-
Annette Leibing & Silke Schicktanz (eds). Preventing Dementia?: Critical Perspectives on a New Paradigm of Preparing for Old Age New York, NY: Berghahn Books. 2021. 268 pp. $145.00/£107.00 (Hb) $29.95 (ebk) ISBN 978‐1‐78920‐909‐9 Sociology of Health & Illness (IF 2.317) Pub Date : 2021-04-13 Natassia F. Brenman
In Preventing Dementia? Editors Annette Leibing and Silke Schicktanz take what they call the ‘new dementia’, and the emergent prevention paradigm surrounding it, as the focus for a collection of critical contributions from across the social sciences. What's striking about the book is the way its empirical case pushes social scientists to think beyond familiar arguments about medicalisation, brain‐centeredness
-
Patient experience data as enacted: Sociomaterial perspectives and ‘singular‐multiples’ in health care quality improvement research Sociology of Health & Illness (IF 2.317) Pub Date : 2021-04-09 Sara Donetto, Amit Desai, Giulia Zoccatelli, Davina Allen, Sally Brearley, Anne Marie Rafferty, Glenn Robert
Over the last three decades, sociomaterial approaches to the study of health care practices have made an important contribution to the sociology of health care. Significant attention has been paid to the role of technology and artefacts in health care and the operation of actor‐networks but less space has been given to questions of ontological multiplicity in health care practices. In this paper, we
-
Resilient Cyborgs: Living and Dying with Pacemakers and Defibrillators Nelly Oudshoorn Singapore: Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd./Palgrave Macmillan. 2020. XX, 350pp £59.99 (hbk) £47.99 (ebk) ISBN 978‐981‐15‐2529‐2 Sociology of Health & Illness (IF 2.317) Pub Date : 2021-04-08 Laura Donald
The term ‘cyborg’, a portmanteau word coined by Clynes and Kline in 1960 to describe the cybernetic adaptations necessary to enable organisms to live in space, has since come to refer to any being that is part organism, part machine – a definition that would certainly apply to individuals with implanted cardiac devices. Resilient Cyborgs: Living and Dying with Pacemakers and Defibrillators, by Nelly
-
Platform encounters: A study of digitised patient follow‐up in HIV care Sociology of Health & Illness (IF 2.317) Pub Date : 2021-04-05 Benjamin Marent, Flis Henwood
Digital technologies are increasingly embedded in clinical encounters, reconfiguring the basis on which health care is delivered. Thereby, the delivery of care shifts from territorial locations in clinics and temporal modes of co‐presence towards digital platforms. Drawing on a sociotechnical evaluation of digitised patient follow‐up in HIV care, this paper argues that the forms of interactivity practised
-
Interrogating the promise of technology in epilepsy care: systematic, hermeneutic review Sociology of Health & Illness (IF 2.317) Pub Date : 2021-04-01 Chrysanthi Papoutsi, Christian D.E. Collins, Alexandra Christopher, Sara E. Shaw, Trisha Greenhalgh
Technology development is gathering pace in epilepsy with seizure detection devices promising to transform self‐care and service provision. However, such accounts often neglect the uncertainties, displacements and responsibilities that technology‐supported care generates. This review brings together a heterogeneous literature, identified through systematic searches in 8 databases and snowball searching
-
Conflicting experiences of health and habitus in a poor urban neighbourhood: A Bourdieusian ethnography Sociology of Health & Illness (IF 2.317) Pub Date : 2021-04-01 Tom Scott‐Arthur, Brian Brown, Paula Saukko
An ethnographic study of health and wellbeing was undertaken in a deprived urban neighbourhood in the UK Midlands. Drawing on Bourdieu's concepts of habitus, capital and field, we discerned three different, even conflicting, ways of understanding and acting on health: (i) older adults discussed their wellbeing in relation to the local context or field, walking the dog, helping at the community centre
-
The health effects of wage setting institutions: How collective bargaining improves health but not because it reduces inequality Sociology of Health & Illness (IF 2.317) Pub Date : 2021-03-30 Aaron Reeves
Do wage‐setting institutions, such as collective bargaining, improve health and, if so, is this because they reduce income inequality? Wage‐setting institutions are often assumed to improve health because they increase earnings and reduce inequality and yet, while individual‐level studies suggest higher earnings improve well being, the direct effects of these institutions on mortality remains unclear
-
Women’s empowerment and their experience to food security in rural Bangladesh Sociology of Health & Illness (IF 2.317) Pub Date : 2021-03-29 Wei Wei, Tanwne Sarker, Rana Roy, Apurbo Sarkar, Md. Ghulam Rabbany
Global discourses have advocated women's empowerment as a means to reduce their own's food insecurity, which is also key development challenges in Bangladesh. However, little empirical research has conducted on this issue, especially in the rural area of Bangladesh. Therefore, the present study was conducted to examine the relationship of six domains of women's empowerment with their food security
-
Situating adherence to medicines: The embodied practices and hinterlands of HIV antiretrovirals Sociology of Health & Illness (IF 2.317) Pub Date : 2021-03-28 Emily Jay Nicholls, Tim Rhodes, Siri Jonina Egede
Adherence to medicines tends to be envisaged as a matter of actors’ reasoned actions, though there is increasing emphasis on situating adherence as a practice materialised in everyday routines. Drawing on the qualitative interview accounts of Black African women living with HIV in London, UK, we treat adherence to HIV medicines as not only situated in the practices of the immediate and everyday but
-
Intersectional analysis of cannabis use, stigma and health among marginalized Nigerian women Sociology of Health & Illness (IF 2.317) Pub Date : 2021-03-15 Ediomo‐Ubong Ekpo Nelson
Cannabis use by women has been under‐researched, particularly use by marginalized women in developing societies. This article draws on qualitative research in Uyo, Nigeria, to explore how intersecting stigmas around social identity categories (e.g. gender, sex work) shapes cannabis use and contributes to health harms for marginalized women. Qualitative data were collected via in‐depth interviews with
-
Adverse Events: Race, Inequality, and the Testing of New Pharmaceuticals Jill A. Fisher New York: NYU Press. 2020. 336pp. $89 (cloth) $30 (pbk) $16.50 (ebk) ISBN: 978‐1479862160 Sociology of Health & Illness (IF 2.317) Pub Date : 2021-03-12 Crystal Adams
One topic that has been brought to the forefront of public attention as a result of the COVID‐19 crisis is the clinical trials process. Questions are being raised regarding participant recruitment and selection, ensuring adequate numbers of racial and ethnic minority participants, developing best practices for conducting clinical trials, and achieving valid and reliable results under time and resource
-
Katie Featherstone Andy Northcote (eds). Wandering the Wards: An Ethnography of Hospital Care and its Consequences for People Living with Dementia. London: Routledge. 2020. xxii + 165pp. £77.38 (cloth) free (ebk) ISBN 978‐1‐350‐07845‐1 (cloth) ISBN 978‐1‐003‐08733‐5 (ebk) free open access copy available at kindle (https://rb.gy/337djx), google books (https://rb.gy/mgco7g), and Taylor and Francis (https://rb Sociology of Health & Illness (IF 2.317) Pub Date : 2021-03-12 Gary Ansdell, Tia DeNora
This beautifully documented book was written in response to the House Joint Committee on Human Rights 2006‐2007 call for a better understanding of hospital culture and its consequences. Its focus is on how things are actually done in hospital wards and with what impact. Eight chapters develop this theme. We are introduced to the concept of cultures of care and ward life; we are helped to see ‘invisibilities’
-
Baptiste Brossard Forgetting Items: The Social Experience of Alzheimer’s Disease. Indiana University Press, 2020. ISBN: 9780253044983 Sociology of Health & Illness (IF 2.317) Pub Date : 2021-03-12 Emily Cichocki
Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia alter an individual’s capacity to remember and interpret information about their environment, affecting their ability to continue caring for their needs, safety and wellbeing. We have a valuable lesson to learn from those with Alzheimer’s. It reminds us that, despite dominant cultural values of autonomy and independence, we are all mutually dependent on each
-
Masculinities, emotions and men’s suicide Sociology of Health & Illness (IF 2.317) Pub Date : 2021-03-10 Jo River, Michael Flood
Men account for approximately 75% of the one million annual suicide deaths worldwide. Emerging research indicates a link between suicide and men's active pursuit of hegemonic masculinity via emotional restriction. However, little is known of the continuum of suicidal men's emotional practice, and particularly how men mobilise emotions to actively pursue or resist hegemonic masculine ideals. This theorised
-
Healers and Patients Talk – Narratives of a Chronic Gynecological Disease Véronique A.S. Griffith London: Lexington Books. 2020. 260pp $95.00 (hardback). ISBN 978‐1‐7936‐0187‐2, $90.00 (ebk) ISBN 978‐1‐7936‐0188‐9 Sociology of Health & Illness (IF 2.317) Pub Date : 2021-03-09 José Loureiro
This book addresses the social construction of endometriosis. Ground‐breaking ethnographic research, carried out between 2013 and 2014 in the UK by physician and anthropologist Véronique Griffith, reopens the historical gender issues surrounding the female body and its 'singularly feminine' diseases. In frank and provocative questioning, the author asks profound questions about the ordeal women are
-
‘You Have to Withstand That Because You Have Come for What You Have Come for’: Barriers and facilitators to antiretroviral treatment access among older South Africans living with HIV Sociology of Health & Illness (IF 2.317) Pub Date : 2021-03-08 Enid Schatz, Lucia Knight, Ferdinand C. Mukumbang, Michelle Teti, Tyler W. Myroniuk
Nationwide rollout of antiretroviral treatment (ART) is increasing the number of older persons living with HIV (OPLWH) in South Africa. Yet, little is known about how the sociological aspects of ageing – stigma, finances and family dynamics – impact access to ART. Qualitative interviews with 23 persons aged 50‐plus living near Cape Town highlight the barriers and facilitators to the acceptability,
-
Ethno‐essentialisms of the self: A critique of the cultural scripting of obesity in Japan Sociology of Health & Illness (IF 2.317) Pub Date : 2021-03-08 Genaro Castro‐Vázquez
In challenging the ‘validity’ of the body mass index (BMI), the construct of metabolic syndrome has been used to comprehend how obesity affects Japanese people. This article is grounded in an adaptation of the ‘sexual scripting theory’ (Gagnon and Simon, 2005) and proposes the concept of ‘ethno‐essentialisms of the self’ to explore the cultural scripts underpinning the development of metabolic syndrome
-
Challenging ‘colour time’: A practice and narrative approach to organising waiting time in hospitals Sociology of Health & Illness (IF 2.317) Pub Date : 2021-03-08 Anne Reff Pedersen, Mette Brehm Johansen, Vibeke Kristine Scheller
Waiting time in hospitals is often studied from one of two perspectives: a distributed resource in hospitals or a potential steering and measuring factor. In this article, waiting time in an emergency department is examined from a practice and a narrative perspective, placing time at the core of our analysis. Our article explores patient waiting time as a local practice that builds on the temporal
-
‘You're only there on the phone’? A qualitative exploration of community, affect and agential capacity in HIV self‐testing using a smartphone app Sociology of Health & Illness (IF 2.317) Pub Date : 2021-02-26 Ricky Janssen, Nora Engel, Nitika Pant Pai, Aliasgar Esmail, Keertan Dheda, Réjean Thomas, Anja Krumeich
Mobile health (mHealth) technologies for HIV care are developed to provide diagnostic support, health education, risk assessment and self‐monitoring. They aim to either improve or replace part of the therapeutic relationship. Part of the therapeutic relationship is affective, with the emergence of feelings and emotion, yet little research on mHealth for HIV care focuses on affect and HIV testing practices
-
Emerging contaminants, coerced ignorance and environmental health concerns: The case of per‐ and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) Sociology of Health & Illness (IF 2.317) Pub Date : 2021-02-26 Grace M. Wickham, Thomas E. Shriver
Over the past decade, there has been widespread concern about environmental contamination linked to an emerging class of compounds known as PFAS [Poly‐ and per‐fluorinated alkyl substances]. PFAS contamination has been found in drinking water across the United States. Despite the increased interest within the scientific community, little research has been conducted on community environmental health
-
Linking socioeconomic disadvantage to healthiness of food practices: Can a practice‐theoretical perspective sharpen everyday life analysis? Sociology of Health & Illness (IF 2.317) Pub Date : 2021-02-26 Bente Halkier, Lotte Holm
Food is one of the key themes in public health policy and debates over inequalities in health. In this article, we argue that more research is needed to understand how socioeconomic disadvantage is translated into low degrees of healthiness. We suggest that everyday life analysis may be sharpened by way of drawing upon a practice‐theoretical perspective on the mundane processes involved in this translation
-
“No one associates alcohol with being in good health”: Health and wellbeing as imperatives to manage alcohol use for young people Sociology of Health & Illness (IF 2.317) Pub Date : 2021-02-26 Gabriel Caluzzi, Sarah MacLean, Michael Livingston, Amy Pennay
Young people's drinking has declined markedly in Australia over the past 15 years, and this may be linked to changing norms and values around health. We take the view that healthism—a discourse that privileges good health and renders people personally responsible for managing health—has become pervasive, creating new pressures influencing young people's alcohol practices. Through interviews with 50
-
‘Nesef Doctora’—When mothers are considered to be ‘half‐doctors’: Self‐medication with antibiotics and gender roles in the Arab society in Israel Sociology of Health & Illness (IF 2.317) Pub Date : 2021-02-26 Maram Khazen, Nurit Guttman
This qualitative study focuses on self‐medication with antibiotics as it relates to gender roles and traditions in the Arab society in Israel, a collectivist minority with defined traditional gender norms. Its findings draw on the analysis of 116 face‐to‐face interviews with 60 pharmacists, 27 primary care physicians and 29 community members, mainly mothers and unmarried women, from different geographical
-
Returning to work or working on one’s rehabilitation: Social identities invoked by impaired workers and professionals in health care and employment services Sociology of Health & Illness (IF 2.317) Pub Date : 2021-02-26 Tone Alm Andreassen, Per Koren Solvang
For persons with a long‐term illness or impairment, return‐to‐work decisions involve considerations about work capacity, opportunities in the labour market, the impact of injuries, further treatment requirements, physical and cognitive rehabilitation, and mental health recovery. These considerations are undertaken by the affected individuals as well as by professionals in health care and employment
-
Rethinking long‐term condition management: An actor‐level framework Sociology of Health & Illness (IF 2.317) Pub Date : 2021-02-26 André Vaagan, Ann Britt Sandvin Olsson, Cathrine Arntzen, Marit By Rise, Jan Grue, Trude Haugland, Eva Langeland, Una Stenberg, Per Koren Solvang
To understand the complexities of managing long‐term conditions and develop appropriate responses, micro‐, meso‐ and macrolevels must be considered. However, these levels have not been combined in a single analytical framework of long‐term condition management (LTCM). This article aims to describe a framework of LTCM practice and research that combines societal levels and key agents. The actor‐level
-
‘We Don't Want You to Diet’: Bariatric professionals' boundary work and negotiation of pleasure and control Sociology of Health & Illness (IF 2.317) Pub Date : 2021-02-26 Hilla Nehushtan
Although patients who undergo weight‐loss surgery (WLS/bariatric surgery) must follow severe eating restrictions in a manner similar to that of dieting, professionals strive to demarcate distinctions between the approaches and methods of WLS and diet. Drawing from ethnographic research, this study focuses on the content and interpretative dimensions of professionals' boundary work as well as its meaning
-
Ambivalent anticipation: How people with Alzheimer’s disease value diagnosis in current and envisioned future practices Sociology of Health & Illness (IF 2.317) Pub Date : 2021-02-26 Karen Dam Nielsen, Marianne Boenink
Emergent biomarkers for Alzheimer's disease (AD) are expected to provide earlier and more precise diagnoses. However, even if biomarkers live up to these expectations, it cannot be taken for granted that patients actually would value an earlier and more precise AD diagnosis. Based on an interview study, we aim to give more insight into the value of an AD diagnosis for patients, in existing as well
-
Forms of resistance in people with severe and profound intellectual disabilities Sociology of Health & Illness (IF 2.317) Pub Date : 2021-02-26 Clare Nicholson, W. Mick L. Finlay, Steven Stagg
Government policy in the UK emphasises that people with intellectual disabilities should have the opportunity to make choices and exert control over their own lives as much as possible. The ability of a person to resist activities and offers is therefore important, particularly for people with severe and profound intellectual disabilities, who are likely to have language impairments and need to communicate
-
Troubling content: Guiding discussion of death by suicide on social media Sociology of Health & Illness (IF 2.317) Pub Date : 2021-02-26 Julie Brownlie, Justin Chun‐ting Ho, Nikki Dunne, Nichole Fernández, Tim Squirrell
Growing concerns about “online harm” and “duty of care” fuel debate about how best to regulate and moderate “troubling content” on social media. This has become a pressing issue in relation to the potential application of media guidelines to online discussion of death by suicide—discussion which is troubling because it is often transgressive and contested. Drawing on an innovative mixed‐method analysis
-
Understanding adolescent health risk behaviour and socioeconomic position: A grounded theory study of UK young adults Sociology of Health & Illness (IF 2.317) Pub Date : 2021-02-26 Laura Tinner, Deborah Caldwell, Matthew Hickman, Rona Campbell
Health risk behaviours such as tobacco smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, drug use, unhealthy diet and unprotected sexual intercourse contribute to the global burden of non‐communicable diseases and are often initiated in adolescence. An individualistic focus on ‘health risk behaviours’ has resulted in behaviour change strategies that are potentially ineffective and increase inequalities. We conducted
-
Is the end in sight? A study of how and why services are decommissioned in the English National Health Service Sociology of Health & Illness (IF 2.317) Pub Date : 2021-02-26 Iestyn Williams, Jenny Harlock, Glenn Robert, John Kimberly, Russell Mannion
The decommissioning of a health‐care service is invariably a highly complex and contentious process which faces many implementation challenges. There has been little specific theorisation of this phenomena, although insights can be transferred from wider literatures on policy implementation and change processes. In this paper, we present findings from empirical case studies of three decommissioning
-
Between diagnostic precision and rapid decision‐making: Using institutional ethnography to explore diagnostic work in the context of Cancer Patient Pathways in Norway Sociology of Health & Illness (IF 2.317) Pub Date : 2021-02-26 Siri Christine K. Næss, Erna Håland
Alongside other Nordic countries, the Norwegian government has introduced Cancer Patient Pathways (CPPs) for faster diagnostic assessment and timely treatment to improve the quality of cancer care. A key aspect of CPPs is the introduction of time limits for each phase of the diagnostic investigation. Occurring simultaneously are ongoing advances in medical technology, complicating the process of diagnosing
-
The influence of caregiver's migration status on child's use of healthcare services: evidence from Ireland Sociology of Health & Illness (IF 2.317) Pub Date : 2021-02-26 Gretta Mohan
Large‐scale international migration continues apace. From a health‐care services perspective, it is important to understand the influence of migrant heritage on utilization, to allocate resources appropriately and facilitate equity. However, the differences in utilization across different migrant groups remain poorly understood, particularly so for paediatric populations. This paper contributes to
-
Peer conversation about substance (mis)use Sociology of Health & Illness (IF 2.317) Pub Date : 2021-02-26 Danielle Pillet‐Shore
What happens when a friend starts talking about her own substance use and misuse? This article provides the first investigation of how substance use is spontaneously topicalized in naturally occurring conversation. It presents a detailed analysis of a rare video‐recorded interaction showing American English‐speaking university students talking about their own substance (mis)use in a residential setting
-
Obligatory medical prescription of antibiotics in Russia: Navigating formal and informal health‐care infrastructures Sociology of Health & Illness (IF 2.317) Pub Date : 2021-02-26 Alena Kamenshchikova, Marina M. Fedotova, Olga S. Fedorova, Sergey V. Fedosenko, Petra F. G. Wolffs, Christian J. P. A. Hoebe, Klasien Horstman
Antimicrobial resistance control programmes often aim to “fix” the behaviour of antibiotic users and prescribers. Such behavioural interventions have been widely criticised in social science literature for being inefficient and too narrow in scope. Drawing on these criticisms, this article analyses how political programmes for fixing antibiotic behaviours were adapted into the practices of health‐care
-
Feeling Medicine: How the Pelvic Exam Shapes Medical Training Kelly Underman New York: NYU Press. 2021. 292 pp ISBN: 9781479893041 Sociology of Health & Illness (IF 2.317) Pub Date : 2021-02-22 Petra Mäkelä
A metal duckbill speculum, the tool commonly used for vaginal examination, confronts us on the cover of Feeling Medicine: How the Pelvic Exam Shapes Medical Training. The speculum, traditionally seen as an instrument of clinical authority and patient passivity, is put to work by Kelly Underman within this examination of ‘emotional socialization in medical education’ (p. 203). In six chapters, Underman
-
S. Fullagar | W. O'Brien | A. Pavlidis Feminism and a Vital Politics of Depression and Recovery Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan. 2019. 58.84 Euro (ebk) 72.79 Euro (hardcover) (ebk) ISBN 978‐3‐030‐11626‐2 (hardcover) ISBN 978‐3‐030‐11625‐5 Sociology of Health & Illness (IF 2.317) Pub Date : 2021-02-20 Rosie Buckland
This excellent book draws on feminist thinking to trouble traditional understandings of mental health and mental ill health as bio‐psycho‐social constructs, to open up radically transformative possibilities. Rooted in original interviews undertaken with 80 diverse Australian women about their experiences of depression and recovery. It draws on a vast array of theoretical material to make its arguments
-
Gonzalez‐Santos, S.P.A Portrait of Assisted Reproduction in Mexico: Scientific, Political, and Cultural Interactions, London: Palgrave Macmillan. 2020. 316pp €74,89 (hbk) €53,49 (pbk) €58,84 (ebk) ISBN 978‐3‐030‐23041‐8 Sociology of Health & Illness (IF 2.317) Pub Date : 2020-12-06 Tiba Bonyad
‘The stories I tell in this book are about the people, the institutions, the ideas, the policies, and the knowledge that, when assembled, make up the Mexican AR system. But these stories are also about Mexico, about its government, its inhabitants, and their stories’ (p. 15). A Portrait of Assisted Reproduction in Mexico offers a multi‐faceted history of the assisted reproduction (AR) system in Mexico
-
Moral barriers to HIV prevention and care for gay and bisexual men: Challenges in times of conservatism in Brazil Sociology of Health & Illness (IF 2.317) Pub Date : 2021-01-12 Luís Augusto Vasconcelos da Silva, Filipe Mateus Duarte, Laio Magno, Inês Dourado, Corinne Squire
This article examines narratives about promiscuity that are emphasized by some gay and bisexual men who are themselves living with HIV. We used semi‐structured interviews to assess the processes, outcomes, and meanings of HIV diagnosis among 10 young gay and bisexual men aged between 18 and 30 years old. Interviews were conducted in health service settings for the diagnosis and treatment of HIV and
-
A delicate balance between control and flexibility: Experiences of care and support among pre‐teenage children with type 1 diabetes and their families Sociology of Health & Illness (IF 2.317) Pub Date : 2020-12-18 Regitze Anne Saurbrey Pals, Imelda Coyne, Timothy Skinner, Dan Grabowski
For children with type 1 diabetes, the period of adolescence is associated with higher blood glucose levels and increased psychological distress compared to other age groups. Focusing on pre‐teens (9‐12 years) with type 1 diabetes and their families has been suggested as key to understanding and reducing these challenges. The aim of this study was to explore: 1, how diabetes affects family life, 2
-
Ehlers N., & Krupar S., Deadly Biocultures: The Ethics of Life‐Making. Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press. 2019. 242pp $108 (cloth) $27 (pbk) $15.99 (ebk) ISBN 978‐1‐5179‐0507‐1 Sociology of Health & Illness (IF 2.317) Pub Date : 2020-12-09 Kristie Serota
In Deadly Biocultures: The Ethics of Life‐Making (2019), Nadine Ehlers and Shiloh Krupar lead readers through an elegant and illuminating disassembling of the power and knowledge regimes that structure contemporary life in the United States. The authors’ clear explanation of Foucault’s theories and tangible real‐world examples makes this critical analysis of life under neoliberalism accessible to readers
-
From community of practice to epistemic community – law, discipline and security in the battle for the legalisation of medical cannabis in Poland Sociology of Health & Illness (IF 2.317) Pub Date : 2020-11-25 Aleksandra Wagner, Paulina Polak, Maria Świątkiewicz‐Mośny
Although public debates on cannabis are ongoing in many countries, there are currently no EU‐wide rules for either medical or recreational use of cannabis. Numerous studies have illustrated that creating such rules is a complex challenge. The battle over the legalisation of medical use of cannabis in Poland is a good example for analysing the mutual impact of the social practices that various actors
-
Community pharmacy and public health: preserving professionalism by extending the pharmacy gaze? Sociology of Health & Illness (IF 2.317) Pub Date : 2020-11-22 Karl Atkin, Mary Madden, Stephanie Morris, Brendan Gough, Jim McCambridge
Community pharmacy faces ongoing challenges to its economic and social standing. A concern to legitimate professional status explains the attraction of public health. Interventions currently advocated by UK State‐sponsored health care seek to reconcile the autonomous ‘entrepreneurial’ patient with market‐driven solutions. Engaging critically with recent Foucauldian sociological work on pharmacy as
-
Can HIV‐positive gay men become parents? How men living with HIV and HIV clinicians talk about the possibility of having children Sociology of Health & Illness (IF 2.317) Pub Date : 2020-11-22 Robert Pralat, Fiona Burns, Jane Anderson, Tristan J. Barber
It is now established that people living with HIV who have an undetectable viral load and adhere to antiretroviral treatment cannot transmit HIV to their sexual partners. Previous research has shown that ‘being undetectable’ changes how HIV‐positive gay men experience their sex lives. But how does it affect gay men’s reproductive behaviours? And what influence does it have on views about parenthood
-
The exchange and use of cultural and social capital among community health workers in the United States Sociology of Health & Illness (IF 2.317) Pub Date : 2020-11-19 Jarron M. Saint Onge, Joanna Veazey Brooks
Community health care workers (CHWs), lay community members with basic health care training, have been charged with providing appropriate care for vulnerable populations, addressing social determinants and improving population health. Frequently, CHWs lack the economic or cultural capital to accomplish these goals. Through analysis of 17 semi‐structured interviews with CHWs and supervisors at a CHW
-
MacKellar, C.Cyborg Mind: What Brain–Computer and Mind–Cyberspace Interfaces Mean for Cyberneuroethics. Berghahn Books. 2019. 262pp. $135.00/£99.00 Hb Published. ISBN 978‐1‐78920‐014‐0 Sociology of Health & Illness (IF 2.317) Pub Date : 2020-11-10 Juma Kasadha
Cyborg Mind is a comprehensive and authoritative book that discusses ethical and anthropological questions. It addresses key ethical and anthropological questions, challenges and implications that have arisen with respect to neuronal interface systems in both medical and nonmedical contexts. Furthermore, it addresses social, legal and philosophical implications of the use of new brain–computer interface
-
Overton B.C., Unintended Consequences of Electronic Medical Records: An Emergency Room Ethnography, London: Lexington Books. 2019. 280 pp. $95 (cloth) $90 (ebk) ISBN 978‐1498567459 Sociology of Health & Illness (IF 2.317) Pub Date : 2020-11-04 Marius Wamsiedel
The passage of the US Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act in 2009 and the financial incentives provided by the Meaningful Use (MU) program stimulated healthcare providers in the United States to adopt electronic health records (EHRs). The digital turn that followed changed dramatically and unexpectedly the organisation and delivery of health services. Drawing
-
Coronavirus (COVID‐19), pandemic psychology and the fractured society: a sociological case for critique, foresight and action Sociology of Health & Illness (IF 2.317) Pub Date : 2020-11-06 Lee F. Monaghan
In the wake of the COVID‐19 pandemic and mass lockdowns that continue to shake the world, sociologists of health and illness have been advised to undertake research only when the time feels right and to avoid premature evaluation. Such advice makes sense, especially amidst an epidemic of interpretation that has resulted in substandard work. However, this contribution argues that when trying to understand
-
Balogun O.M., Beauty Diplomacy. Embodying an Emerging Nation, Stanford: Stanford University Press. 2020. 304pp $90.00 (cloth) $28.00 (pbk) ISBN 978‐1‐50361097‐2 Sociology of Health & Illness (IF 2.317) Pub Date : 2020-11-04 Alena Sander
For wider audiences in the Global North, beauty pageants have mostly lost their appeal and are often made fun of. If taken seriously, they are reproached for being misogynistic, both objectifying women’s bodies and celebrating unrealistic beauty standards. In other parts of the world, however, beauty pageants are a popular, growing industry. This is the case for the Nigerian beauty pageant industry
-
Processing the pandemic Sociology of Health & Illness (IF 2.317) Pub Date : 2020-11-28 Catherine M. Will, Gillian Bendelow
The worldwide COVID‐19 crisis has highlighted perhaps more than ever before in the history of SHI the need for a critical sociological lens alongside the clinical, public health and organisational discussion of the current pandemic as it continues through 2020. In particular, debates around social inequalities in health and medicine have received new attention globally. A research note by one of us
-
COVID‐19, public health, and the politics of prevention Sociology of Health & Illness (IF 2.317) Pub Date : 2020-11-06 Eric Mykhalovskiy, Martin French
Introduction If the global HIV pandemic and more localised outbreaks of SARS, Ebola and the Zika virus, among others, did not convince us that infectious diseases have been far from conquered, then COVID‐19 must certainly have done so. In the past few months, questions about the global coronavirus pandemic – its cause, distribution, health and social impacts, and how best to limit its reach through
-
Comparing West Nile Virus and COVID‐19 Sociology of Health & Illness (IF 2.317) Pub Date : 2020-11-06 Kristoffer Whitney, Sabrina McCormick
In 2013, we wrote a Sociology of Health & Illness article as part of a special issue on ‘Pandemics and Emerging Infectious Diseases.’ We focused on the first U.S. occurrence of West Nile Virus (WNV) – the 1999 outbreak in New York City – and used the disease as a case study in the creation of Public Health Emergencies by governments, to understand both their immediate effects and long‐term consequences
-
Essentially invisible: risk and personal support workers in the time of COVID‐19 Sociology of Health & Illness (IF 2.317) Pub Date : 2020-11-06 Kate Rossiter, Rebecca Godderis
Introduction This commentary examines the intrinsic social dilemmas that present themselves in the face of pandemics and pandemic planning that are often highlighted through differential patterns of risk across a population. Specifically, we focus on the invisibility of what has become an essential labour force in many healthcare systems around the globe – personal support workers (PSWs). This article
-
Health inequalities, fundamental causes and power: towards the practice of good theory Sociology of Health & Illness (IF 2.317) Pub Date : 2020-11-22 Gerry McCartney, Elinor Dickie, Oliver Escobar, Chik Collins
Reducing health inequalities remains a challenge for policy makers across the world. Beginning from Lewin’s famous dictum that “there is nothing as practical as a good theory”, this paper begins from an appreciative discussion of ‘fundamental cause theory’, emphasizing the elegance of its theoretical encapsulation of the challenge, the relevance of its critical focus for action, and its potential to
-
Kroløkke C. Global Fluids: The Cultural Politics of Reproductive Waste and Value. New York/Oxford: Berghahn Books. 2018. 206 pp. $120/£89.00 (cloth), $29.95 (ebk) ISBN: 978‐1‐78533‐892‐2 Sociology of Health & Illness (IF 2.317) Pub Date : 2020-11-20 Diane Tober
Scholarship on the commodification of the body investigates how extractable materials – including cells, organs, and other substances – intersect with economic precarity, perceptions of value, and the intersections between scientific and technological advances and shifting cultural ethical and moral systems. Gender, sexuality, race, class and privilege, of course, lie at the root of these debates.
-
How men step back – and recover – from suicide attempts: A relational and gendered account Sociology of Health & Illness (IF 2.317) Pub Date : 2020-11-05 Damien Ridge, Hannah Smith, Alison Fixsen, Alex Broom, John Oliffe
Men account for three‐quarters of suicide deaths in the UK, yet we know little about how at‐risk men construct their experiences of moving towards – and then subsequently stepping back from – suicide, nor the part played by relational factors therein. An inductive thematic analysis was used to examine narrative interviews with eleven UK men who self‐reported serious thoughts, plans and up‐to and including
-
Fertility and digital technology: narratives of using smartphone app ‘Natural Cycles’ while trying to conceive Sociology of Health & Illness (IF 2.317) Pub Date : 2020-11-04 Pippa Grenfell, Nerissa Tilouche, Jill Shawe, Rebecca S. French
Fertility awareness apps, which help to identify the ‘fertile window’ when conception is most likely, have been hailed as ‘revolutionising’ women’s reproductive health. Despite rapidly growing popularity, little research has explored how people use these apps when trying to conceive and what these apps mean to them. We draw on in‐depth, qualitative interviews, adopting a critical digital health studies