Social Science [?] Medicine (SOC SCI MED)

Publications in this journal

• Article: Health consumption as work: The home pregnancy test as a domesticated health tool

  Childerhose, MacDonald
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  ABSTRACT: A growing array of biomedical goods and services has become central to the North American experience of navigating illness and pursuing good health. Yet despite the utility of consumption as an analytical framework within the social sciences, the selection, purchase, and use of biomedical goods and services has been understudied. By using the home pregnancy test as a case study, we suggest new approaches to thinking about the consumption of these goods and services. We chose the home pregnancy test because it is the best-known example of a mass-produced diagnostic tool used by consumers. We draw on two sources of data for this qualitative analysis: a set of stories submitted between 2003 and 2005 by women and men to an online exhibit mounted by the National Institutes of Health called “A Thin Blue Line: The History of the Pregnancy Test Kit,” which we anlaysed between 2006 and 2007; and web sampling conducted in 2009 and 2010 of personal web and video logs of women and men who have posted stories and opinions about their experiences with contemporary home pregnancy testing products. We adapt the term “domestication” from Science and Technology Studies scholarship to describe the movement of diagnostic devices into homes for use by consumers. Specifically, we propose that the consumption of domesticated biomedical devices, goods, and services should be theorized as work performed by consumers, in two senses: as a form of tool use that allows non-experts to produce diagnostic knowledge about their own bodies and health; and as the ongoing biopolitical work that is expected of citizens to produce healthy bodies. Our paper draws attention to these understudied phenomena, while suggesting new approaches to theorizing the social and cultural elements of goods and services for health.
  Social Science [?] Medicine 06/2013; 86:1-8.
• Article: Social capital and depressive symptoms: The association of psychosocial and network dimensions of social capital with depressive symptoms in Montreal, Canada

  Emma Bassett, Spencer Moore
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  ABSTRACT: Depression is the most common mental illness worldwide, and although aspects of the social environment, including social capital, have been linked to depression, the underlying mechanisms are not well understood. In this study, we assessed whether (1) network and psychosocial dimensions of individual social capital were each associated with depressive symptoms, and (2) the association varied according to the location of the capital, i.e., outside or inside a person's neighbourhood. The current study used data from the Montreal Neighbourhood Networks and Healthy Ageing Study (MoNNET-HA). MoNNET-HA consisted of a representative sample of 2707 adults from 300 census tracts in the Montreal Metropolitan Area. The CESD-10 instrument was used to assess the presence of depressive symptoms with a cut off of more than three symptoms used to indicate depressive symptomatology. Name and position generator instruments were used to assess the existence of a core tie, core tie diversity, and network social capital both inside and outside the neighbourhood. Questions on generalized trust, trust in neighbours, and neighbourhood cohesion were used to assess psychosocial dimensions of social capital inside and outside the neighbourhood. Community and general group participation were also included as structural dimensions of social capital. Analyses adjusted for a range of socio-demographic and economic characteristics. Results from multilevel logistic regressions indicated that the core tie diversity as well as the psychosocial dimensions of generalized trust, trust in neighbours, and perceptions of neighbourhood cohesion reduced the likelihood of depressive symptoms in urban-dwelling adults. Network and psychosocial components of social capital within neighbourhood contexts should be considered when examining social capital and depressive symptoms.
  Social Science [?] Medicine 06/2013; 86:96-102.
• Article: Criminal victimization and health: examining the relation in nine countries of the former Soviet Union

  Stickely A, Koyanagi A, Roberts B, Rotman D, McKee M
  Social Science [?] Medicine 05/2013; accepted.
• Article: Accumulated occupational class and self-rated health. Can information on previous experience of class further our understanding of the social gradient in health?

  Sara Kjellsson
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  ABSTRACT: Previous research has shown a social gradient in health with better health for people in more advantaged positions in society. This research has mainly been on the relationship between current position and health, or social position in childhood and health, but less is known about the potential accumulative impact of positions held in adulthood. In this paper I use the economic activity histories from the Swedish Level of Living survey to examine the relationship between accumulated occupational class positions and health. Step-wise linear probability models are used to investigate how to best capture the potential association between class experience and self-rated health (SRH), and whether the effect of current class is modified when measures of accumulated class are included. I then further test the potentially lasting association between previous exposure to the health risk of working class by analysing only individuals currently in higher or intermediate level service class; the classes under least exposure. I find a positive association between accumulated experiences of working class and less than good SRH. Furthermore, even for employees currently in non-manual positions the risk for less than good SRH increases with each added year of previous experience within working class. This suggests that the social gradient can be both accumulative and lasting, and that more information on the mechanisms of health disparities can be found by taking detailed information on peoples' pasts into account. Although gender differences in health are not a focus in this paper, results also indicate that the influence of class experiences on health might differ between men and women.
  Social Science [?] Medicine 03/2013; 81.
• Article: Time allocation of disabled individuals

  Ricardo Pagan
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  ABSTRACT: Although some studies have analysed the disability phenomenon and its effect on, for example, labour force participation, wages, job satisfaction, or the use of disability pension, the empirical evidence on how disability steals time (e.g. hours of work) from individuals is very scarce. This article examines how disabled individuals allocate their time to daily activities as compared to their non-disabled counterparts.Using time diary information from the Spanish Time Use Survey (last quarter of 2002 and the first three quarters of 2003), we estimate the determinants of time (minutes per day) spent on four aggregate categories (market work, household production, tertiary activities and leisure) for a sample of 27,687 non-disabled and 5250 disabled individuals and decompose the observed time differential by using the Oaxaca-Blinder methodology. The results show that disabled individuals devote less time to market work (especially females), and more time to household production (e.g. cooking, cleaning, child care), tertiary activities (e.g. sleeping, personal care, medical treatment) and leisure activities. We also find a significant effect of age on the time spent on daily activities and important differences by gender and disability status. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that disability steals time, and reiterate the fact that more public policies are needed to balance working life and health concerns among disabled individuals.
  Social Science [?] Medicine 02/2013;
• Article: Is travel-time to a specialist centre a risk factor for non-referral, nonattendance and loss to follow-up among patients with hepatitis C (HCV) infection?

  Thomas Astell-Burt, Robin Flowerdew, Paul J Boyle, John F Dillon
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  ABSTRACT: Little is known about why many people diagnosed with hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection fail to reach and stay within specialist care services. We used a Geographic Information System and logit regression to investigate whether travel-time to a specialist centre was associated with an increased likelihood of non-referral, non-attendance and loss to follow-up among persons diagnosed with HCV between 1991 and 2003 in Tayside, Scotland (UK). Information was available on referral to, and utilisation of, the single HCV specialist centre in Tayside between 1991 and 2006. Longer travel-time to a specialist centre was associated with an increased likelihood of non-referral to a specialist centre following diagnosis (Odds Ratio: 1.25, 95% Confidence Interval: 1.09, 1.44). Patients living further from an HCV specialist centre were less likely to be referred to it for treatment that could cure their HCV infection. Neither a history of intravenous drug use (IDU), nor area deprivation predicted non-referral. Subsequent to referral, travel-time to a specialist centre was not associated with either non-attendance (0.83 (0.56, 1.21)) or loss to follow-up (0.98 (0.78, 1.22)), although a history of IDU was a strong predictor of both non-attendance and loss to follow-up. Non-attendance was less likely among older patients, while loss to follow-up was more common among those living in deprived areas. Once referred, patients appear able to cope with stress and financial cost of long and frequent journeys to hospital. However, as rates of referral improve from more geographically remote areas, long travel-times to an HCV specialist centre may become an important factor determining future utilisation.
  Social Science [?] Medicine 05/2012; In press.
• Article: Embedded gender and social changes underpinning ineauqlities in health: An ethno graphic insight into a local Spanish context

  Mar García-Calvente, Jorge MarcosMarcos, María del Río Lozano, Natalia Hidalgo-Ruzzante, Gracia Maroto-Navarro
  Social Science [?] Medicine 01/2012;
• Article: 1. Indoor air pollution due to cooking with biomass is associated with depletion of platelet serotonin and depression among premenopausal women in rural India

  M Banerjee, S Siddique, A Dutta, B Mukherjee, MR Ray
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  ABSTRACT: Cooking with biomass fuel, a common practice in rural India, is associated with a high level of indoor air pollution (IAP). The aim of this study was to investigate whether IAP from biomass burning increases the risk of depression. For this cross-sectional study, we enrolled a group of 952 women (median age 37 years) who cooked regularly with biomass and a control group of 804 age-matched women who cooked with cleaner fuel (liquefied petroleum gas). Depression was assessed using the second edition of Beck’s depression inventory (BDI-II). Platelet P-selectin expression was assessed by flow cytometry and platelet serotonin was measured by ELISA. Particulate matter having diameter of less than 10 and 2.5 mm (PM10 and PM2.5, respectively) in indoor air was measured by real-time aerosol monitor. Carbon monoxide (CO) in exhaled breath was measured by CO monitor. Compared with the control group, women who cooked with biomass had a higher prevalence of depression and depleted platelet serotonin, suggesting altered serotonergic activity in the brain. In addition, P-selectin expression on platelet surface was up-regulated implying platelet hyperactivity and consequent risk of cardiovascular disease. Biomass-using households had increased levels of PM10 and PM2.5, and biomass users had elevated levels of CO in expired air. Controlling potential confounders, cooking with biomass was found to be an independent and strong risk factor for depression. IAP from cooking with biomass is a risk for depression among rural women in their child-bearing age.
  Social Science [?] Medicine 01/2012;
• Article: Building institutions for an effective health system: Lessons from China’s experience with rural health reform

  Gerald Bloom
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  ABSTRACT: This paper is concerned with the management of health system changes aimed at substantially increasing access to safe and effective health services. It argues that an effective health sector relies on trust-based relationships between users, providers and funders of health services, and that one of the major challenges governments face is to construct institutional arrangements within which these relationships can be embedded. It presents the case of China, which is implementing an ambitious health reform, drawing on a series of visits to rural counties by the author over a ten year period. It illustrates how the development of reform strategies has been both a response to the challenges arising from the transition to a market economy and the result of actions by different actors, which have led to the gradual creation of increasingly complex institutions. The overall direction of change has been strongly influenced by the efforts by the political leadership to manage a transition to a modern economy which provides universal access to basic benefits. The paper concludes that the key lessons for other countries from China’s experience with health system reform are less about the detailed design of specific interventions than about its approach to the management of institution-building in a context of complexity and rapid change.
  Social Science [?] Medicine 01/2011; 72(8):1302-1309.
• Article: An idealist vision of specialist palliative care: A response to the commentary by Selman, Beattie, Murtagh and Higginson.

  Sangeeta Chattoo, Karl M Atkin
  Social Science [?] Medicine 06/2009;
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  Article: The U-shape without controls: A response to Glenn.

  David G. Blanchflower, Andrew J. Oswald
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  ABSTRACT: This paper is a continuation of results reported in our article "Is well-being U-shaped over the life cycle?" (Blanchflower & Oswald, 2008). It provides new evidence that well-being follows a curve through life. We use data on half a million randomly sampled individuals across eight major European nations. Importantly, we show that in this set of countries there is a U-shape even in unadjusted data, that is, without the inclusion of control variables. But we also advise against a focus on elementary bivariate associations.
  Social Science [?] Medicine 06/2009;
• Article: Combining education and video-based contact to reduce stigma of mental illness: "The Same or Not the Same" anti-stigma program for secondary schools in Hong Kong.

  Jenny Y N Chan, Winnie W S Mak, Lawrence S C Law
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  ABSTRACT: This study examined the effects of three versions of school-based stigma reduction programs against mental illness - education, education followed by video-based contact (education-video), and video-based contact followed by education (video-education). The participants, 255 students from three secondary schools in Hong Kong, completed measures of stigmatizing attitudes (Public Stigma Scale), social distance (Social Distance Scale), and knowledge about schizophrenia (Knowledge Test) at pre-test, post-test, and 1-month follow-up. Results suggested that adding video-based contact to education could significantly improve program effectiveness only when video-based contact was presented after but not prior to education. In comparison with the education condition, the education-video condition showed larger improvements in stigmatizing attitudes at post-test, in social distance at both post-test and follow-up, and in knowledge at follow-up. However, such differences were not observed when the education condition was compared with the video-education condition. Implications of these findings for future research are discussed.
  Social Science [?] Medicine 05/2009; 68(8):1521-6.
• Article: Social determinants of child and adolescent traffic-related and intentional injuries: a multilevel study in Stockholm County.

  Lucie Laflamme, Marie Hasselberg, Anne-Mari Reimers, Luciana Tricai Cavalini, Antonio Ponce de Leon
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  ABSTRACT: Several significant developmental and socialisation processes in the life of children and adolescents take place in the area where they live. The extent to which they can feel and be safe in this environment is an important component of the success of those processes. This study highlights the independent contribution of neighbourhood and individual-level demographic and socioeconomic attributes to child and adolescent injuries. All individuals between the ages of 7 and 16 years living in Stockholm County in January 1998 (n=184 545) were followed up for their injuries during a five-year period considering injuries sustained as a pedestrian/cyclist/motor-vehicle rider and intentional injuries (violence-related and self-inflicted). A series of two-level logistic regressions were conducted to examine the association between the occurrence of injuries and individual (compositional) characteristics nested into parish of residence as well as contextual characteristics. For children and adolescents living in Stockholm County, contextual socioeconomic and social attributes of their place of residence were significant for injuries sustained as motor-vehicle riders but not for those sustained as pedestrians/cyclists or those inflicted intentionally. In the latter case, only the highest concentration of social benefit recipients was associated with significantly higher odds ratios. This emphasises that each injury mechanism has its own socioeconomic and social pathway, where contextual and compositional factors come into play to varying degrees.
  Social Science [?] Medicine 05/2009; 68(10):1826-34.