Photovoice in mental illness research: A review and recommendations
In the past few decades, photovoice research has gained prominence, providing context rich insights through participants’ photographs and narratives. Emergent within the field of photovoice research have been health studies embracing diverse illness issues. The goal of this scoping review article was to describe the use of photovoice in mental illness, paying particular attention to the following: (1) the study design and methods, (2) empirical findings, and (3) dissemination strategies. Nine qualitative studies (seven drawing from primary and two secondary analyses) featuring diverse approaches to analysis of data c...
Source: Health: - February 24, 2016 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Han, C. S., Oliffe, J. L. Tags: Articles Source Type: research
Down syndrome screening information in midwifery practices in the Netherlands: Strategies to integrate biomedical information
The aim of this qualitative study was to analyse counselling with regard to prenatal screening in midwifery consultations in the Netherlands where a national prenatal screening programme has only existed since 2007, after years of social and political debates. The methodology is based on in situ observations of 25 counselling consultations in four midwifery practices in two main cities in the Netherlands. The results of this study show that, since midwives are obliged to offer information on Down syndrome screening to all pregnant women (2007), they have to deal with the communication of medical screening information using...
Source: Health: - February 24, 2016 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Rosman, S. Tags: Articles Source Type: research
Lay knowledge, social movements and the use of medicines: Personal reflections
This article consists of two personal reflections about the changing status of lay knowledge over the last 20 years. The first reflection is by Nicky Britten from the perspective of a sociologist working in medical schools whose interest in this topic was motivated by my own personal experience of health care and of teaching general practitioners. Starting with the problematic deficit model of ‘ignorant patients’, I trace the literature on patient-centredness, shared decision-making, lay knowledge, public involvement in research and social movements. Looking at medicines use in particular, I deplore the continu...
Source: Health: - February 24, 2016 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Britten, N., Maguire, K. Tags: Articles Source Type: research
Health sociology from post-structuralism to the new materialisms
The article reviews the impact of post-structuralism and postmodern social theory upon health sociology during the past 20 years. It then addresses the emergence of new materialist perspectives, which to an extent build upon insights of post-structuralist concerning power, but mark a turn away from a textual or linguistic focus to address the range of materialities that affect health, illness and health care. I conclude by assessing the impact of these movements for health sociology. (Source: Health:)
Source: Health: - January 4, 2016 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Fox, N. J. Tags: Articles Source Type: research
Towards critical digital health studies: Reflections on two decades of research in health and the way forward
In this article, I provide some reflections on critical digital health research in the context of Health’s 20th anniversary. I begin by outlining the various iterations of digital technologies that have occurred since the early 1990s – from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0 to Web 3.0. I then review the research that has been published on the topic of digital health in this journal over the past two decades and make some suggestions for the types of directions and theoretical perspectives that further sociocultural and political research could tackle. My concluding comments identify four main areas for further research: (1) d...
Source: Health: - January 4, 2016 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Lupton, D. Tags: Articles Source Type: research
Gene worlds
Drawing from a critical sociology of knowledge perspective, we situate the production of genetic information within relevant political, financial, and professional contexts. We consider as well the broad range of social conditions that render genetic knowledge salient in clinical settings and for population health. This sociological analysis of genetic knowledge highlights how genetic knowledge flourishes and shapes social environments and how in turn environments select for particular forms of genetic knowledge. We examine the role of the laboratory, regulatory state, and social movements in the production of genetic know...
Source: Health: - January 4, 2016 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Timmermans, S., Shostak, S. Tags: Articles Source Type: research
Illness and the Internet: From Private to Public Experience
Illness is a ubiquitous experience in all societies. Until the past two decades, illness remained largely a private experience. With the development of the Internet, especially what has been termed Web 2.0, with interactive websites, illness has become increasingly a public experience. Vehicles like bulletin boards, chat rooms, listservs, electronic support groups, and more recently social media facilitate thousands of online communities where individuals with illness share information, interaction, experience, and advocacy. With the advent of social media, communication has increased and brought new challenges for online ...
Source: Health: - January 4, 2016 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Conrad, P., Bandini, J., Vasquez, A. Tags: Articles Source Type: research
From sick role to narrative subject: An analytic memoir
Questions of illness experience and identity are discussed, based on the analysis of a story told by the breast-cancer activist Audre Lorde. Displacing Parsons’ conceptualization of illness as a sick role, I understand the ill person as a narrative subject, defined by discursive possibilities. Three discourses of illness are proposed: the medical institutional discourse, the discourse of illness experience, and the pink-ribbon discourse. Each has its preferred narratives. These discourses overlap and mutually affect each other. Problems with the Foucauldian conceptualization of the subject are considered, and a dialo...
Source: Health: - January 4, 2016 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Frank, A. W. Tags: Articles Source Type: research
A personal reflection on health: 20 years on
This article looks back to the origins of health: from the perspective of its Founding Editor. Reviewing the journal’s original statement of aims, the terms ‘refraction’ and ‘moment’ are selected to provide a brief discussion of health and illness as defining the journal’s continuing focus. (Source: Health:)
Source: Health: - January 4, 2016 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Radley, A. Tags: Articles Source Type: research
Editorial: Special issue 20 years of health
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Source: Health: - January 4, 2016 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Traynor, M. Tags: Editorial Source Type: research
Gatekeeping access to the midwifery unit: Managing complaints by bending the rules
While poor communication between service users and front-line staff causes many service user complaints in the British National Health Service, staff rarely reflect on the causes of these complaints. We discuss findings from an action research project with midwives which suggest that the midwives struggled to fully understand complaints from women, their partners and families particularly about restricted visiting and the locked door to the midwifery unit. They responded to individual requests to visit out of hours while maintaining the general policy of restricted visiting. In this way, the door was a gatekeeping device w...
Source: Health: - November 2, 2015 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Allan, H. T., Odelius, A., Hunter, B. J., Bryan, K., Knibb, W., Shawe, J. Tags: Articles Source Type: research
Care pathways as boundary objects between primary and secondary care: Experiences from Norwegian home care services
The need for integration of healthcare services and collaboration across organisational boundaries is highlighted as a major challenge within healthcare in many countries. Care pathways are often presented as a solution to this challenge. In this article, we study a project of developing, introducing and using a care pathway across healthcare levels focusing on older home-dwelling patients in need of home care services after hospital discharge. In so doing, we use the concept of boundary object, as described by Star and Griesemer, to explore how care pathways can act as tools for translation between specialist healthcare s...
Source: Health: - November 2, 2015 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Haland, E., Rosstad, T., Osmundsen, T. C. Tags: Articles Source Type: research
The shield of professional status: Comparing internationally educated nurses' and international medical graduates' experiences of discrimination
This article examines the intersecting roles of gender, ethnicity, and professional status in shaping the experiences of internationally educated health professionals in Canada. The article is based on 140 semi-structured qualitative interviews with internationally trained nurses and physicians who came to Canada within past 10 years with the intention to practice their profession. Describing the challenging process of professional integration in Canada, our participants highlighted incidents of discrimination they experienced along the way. Although some of the participants from both professional groups experienced racial...
Source: Health: - November 2, 2015 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Neiterman, E., Bourgeault, I. L. Tags: Articles Source Type: research
World Health Organization and disease surveillance: Jeopardizing global public health?
Health issues now evolve in a global context. Real-time global surveillance, global disease mapping and global risk management characterize what have been termed ‘global public health’. It has generated many programmes and policies, notably through the work of the World Health Organization. This globalized form of public health raises, however, some important issues left unchallenged, including its effectiveness, objectivity and legitimacy. The general objective of this article is to underline the impacts of WHO disease surveillance on the practice and theorization of global public health. By using the surveill...
Source: Health: - November 2, 2015 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Blouin Genest, G. Tags: Articles Source Type: research
Heart transplants: Identity disruption, bodily integrity and interconnectedness
Of heart transplant recipients, 30 per cent report ongoing or episodic emotional issues post-transplant, which are not attributable to medications or pathophysiological changes. To this end, our team theorized that cardiac transplantation introduces pressing new questions about how patients incorporate a transplanted heart into their sense of self and how this impacts their identity. The work of Merleau-Ponty provided the theoretical underpinning for this project as it rationalizes how corporeal changes affect one’s self and offer an innovative framework to access these complex aspects of living with a transplanted h...
Source: Health: - November 2, 2015 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Mauthner, O. E., De Luca, E., Poole, J. M., Abbey, S. E., Shildrick, M., Gewarges, M., Ross, H. J. Tags: Articles Source Type: research
