bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Complexity and Health
Authors: Gatrell Anthony C. 
Published: February 2014

Abstract
It is very common to read that health issues, whether relating to behaviors, outcomes, or service configurations, are “complex,” and complexity theory (or complexity science) has been invoked by some researchers in order to illuminate the workings of such systems. This entry clarifies the characteristics of a complex system and illustrates this with particular reference to health inequalities. An implication of complexity thinking for public health (as very broadly conceived) demands transdisciplinary thinking. Carefully invoked, concepts from complexity science can be productive in health research.
Aging and Health Geography
Authors: Wiles Janine L. 
Published: February 2014

AbstractThis entry delineates three themes of spatial, relational, and critical geographies of aging and health. Spatial approaches to aging and health geography focus on measuring and understanding the implications of the changing distribution of aging from global to national, regional, and urban levels. Relational approaches to aging and health geographies seek to understand older people's interactions with social and physical environments for example through place attachment and “insideness,” while critical approaches to aging and health geographies challenge normalizing and often negative discourses around aging, for example around the concept of aging in place.
Mental Health Public Policies in the United States
Authors: Chandler Susan Meyers 
Published: February 2014

Abstract
Almost every choice that a person makes about his or her treatment or type of care provided in the system of mental health services in the United States is strongly influenced by federal, state, and county laws, policies, administrative rules, procedures, and regulations. This influence may affect who can be licensed to provide what type of treatment; where that treatment can take place; who is eligible to obtain a service; who will pay; what is covered by private insurance; how different states regulate the insurance companies; what is the individual state's design of Medicaid coverage; even how persons eligible for Medicare can access and receive services. This entry reviews the history and impact of mental health policies on the system of mental health care in America.
Care, Quality of
Authors: Robelet Magali 
Published: February 2014

Abstract
Since the 1990s, new definitions, new institutions, and new quality evaluation tools have appeared in most Western nations. Two emblematic tools in this new focus on quality are medical recommendations and initiatives for management within health care organizations. This article aims not to justify and compare the effectiveness of these tools in the actual improvement of quality of care but rather to discuss the appearance of these tools and their effects on the content of medical work and on power relations between doctors, government, and the public. The attention focused on quality of care has caused a resurgence in debates over the autonomy and power of health care professionals, physicians in particular. Quality of care has become an indicator of changes in the regulation of medical professionals, passing from self‐regulation to a more hybrid form, leaving more power to government, to health care insurers, and to the public. The evaluation and improvement of quality of care does increase the role of government and payers, but it does not necessarily lead – at least not at the present time – to the reinforcement of constraints and controls on the content of medical work.
Geographies of Disability and Impairment
Authors: Hall Edward 
Published: February 2014

AbstractGeographies of disability and impairment examine the interrelationships between bodily and mental impairments and social, cultural, political, and physical environments, and how these shape the experiences of disabled people and, more broadly, the understanding and valuing of “disability” in society. Geographies of disability and impairment have described and mapped the incidence of disability, and studied the exclusions and everyday lives of disabled people, developing a distinctive socio‐spatial theoretical understanding of disability within what is now a discernible field in human geography. Geographical study of disability and impairment has reflected wider changes in the social and cultural conceptualization of disability and the social position and valuing of disabled people, from an individual medically defined condition to a socially constructed phenomenon, and more recently a material embodied experience.
Mental Health and Marital Status
Authors: Spiker Russell L. 
Published: February 2014

Abstract
Marriage is a social institution and its effects on mental health vary across societies. In societies which emphasize marriage, being married is related to lower depression, lower anxiety, lower suicide risk, and lower substance abuse, on average. Two models explain the relationship between mental health and marital status: causation and selection. Selection models propose that healthy and socially desirable people are more likely to become and stay married. In causation models, marriage confers benefits directly to participants. Divorce and remarriage result in short‐term decreases in mental well‐being. Remarriage positively affects mental health, but less than first marriage. Never‐married and cohabiting people are emerging groups of interest, with research suggesting that effects vary by social norms and selection factors. Social support is the mechanism through which relationships affect mental health. Some caveats and potential avenues of research are also outlined.
Experts and Expertise
Authors: Gilbert Claude , Henry Emmanuel 
Published: February 2014

AbstractExpertise – and scientific expertise more specifically – is seen as crucial to public health decision‐making. The idea that, in order to deal with increasingly complex problems in this regard, decision‐makers must rely on experts and the knowledge they mobilize is no longer questioned. Yet the articulation of expertise and public decision‐making is not self‐evident. Both expertise and the place experts should have in decision‐making processes are a core issue in many debates.
Health and Climate Change
Authors: Lake Iain R. 
Published: February 2014

Abstract
There are several mechanisms through which climate change may affect health ranging from direct (e.g., heat wave deaths) to indirect effects (e.g., famine from crop failures). The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have examined the likely impacts on health and suggested that extreme weather (e.g., cyclones) is projected to increase leading to elevated deaths, disease and injuries. More illnesses associated with poor air quality and malnutrition are also projected. Climate change may affect the distribution of disease causing vectors (e.g., mosquitoes transmitting dengue fever) with negative health consequences. However, in the case of malaria some countries will see more and others less disease with overall neutral consequences. Elevated temperatures are projected globally which may reduce cold weather mortality in high latitudes. Diarrheal diseases are caused by a variety of organisms and increasing incidence is indicated. Climate change is unlikely to lead to new diseases although new strains of microbes may possibly emerge. It may, however, affect the range, incidence, and seasonality of existing diseases. Existing public health and health care systems provide countries with the capacity to adapt to the consequences. Many of the most severe impacts are projected to fall disproportionally on lower income countries that have relatively few resources to adapt.
Mental Health, Men's
Authors: Smith Dena T. , Mouzon Dawne M. 
Published: February 2014

AbstractVery little research examines men's mental health specifically, though there is extensive research on gender differences in mental health. Most studies find that men and women have similar rates of disorder but experience different types of mental illnesses. Women have higher rates of internalizing disorders (e.g., depression, anxiety) while men typically display externalizing symptoms (e.g., violence, substance abuse). It is unclear whether these trends reflect true gender differences or measurement bias instead, because scholars have less adequately tapped men's experiences. In this entry we review literature that helps explain men's mental health, including research on gender roles, help‐seeking, coping, and social support. We then outline literature assessing the potential role of measurement bias. Future research should move beyond gender comparisons and focus specifically on men's lived experiences (including heterogeneity among men), in addition to testing the possibility that men's depression and anxiety may be masked by substance abuse and violence.
Homelessness and Physical Health in the United States
Authors: Kantayya Vivek S. , Hawkins Alesia O. , Koon Adam D. 
Published: February 2014

Abstract
Homelessness is a serious public health concern. A significant number of physical health problems are associated with homelessness including both acute and chronic medical conditions. Homeless people experiencing mental health issues, substance abuse, and victimization contribute to poorer health outcomes. Experiencing homelessness imposes several barriers to effective patient care requiring tailored health services to meet the challenges faced by this population. Health care providers may meet the needs of the homeless by taking an integrated team approach to patient care that incorporates different delivery systems of care, continuity, and sensitive case management.
Health and Illness, Cultural Perspectives on
Authors: Benard Akeia A. F. 
Published: February 2014

AbstractHealth and illness in every society are socially constructed concepts discussed using key cultural symbols and metaphors. Different medical systems, including biomedicine, humoral medicine, and spirit healing should be understood in their cultural context. Doctors and patients can gain cultural competency when each knows the other's perspective on health and illness. We should not, however conflate culture and poverty when discussing differences in health outcomes.
Health, Identities, and Stress
Authors: Shank Daniel B. 
Published: February 2014

AbstractIn many ways identities can alter stress processes leading to differential health outcomes; and, less studied, identities also develop as the outcome of stress and health behavior. Stressors and the meaning of those stressors are often affiliated with specific identities. Therefore, identities also provide social support and buffering resources to reduce the stress processes on health outcomes.
Socioeconomic Status, Measurement
Authors: Bateman Lori Brand 
Published: February 2014

AbstractSocioeconomic status (SES) is utilized in a broad range of sociological research and refers to the relative placement of individuals within the hierarchical social structure of a given society. An individual's SES is correlated with behavior and lifestyle, and SES has been one of the most robust and consistent variables in explicating variations among social groups in health status. SES is a multidimensional construct and has traditionally been measured by occupational prestige, educational attainment, and/or income. More recently, researchers have used area‐ based measures, such as neighborhood SES, and some have proposed that utilizing a life course perspective is crucial to more accurately understanding the relation between SES and health. Critics claim that researchers should seek to account for as many of the socioeconomic variables as possible while considering how differences in social groups may play a role in the interpretation of findings.
Stress Management: International Variations
Authors: Huey Wesley S. 
Published: February 2014

AbstractA great deal of research on occupational stress and its effects on health is done outside the United States. With roots in epidemiology, the predominant model for occupational stress – the job demand–control model – provides a simple and unifying framework for interdisciplinary research across cultures and occupation types. This entry reviews the literature on occupational stress in general, then spotlights the contributions made by researchers outside the United States. The growing importance of occupational stress as a sociological object is addressed.
Mental Health Policies, International
Authors: Szaflarski Magdalena 
Published: February 2014

Abstract
A mental health policy is an official statement by a government or health authority that provides the overall direction for improving mental health of people by defining a vision, values, principles, and objectives, and by establishing a broad model for action to achieve that vision. A policy is distinguished from a plan, or a strategy for implementing actions to achieve objectives of a policy. International health authorities, such as the World Health Organization, develop and establish guidelines for the development of mental health policy, strategic plans, and health care services at the country level. The key recommendations for developing mental health policy currently are to deinstitutionalize mental health care, to integrate mental health into general health care, and to develop community mental health services. There are similarities and differences among countries in mental health policies and systems. Similarities include shared international principles and guidelines. Differences are visible in the scope/type of services, financing, workforce development, and approaches to prevention, intervention, and ongoing care. Notably, low‐ and middle‐income countries are less likely to have policies although they carry a disproportionate burden of mental health conditions. Inequity in mental health care is also present within countries and linked to policies and system type.
Systems Theory
Authors: Boiko Olga V. 
Published: February 2014

Abstract
This entry addresses the application of Luhmann's theory of self‐referential social systems to understanding the functional differentiation of the medical system. System/environment distinction has been illuminated in this theory to show the complexity and contingency of interactions within and between systems. The key propositions of the theory imply that social systems solve different problems and are also capable of self‐referential reproduction and, simultaneously, change. The medicine's integrity is explained by the primordial focus on illness; lately, however, health communication emerges from obscurity to prompt the evolutionary developments that give rise to the system of health care. Functional systems aside, the entry highlights the approaches of systems theory to the analysis of other social systems: interactional and organizational. The systems theory attests that health care presents not random context but a system with meaningful boundaries that guides health communication of professionals and lay people.
Professional Work, Managing
Authors: Waring Justin 
Published: February 2014

AbstractThe management of health care work remains a prominent topic of inquiry within medical sociology, and more broadly the sociology of the professions, organizational studies, management science, and public policy. This interdisciplinary field shows a significant shift in the organization of expert work since the 1970s, where the logic of professionalism has been replaced by the logics of the market and bureaucracy. The managerialization of health care work has been one of the most significant global trends in health policy since this time, with managers acquiring an increasingly influential role in the organization of professional work, especially the allocation of resources, formulation and implementation of strategy, work planning and coordination, and performance management. For many health professions, it has opened up new career pathways, arenas for decision‐making, and opportunities for service improvement. At the same time, management is often interpreted as fundamentally changing the social organizational of care work. In most cases, the medical profession has been the primary unit of analysis, but other health care professions, especially nursing, are often more subject to the influence of management, revealing important variations in how health professions experience management change.
Medical Education and Professionalism
Authors: Michalec Barret , Hafferty Frederic W. 
Published: February 2014

AbstractIn this entry we explore the sociocultural history of the current push for “professionalism” within organized medicine. We argue that the contemporary discourse of professionalism within organized medicine is, in actuality, a debate about medicine's status as a profession and its efforts to maintain and promote cultural authority, organizational autonomy, and a positive occupational identity. The entry also examines the drive to define, assess, and institutionalize professionalism within medical education circles, and the related pushback from medical students. We conclude by showcasing relatively new areas of activity within medical education that may enhance understanding of the development of professionalism principles such as the construction and implementation of interprofessional education (IPE) programs, and the role of certification and licensing organizations in the maintenance and institutionalization of professionalism.
Stress and Work/Family
Authors: Ballard Sarah 
Published: February 2014

Abstract
Work–family research studies how individuals manage the competing demands of multiple roles. Two prominent frameworks – role strain and person–environment fit – both emphasize how this is often a stressful experience. The influence of gender roles and ideology means that men and women tend to experience work–family stress for different reasons. Similarly, the characteristics of work and family (e.g., work hours, autonomy, number of children, and spousal support) also play a big role in who experiences work–family stress and how much.
Food Insecurity
Authors: Hadley Craig 
Published: February 2014

AbstractFood insecurity occurs whenever people lack predictable access to foods that are safe and nutritious and support an active and healthy lifestyle. Given that food plays important social, cultural, and biological roles, social scientists have been very interested in understanding the causes and consequences of insecure access to food. Research to date has focused heavily on understanding how best to measure food insecurity, to understand who is at risk of food insecurity (and why), and the consequences of food insecurity for mental and physical well‐being.
Health Locus of Control
Authors: Hinote Brian P. 
Published: February 2014

Abstract
One fundamental question facing patients, practitioners, and researchers in social science and other health fields involves exactly who or what is responsible for an individual's health. Many look to the outside world or the various social contexts surrounding the individual in locating the origins of health or disease; some focus on the personal decisions made by individuals on a day‐to‐day basis, and still others look to the interplay of structural considerations (i.e., life chances) and individual choices for clues relating to the various mechanisms of pathogenesis.
Socioeconomic Status and Stress
Authors: Shea Brent M. 
Published: February 2014

Abstract
Stress is studied in sociology as a variable that contributes to explanations for why socioeconomic status (SES), which includes some combination of indicators of education, income, and occupational status, is related to mental and physical health, illness, and health behaviors. These social patterns are identified by categorizing individuals or families by SES. The dominant causal direction is from SES to health rather than from health to SES, but the relationship is reciprocal. The monotonic relationship between SES and stress is generally inverse. This corresponds to the inverse relationship between SES of individuals and physical and mental health. Community or neighborhood SES also is related to health but not as strongly as individual or family SES. The differential exposure to stress, especially when combined with inadequate coping resources in families, communities, and nations, is part of the explanation for persistent inequities in both mental and physical health.
Occupational Health and Safety
Authors: Howard Penny McCall 
Published: February 2014

Abstract
At least 2.34 million people died from work‐related incidents or diseases in 2008, and the number is growing. Workplace hazards range from physical to chemical and organizational, and change continually. Since the 1970s, many countries (as well as EU and ILO standards) have shifted to “regulated self‐regulation” for the control of occupational health and safety (OHS) in systems which involve workers and management in regulating safety at a workplace level, while reducing technical standards. At the same time, corporate downsizing, outsourcing, casualization of work, and work intensification have had a negative impact on OHS which must be addressed in order to reduce work‐related harm.
Sex Work
Authors: Oxlund Bjarke 
Published: February 2014

AbstractThe term “sex work,” coined by sex worker Carol Leigh in 1973, was introduced as an alternative to the denigrating term “prostitution,” with all its connotations of shame and wrong‐doing. Instead, the term “sex work” promotes an understanding of empowerment and liberation and the leveling out of sex work with other kinds of work. Radical feminists have therefore been very critical of the use of the term, because they see prostitution and sex work as the quintessential oppression of women through coercion, abuse, and harassment. Social scientific understandings of sex work and prostitution have changed over time. From a rather exclusive focus on individual pathology and the victimization of sex workers there is now an appreciation that the positive and negative effects of sex work largely depend on the conditions of specific sex workers. There is also a growing appreciation that sex workers may be female, male, or transgender, and that a singular focus on women as providers and men as customers is not adequate.
Health Professions, Sociology of
Authors: Stevens Fred C. J. 
Published: February 2014

Abstract
This entry highlights health professions from the three perspectives that have dominated sociological theory and inquiry since the 1950s – the functional approach (professions have social functions), the traits approach (professions have certain attributes in common), and the power approach (professions have a power position) – and from a fourth perspective centered on the viewpoints of interacting professions. These perspectives serve as a means for understanding some of the current and prospective problems that health care and the health care professions are facing: bureaucracy versus professionalization, the frictions in health care between work and non‐work, the need for and limits to internal and external control of professionals, and the specialization of professionals versus the increasing need of health care generalists.
Syndemics
Authors: Singer Merrill 
Published: February 2014

Abstract
The syndemic perspective seeks to understand disease not as an isolated condition as seen in the laboratory, but as found in the natural world, a comorbid with other diseases and threats to health. Specifically, the term “syndemic” refers to the adverse interaction of diseases of all types (e.g., infections, chronic non‐communicable diseases, mental health problems, behavioral conditions, toxic exposure, and malnutrition) commonly as a result of social conditions that directly and indirectly promote disease clustering. Syndemic interactions enhance the total health burden faced by a population and often play an important role in hard‐hitting epidemics.