to disease agents or involved in programs of screening or genetic or prenatal counseling) and to health professionals (exposed to dangers through their work) as well as to patients. After outlining the dominant features of risk management in relation to these three groups of stakeholders, the entry briefly describes some of the risks and dangers produced as an unintended consequence of risk management in the health services.
Family and Physical Health
Authors: Finerman Ruthbeth
Published: February 2014

While clinical studies tend to define “family and physical health” in terms of disease patterns among individuals sharing close biological or hereditary ties, the social sciences conceptualize this phenomenon in the broader context of culture, history, and macrolevel socioeconomic and political structures. Thus, in medical anthropology, “family and physical health” denotes all beliefs, behaviors, values, and roles which promote, sustain, or restore well‐being among a broad kin group that is linked by blood, marriage, contractual obligations, or mutual agreement. Thus, there exists significant variance between biomedical and cross‐cultural understandings of both physical health and family.
Competition, Managed
Authors: Light Donald W.
Published: February 2014

Managed competition evolved largely in the United States as employers self‐insured in the 1960s as a way to control rapidly rising costs and as health maintenance organizations (HMOs) gained policy attention. It was developed in the 1970s to solve forms of market failure that occur when competition is applied to health care. It proposed competition between whole systems of care in which the competition was managed. The entry describes inherent flaws in the theory of managed competition and ways in which it was applied. Managed competition retains its appeal and influence, though little evidence supports its promise of less costly, more responsive, and better health care for a whole national system.
Countervailing Powers
Authors: Light Donald W.
Published: February 2014

Countervailing power is a term describing the process by which dominance in the marketplace is countered by other powers, such as government regulation, various corporate interests, mass media, public opposition, and the like. This situation was seen in the medical marketplace when professional medicine's domination of the medical market was significantly reduced through federal legislation, the expansion of large business corporations, patient dissatisfaction, and cost constraints imposed by insurance companies and the federal government through Medicare, Medicaid, and the Health Care Affordability Act.
Adverse Drug Reactions
Authors: Light Donald W.
Published: February 2014

Along with their many benefits, prescription drugs have harmful side effects and constitute a leading cause of death and hospitalization in the United States and other affluent countries. More people benefit from prescription drugs than any other aspect of medicine. Yet these drugs have become a major cause of falls, accidents, hospitalizations, and death.