Sociology of Health and Illness via MedWorm.com MedWorm.com provides a medical RSS filtering service. Over 6000 RSS medical sources are combined and output via different filters. This feed contains the latest items from the 'Sociology of Health and Illness' source. Thu, 09 Feb 2012 07:36:07 +0100 My health and theirs: clients constructing meanings for a health service programme for unemployed people http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5633463&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01429.x This study examined how unemployed people position themselves with regard to a new health service which was set up as part of an institutional strategy for delivering and enabling their access to health care. Positioning theory was used as a methodological framework to analyse participants’ responses to the novel health service. The focus was on two main issues: the way clients’ positions are established through discourse, and the range of factors that come into play in determining those positions. The analysis revealed six positions unemployed people use when encountering the studied service: the docile citizen, the rebel, the socially responsible citizen, the distinctive individual, the independent actor and the calculating client. These positions and associated discourses display th... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5633463 Thu, 26 Jan 2012 05:00:00 +0100 5633463 Managerial reforms and specialised psychiatric care: a study of resistive practices performed by mental health practitioners http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5633462&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01439.x In conclusion it is suggested that managerial reforms in psychiatric care can only be implemented successfully if frontline practitioners themselves modify and translate them into clinical practice. The reconciliation between this task and practitioners’ therapeutic orientation is proposed for further study. (Source: Sociology of Health and Illness) Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5633462 Thu, 26 Jan 2012 05:00:00 +0100 5633462 Weight stigma, addiction, science, and the medication of fatness in mid‐twentieth century America http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5633461&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01444.x AbstractObesity and overweight are today recognised as subject to harmful stigma. Through an analysis of discussions of obesity in major American newspapers, the medical literature, and pharmaceutical advertising in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, I document a significant shift in medical thinking about overweight and obesity based in psychiatry, and explore the relationship of that shift to changes in popular understandings of fatness after the Second World War. I argue that the psychiatrically‐oriented postwar medical thinking about obesity was more stigmatising as compared with the endocrinologically‐oriented thinking of the interwar period, in that the newer biomedical theory linked fatness to the already stigmatised condition of addiction and authorised attribution of moral blame to t... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5633461 Thu, 26 Jan 2012 05:00:00 +0100 5633461 Stigma in an era of medicalisation and anxious parenting: how proximity and culpability shape middle‐class parents’ experiences of disgrace http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5633460&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01445.x This study examines the stigma experiences of middle‐class parents whose children have physical, psychological and behavioural problems. Qualitative interviews with 34 mothers and 21 fathers demonstrate that parents experience two types of stigma: courtesy stigma and the stigma of being a bad parent. While the former stems from close social proximity to stigmatised children, the latter stems from ostensible culpability for children’s problems. Both characteristics are social constructs embedded in the larger contexts of an anxious, intensive parenting culture and the problematisation and medicalisation of childhood. As a consequence, mothers, parents whose children have invisible disabilities, and the parents of young children are particularly susceptible to negative labelling. These f... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5633460 Thu, 26 Jan 2012 05:00:00 +0100 5633460 Representing and intervening: ‘doing’ good care in first trimester prenatal knowledge production and decision‐making http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5614745&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01414.x This article investigates processes of knowledge production and decision‐making in the practice of the first trimester prenatal risk assessment (FTPRA) at an ultrasound clinic in Denmark. On the basis of ethnographic material and interviews with professionals facilitating FTPRAs in Denmark, we draw attention to the active engagement of health professionals in this process. Current professional and policy debate over the use of prenatal testing emphasises the need for informed choice making and for services that provide prospective parents with what is referred to as ‘non‐directive counselling’. Studies focusing on professional practice of prenatal counselling tend to deal mainly with how professionals fail to live up to such ideals in practice. In this article we extend such studie... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5614745 Wed, 18 Jan 2012 05:00:00 +0100 5614745 Sex and the community: the implications of neighbourhoods and social networks for sexual risk behaviours among urban gay men http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5633459&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01446.x AbstractGay neighbourhoods have historically served as vital places for gay socialising, and gay social networks are important sources of social support. Yet, few studies have examined the influence of these forms of community on sexual health. Informed by theoretical frameworks on neighbourhoods and networks, we employ multi‐level modelling to test hypotheses concerning whether gay neighbourhoods and social network factors are associated with five sexual risk behaviours: receptive and insertive unprotected anal intercourse (UAI), barebacking identity, recent internet use for finding sexual partners, and ‘Party and Play’ (PnP). Our analyses of a community‐based sample of gay men in New York City reveal little evidence for the direct effect of gay enclaves on sexual risk with the ex... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5633459 Sun, 01 Jan 2012 05:00:00 +0100 5633459 Letting Stories Breathe: A Socio‐narratology http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5623433&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01452.x (Source: Sociology of Health and Illness) Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5623433 Sun, 01 Jan 2012 05:00:00 +0100 5623433 Patient and Provider Interaction http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5623432&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01450.x (Source: Sociology of Health and Illness) Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5623432 Sun, 01 Jan 2012 05:00:00 +0100 5623432 Putting a Name to it: Diagnosis in Contemporary Society http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5623431&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01443.x (Source: Sociology of Health and Illness) Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5623431 Sun, 01 Jan 2012 05:00:00 +0100 5623431 Biomedicalization: Technoscience, Health, and Illness in the U.S http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5623430&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01442.x (Source: Sociology of Health and Illness) Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5623430 Sun, 01 Jan 2012 05:00:00 +0100 5623430 Pretty Modern: Beauty, Sex and Plastic Surgery in Brazil http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5623429&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01451.x (Source: Sociology of Health and Illness) Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5623429 Sun, 01 Jan 2012 05:00:00 +0100 5623429 ‘Between the devil and deep …’ : a response to Cockerham and Coburn http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5623428&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01422.x (Source: Sociology of Health and Illness) Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5623428 Sun, 01 Jan 2012 05:00:00 +0100 5623428 Health inequalities: a response to Scambler http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5490858&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01423.x (Source: Sociology of Health and Illness) Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5490858 Thu, 08 Dec 2011 05:00:00 +0100 5490858 Blind spots and adverse conditions of care: screening migrants for tuberculosis in France and Germany http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5490857&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01415.x AbstractTuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease that declined significantly throughout the 20th century. Large‐scale TB screening of entire populations in France and Germany has thus been replaced by active screening of risk‐groups, particularly migrants. The article engages with its problems and practices on three levels: by looking at the way information on migrants as an at‐risk group is produced through disease surveillance data; by analysing how such at‐risk group data influence local screening practices; and by showing which political and medical problems arise in the field. I overturn the discussion about screening and surveillance of migrants as a risk‐group by showing that it is not the stigmatisation of migrants through disease risk that is most at stake, but the inv... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5490857 Thu, 08 Dec 2011 05:00:00 +0100 5490857 A hole in our thinking: a response to Scambler’s ‘Health inequalities’ http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5490856&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01426.x (Source: Sociology of Health and Illness) Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5490856 Thu, 08 Dec 2011 05:00:00 +0100 5490856 HIV‐related stigma and NGO‐isation in India: a historico‐empirical analysis http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5490855&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01428.x AbstractIn response to World Bank critiques in 2007, the Indian Ministry of Health and Family Welfare declared that human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)‐related stigma was a barrier to the participation of non‐governmental organisations (NGOs) in the implementation of HIV prevention targeted interventions. Taking a deeper view of HIV‐related stigma as a historically inflected process of devaluation, this article details the history and transformation of NGO involvement in the HIV epidemic from 1986 through economic liberalisation in the 1990s up to the Second National AIDS Control Programme (NACP II 1999–2006). It additionally examines findings from interviews and participant observation of NGO workers (N = 24) from four targeted intervention NGOs in Delhi funded under NACP II. A... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5490855 Thu, 08 Dec 2011 05:00:00 +0100 5490855 ‘Let the computer choose?’: the experience of participants in a randomised preference trial of medical versus surgical termination of pregnancy http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5445801&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01412.x Abstract  The termination of pregnancy trial (Newcastle upon Tyne, UK), is the only randomised trial on termination of pregnancy methods incorporating a qualitative element that aimed to understand the experiences of women participating in the trial. Based on the results of this qualitative work, this article aims to provide insights into two strands of understanding; firstly, women’s experience of participating in research about abortion and secondly, their experience of participating in a randomised preference trial. Semi‐structured interviews were conducted of up to 90 minutes with 30 participants recruited at a single hospital site. A total of 20 women from the preference arm and 10 from the random arm were interviewed. The analysis and discussion of our findings use reflexive mo... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5445801 Fri, 25 Nov 2011 05:00:00 +0100 5445801 Sex, price and preferences: accounting for unsafe sexual practices in prostitution markets http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5435715&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01400.x This study is the first to document empirically clients’ preference for intercourse without a condom, with the help of a multilevel ordinal regression. (Source: Sociology of Health and Illness) Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5435715 Mon, 21 Nov 2011 05:00:00 +0100 5435715 School‐performance indicators and subjective health complaints: are there gender differences? http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5435714&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01395.x AbstractAlthough boys and girls are generally located in the same physical school environment, it may be experienced differently by, and have varying implications for, boys and girls. Girls like school more and achieve higher school marks, but they also perceive more school‐related pressure. Based on a total sample of 8456 ninth grade pupils in Stockholm in 2004, this study uses multilevel linear regression to analyse differences between boys and girls with regard to a number of school‐performance indicators (demands, motivation, teacher support and school marks) and their association with subjective health complaints. Results showed that girls perceive more demands, show greater academic motivation, perform better in school and report more emotional support from teachers than boys. In... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5435714 Mon, 21 Nov 2011 05:00:00 +0100 5435714 Courtesy stigma: a hidden health concern among front‐line service providers to sex workers http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5435713&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01410.x This article presents results from a mixed methods study of the workplace experiences of a purposive sample of workers in a non‐profit organisation providing services to sex workers in Canada. The findings demonstrate that courtesy stigma plays a role in workplace health as it shapes both the workplace environment, including the range of resources made available to staff to carry out their work activities, as well as staff perceptions of others’ support. At the same time, it was evident that some workers were more vulnerable to courtesy stigma than others depending on their social location. We discuss these results in light of the existing literature on courtesy stigma and conclude that it is an under‐studied determinant of workplace health among care providers serving socially denig... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5435713 Mon, 21 Nov 2011 05:00:00 +0100 5435713 Who’s to blame? Accounts of genetic responsibility and blame among Ashkenazi Jewish women at risk of BRCA breast cancer http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5614744&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01427.x This article examines genetic responsibility among Ashkenazi Jewish women at increased risk of BRCA genetic breast cancer. It demonstrates the ways in which accounts of blame help to mitigate or allocate genetic responsibility and in particular focuses on the temporal nature of women’s accounts. Women locate responsibility or blame for genetic disease in the collective reproductive history of Ashkenazi Jews, currently among specific groups of Ashkenazi Jews, and this knowledge can have potential future reproductive consequences. A contradiction may arise between a pre‐existing sense of responsibility to produce future generations of Jews with that of producing future breast cancer free children. The research is based on in‐depth qualitative interviews with 14 high‐risk Ashkenazi Je... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5614744 Tue, 01 Nov 2011 04:00:00 +0100 5614744 Blogging for weight loss: personal accountability, writing selves, and the weight‐loss blogosphere http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5490854&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01435.x AbstractBody weight is a key concern in contemporary society, with large proportions of the population attempting to control their weight. However, losing weight and maintaining weight loss is notoriously difficult, and new strategies for weight loss attract significant interest. Writing about experiences of weight loss in online journals, or blogging, has recently expanded rapidly. Weight‐loss bloggers typically write about daily successes and failures, report calorie consumption and exercise output, and post photographs of their changing bodies. Many bloggers openly court the surveillance of blog readers as a motivation for accountability to their weight‐loss goals. Drawing from a sample of weight‐loss blogs authored by women, we explore three issues arising from this practice of d... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5490854 Tue, 01 Nov 2011 04:00:00 +0100 5490854 A molecular monopoly? HPV testing, the Pap smear and the molecularisation of cervical cancer screening in the USA http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5445800&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01411.x This article seeks to elucidate the process of molecularisation in the context of screening programmes. We illustrate how, although Pap has long been problematised and could be seen as a competing technological option, the existing networks and regime for Pap were important in supporting the entrenchment process for the artefacts, techniques and new diagnostics industry entrant, Digene, associated with the new test. The article provides insights into how the molecularisation of screening unfolds in a mainstream market. We reveal an incremental and accretive, rather than revolutionary, process led by new commercial interests in an era when diagnostic innovation is increasingly privatised. We show Digene’s reliance on patents, an international scientific network and their position as an ob... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5445800 Tue, 01 Nov 2011 04:00:00 +0100 5445800 ‘It burdens me: the impact of stroke in central Aceh, Indonesia http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5435712&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01431.x AbstractThe complex primary and secondary consequences of stroke have often been equated with the concept of biographical disruption, although a number of mediating factors have been identified. However, the research to date is almost exclusively based in western contexts, despite the fact that stroke is increasing most rapidly in low‐income and middle‐income countries. This research explores the experience of stroke in the rural community of central Aceh, Indonesia. The participants included 11 stroke survivors and 18 carers, with data collected through in‐depth interviews and photographic facilitated interviews, supported with participant observation over a nine month period. The participants discussed and illustrated the disruptive result of their stroke, but for most, their abili... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5435712 Tue, 01 Nov 2011 04:00:00 +0100 5435712 ‘Let’s have it tested first’: choice and circumstances in decision‐making following positive antenatal screening in Hong Kong http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5414798&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01425.x This study adds to existing literature in three ways. Firstly, in contrast to the existing body of interview‐based research, the study uses video recordings of actual consultations, in order to capture the interactional processes through which choice and constraints are established, negotiated and contested. Secondly, it explores the next stage in the process of antenatal screening, by focusing on women who are offered invasive diagnostic testing as a result of ‘high risk’ screening results, and who have been the subject of little research. Thirdly, the study site in Hong Kong provides a particularly interesting location, given limited research on antenatal screening in that part of the world, and Hong Kong’s cosmopolitan environment that is reflected in the diversity of client pop... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5414798 Tue, 01 Nov 2011 04:00:00 +0100 5414798 New Editors for SHI http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5371129&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01436.x (Source: Sociology of Health and Illness) Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5371129 Tue, 01 Nov 2011 04:00:00 +0100 5371129 Sociology of Health and Illness – New Writer’s Prize http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5371128&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01437.x (Source: Sociology of Health and Illness) Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5371128 Tue, 01 Nov 2011 04:00:00 +0100 5371128 Thanks to Reviewers – October 2010 to September 2011 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5371127&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01434.x (Source: Sociology of Health and Illness) Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5371127 Tue, 01 Nov 2011 04:00:00 +0100 5371127 Pink Ribbon Blues: How Breast Cancer Culture Undermines Women’s Health http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5371126&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01417.x (Source: Sociology of Health and Illness) Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5371126 Tue, 01 Nov 2011 04:00:00 +0100 5371126 Reproduction, Globalization, and the State: New Theoretical and Ethnographic Perspectives http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5371125&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01419.x (Source: Sociology of Health and Illness) Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5371125 Tue, 01 Nov 2011 04:00:00 +0100 5371125 Folk healing and health care practices in Britain and Ireland: Stethoscopes, wands and crystals http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5371124&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01418.x (Source: Sociology of Health and Illness) Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5371124 Tue, 01 Nov 2011 04:00:00 +0100 5371124 Medical Proofs, Social Experiments: Clinical Trials in Shifting Contexts http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5371122&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01416.x (Source: Sociology of Health and Illness) Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5371122 Tue, 01 Nov 2011 04:00:00 +0100 5371122 The Politics of Sleep: Governing (Un)consciousness in the Late Modern Age http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5371121&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01421.x (Source: Sociology of Health and Illness) Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5371121 Tue, 01 Nov 2011 04:00:00 +0100 5371121 Visualising difference, similarity and belonging in paediatric genetics http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5371113&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01388.x AbstractPaediatric genetics is increasingly playing a role in explorations of why a child may not be reaching developmental milestones, while experiencing various health concerns and displaying unusual physical characteristics. The diagnostic processes include close analyses of a child’s body in order to identify ‘clues’ to possible genetic variation. When the genetic variation identified is new and complex there is significant uncertainty about what relationship that variation has to childhood development and what it will mean for a child’s future. This paper, drawing from an ethnographic study of a genetics clinic, explores what versions of childhood difference and normality are produced by genetic explorations marked by uncertainty. The focus is on the significance of visual dyn... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5371113 Tue, 01 Nov 2011 04:00:00 +0100 5371113 Older and wiser? Men’s and women’s accounts of drinking in early mid‐life http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5481337&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01424.x AbstractMost qualitative research on alcohol focuses on younger rather than older adults. To explore older people’s relationship with alcohol, we conducted eight focus groups with 36 men and women aged 35 to 50 years in Scotland, UK. Initially, respondents suggested that older drinkers consume less alcohol, no longer drink to become drunk and are sociable drinkers more interested in the taste than the effects of alcohol. However, as discussions progressed, respondents collectively recounted recent drunken escapades, challenged accounts of moderate drinking, and suggested there was still peer pressure to drink. Some described how their drinking had increased in mid‐life but worked hard discursively to emphasise that it was age and stage appropriate (i.e. they still met their responsibil... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5481337 Fri, 28 Oct 2011 04:00:00 +0100 5481337 Parents of deaf children with cochlear implants: a study of technology and community http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5353252&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01401.x AbstractThe cochlear implant (CI) is increasingly used to treat deafness, despite arguments from the deaf community. Deaf children born to hearing parents are the fastest growing group of CI recipients, making parents the primary consumers. Instead of focusing on the controversy over implants, this article examines the clinical structures shaping parental decision‐making and how parents integrate clinical practices into family and community. Observations and in‐depth interviews were conducted in a CI clinic and at various community sites. The data reveal strong inter‐institutional co‐operations between the clinic, the state and local school districts. Working together, these institutions anticipate parental needs, foster a CI community and thus increase compliance. I conclude that ... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5353252 Tue, 25 Oct 2011 04:00:00 +0100 5353252 Introducing the electronic patient record (EPR) in a hospital setting: boundary work and shifting constructions of professional identities http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5353251&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01413.x AbstractToday’s healthcare sector is being transformed by several ongoing processes, among them the introduction of new technologies, new financial models and new ways of organising work. The introduction of the electronic patient record (EPR) is representative and part of these extensive changes. Based on interviews with health personnel and office staff in a regional hospital in Norway, and with health administrators and information technology service‐centre staff in the region, the article examines how the introduction of the EPR, as experienced by the participants, affects the work practices and boundaries between various professional groups in the healthcare system and discusses the implications this has for the understanding of medical practice. The article shows how the EPR has ... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5353251 Tue, 25 Oct 2011 04:00:00 +0100 5353251 Understanding depression through a ‘coming out’ framework http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5341439&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01409.x AbstractRecently, Scambler and others have broadened the research agenda on stigma to include the wider meanings of stigma within society, and especially the role of identity politics e.g. gay liberation. Recognising that the categories ‘homosexual’ and ‘depression’ were socially constructed and stigmatised from the 19th and 20th centuries respectively, we draw on themes in conceptual models of coming out as gay or lesbian to sensitise our analysis to personal experiences of depression and the specific ways in which the condition is constructed. Thirty‐eight narrative interviews with people in the UK in various stages of recovery from depression were analysed comparing themes to a ‘coming out’ framework. The applicability of coming out themes to understanding the construction... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5341439 Fri, 21 Oct 2011 04:00:00 +0100 5341439 Standardising antisocial personality disorder: the social shaping of a psychiatric technology http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5341438&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01404.x AbstractThe Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) is one of the most influential and controversial terminological standards ever produced. As such, it continues to provide a valuable case study for sociologists of health and illness. In this article I take as my focus one particular DSM category: antisocial personality disorder (ASPD). The analysis charts the shifting understandings of personality disorders associated with antisocial behaviour in the DSM and in US psychiatry more broadly from 1950 to the present day. Memos, letters and minutes produced by the DSM‐III committee and held in the American Psychiatric Association (APA) archives ground the discussion. Finally, the article explores more recent constructions of antisocial personality disorder and examines t... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5341438 Fri, 21 Oct 2011 04:00:00 +0100 5341438 Beyond beliefs: risk assessment technologies shaping patients’ experiences of heart disease prevention http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5341437&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01406.x AbstractSocial science research on lifestyle‐related diseases typically focuses on patients’ understandings and beliefs and takes the clinical risk for granted. We interviewed 30 healthy UK patients at high risk of heart disease, recruited from a family history trial at 2 weeks and 6 months after a discussion with a clinician about their risk, lifestyle and medications. The participants took four different paths: (i) pharmaceutical (most common, risk reduction with cholesterol lowering statins), (ii) mixed (statins and behaviour change), (iii) behavioural (behaviour change, focus on wellbeing) and (iv) ‘lost’ (no prevention, difficult social/personal circumstances). Drawing on Berg we argue that coronary heart disease (CHD) risk assessment technologies are formal tools that gen... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5341437 Fri, 21 Oct 2011 04:00:00 +0100 5341437 Health inequalities http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5244179&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01387.x AbstractThe evidence bearing on the nature and extent of health inequalities documented globally and in the UK is addressed, twin foci within the UK being (a) associations between socioeconomic classification and health and longevity, and (b) the notion of a ‘social gradient’. A consideration of the various ‘models’ that have been developed by sociologists and their allies – most conspicuously social epidemiologists – to account for (a) and (b) is offered, drawing on government‐sponsored commissions and reviews as well as the peer‐reviewed literature. This is followed by a portrayal of specifically sociological theories of health inequalities, featuring those that hold social structures as well as cultural shifts in convention and behaviour to be causally efficacious for he... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5244179 Mon, 19 Sep 2011 04:00:00 +0100 5244179 The impact of management on medical professionalism: a review http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5244178&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01393.x This article seeks to provide a comprehensive overview of the studies dealing with the impact of management on professional control. In particular, it seeks to bridge the diversity of assumptions, theoretical perspectives and conceptual underpinnings at play, by exploring synergies between them and opening up new horizons for research. The review shows how the relationship between clinicians and management has been analysed at an organisational level using two interconnected analytical frameworks focusing on the sociocultural and task‐related dimensions of professionalism. In the final discussion, we argue that comparative, longitudinal and cross‐sectional research is necessary, and there is a need to overcome the hegemony/resistance framework in current analyses of the impact of manag... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5244178 Mon, 19 Sep 2011 04:00:00 +0100 5244178 Egg donation for stem cell research: ideas of surplus and deficit in Australian IVF patients’ and reproductive donors’ accounts http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5244177&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01399.x We report on a study undertaken with an Australian in vitro fertilisation (IVF) clinic to understand IVF patients’ and reproductive donors’ perceptions of oocyte (egg) donation for stem cell research. Such perspectives are particularly valuable because IVF patients form a major recruitment group for oocyte donation for research, and because patients and donors have direct experience of the medical procedures involved. Similar studies of oocyte donation have been carried out elsewhere in the world, but to date very little social science research has been published that reports on donation for research, as distinct from donation for reproduction. Our respondents expressed a distinct unwillingness to donate viable oocytes for stem cell research. In our analysis we consider a number of fac... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5244177 Mon, 19 Sep 2011 04:00:00 +0100 5244177 Expanded newborn screening: articulating the ontology of diseases with bridging work in the clinic http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5244176&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01398.x AbstractPopulation screening follows the logic of secondary prevention: a population is screened to detect disease early and to initiate treatment before symptoms emerge. However, not all population screening is justifiable under all circumstances. In this article, we unpack Wilson and Jungner’s requirement that knowledge about the natural history of a disease must be ‘adequate’ for screening to proceed. We argue that any prior understanding of disease is inevitably found to be insufficient once population screening is instituted. Drawing upon ethnographic observations of clinical consultations and staff meetings conducted in a California regional clinical centre for metabolic‐genetic disorders, we introduce the notion of bridging work to draw attention to the collective activities... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5244176 Mon, 19 Sep 2011 04:00:00 +0100 5244176 Overcoming stigma: how young people position themselves as counselling service users http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5353250&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01430.x AbstractIncreasing attention has been focused on adolescent help‐seeking in relation to services aimed at promoting mental health and wellbeing. Much research reinforces the ubiquity of concerns about negative stigmatisation by peers as a barrier to young people accessing services. This paper draws on interviews conducted with young people, who completed a course of counselling in school, to investigate how they managed and negotiated this. Drawing on positioning theory from discourse analysis, young people’s accounts are analysed with reference to the variety of positions they articulated and adopted. This demonstrates how they elaborated and reinforced virtuous problem‐solver positions within broader discourses of individualisation and normalisation, and resisted positioning within... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5353250 Thu, 01 Sep 2011 04:00:00 +0100 5353250 The meanings and practices of barebacking among Brazilian internet users http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5341436&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01407.x This article originates from an online ethnography on barebacking (intentional unprotected anal sex) in Brazil, between the years 2004 and 2008. More specifically, some elements or conceptual dimensions present in discussions on barebacking will be examined. Based on internet discussion forums and 23 open online interviews, using the Windows Live Messenger program, it was possible to organise the practice of barebacking into two principal modalities: more extensive and involving greater contact and partial or involving reduced risks. The individuals who practise bareback sex may experience situations that include various forms of barebacking during their lives, such as the men who contract HIV and try to develop strategies to reduce the risks in their sexual interactions by, for example, a... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5341436 Thu, 01 Sep 2011 04:00:00 +0100 5341436 A theory‐based model of translation practices in public health participatory research http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5244175&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01408.x This article explores the innovative practices of actors specifically mandated to support interactions between academic researchers and their partners from the community during public health participatory research. Drawing on the concept of translation as developed in actor‐network theory and found in the literature on knowledge transfer and the sociology of intermediate actors, we build a theory‐based model of the translation practices developed by these actors at the interface between community and university. We refine this model by using it to analyse material from two focus groups comprising participants purposively selected because they work at the nexus between research and practice. Our model of translation practices includes cognitive (dealing with the contents of the research... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5244175 Thu, 01 Sep 2011 04:00:00 +0100 5244175 Hearts Exposed: transplants and the media in 1960s Britain http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5201513&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01403.x (Source: Sociology of Health and Illness) Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5201513 Thu, 01 Sep 2011 04:00:00 +0100 5201513 HIV in China: Understanding the Social Aspects of the Epidemic http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5201512&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01397.x (Source: Sociology of Health and Illness) Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5201512 Thu, 01 Sep 2011 04:00:00 +0100 5201512 Beyond Expectation: Lesbian/Bi/Queer Women and Assisted Conception http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5201511&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01391.x (Source: Sociology of Health and Illness) Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5201511 Thu, 01 Sep 2011 04:00:00 +0100 5201511 Debating Obesity: Critical Perspectives http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5201510&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01402.x (Source: Sociology of Health and Illness) Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5201510 Thu, 01 Sep 2011 04:00:00 +0100 5201510 Configuring Health Consumers. Health Work and the Imperative of Personal Responsibility http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5201509&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01392.x (Source: Sociology of Health and Illness) Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5201509 Thu, 01 Sep 2011 04:00:00 +0100 5201509 Politics, welfare regimes, and population health: controversies and evidence http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5201508&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01339.x AbstractIn recent years, a research area has emerged within social determinants of health that examines the role of politics, expressed as political traditions/parties and welfare state characteristics, on population health. To better understand and synthesise this growing body of evidence, the present literature review, informed by a political economy of health and welfare regimes framework, located 73 empirical and comparative studies on politics and health, meeting our inclusion criteria in three databases: PubMed (1948‐), Sociological Abstracts (1953‐), and ISI Web of Science (1900‐). We identified two major research programmes, welfare regimes and democracy, and two emerging programmes, political tradition and globalisation. Primary findings include: (1) left and egalitarian pol... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5201508 Thu, 01 Sep 2011 04:00:00 +0100 5201508 The clinician‐scientist: professional dynamics in clinical stem cell research http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5152598&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01389.x AbstractClinical applications of biomedical research rely on specialist knowledge provided by professionals who straddle research and therapy, and possess both medical and scientific expertise. To date, this professional group remains under‐explored in sociology. Our article presents a case study of clinician‐scientists working in stem cell research for heart repair in the UK and Germany who are engaged in double‐blind randomised clinical trials using patients’ own stem cells. The analysis draws on sociological and medical literature, interviews and ethnographic fieldwork to analyse the experiences and self‐rationalisations of a small number of clinician‐scientists and the ways in which these professionals portray, explain and justify their role in the wider clinical research e... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5152598 Mon, 22 Aug 2011 23:00:00 +0100 5152598 The devil you know: parents seeking information online for paediatric cancer http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5152599&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01386.x AbstractThere is a growing interest in understanding the effect that online information‐seeking has on patients’ experiences, empowerment and interactions with healthcare providers. This mixed‐methods study combines surveys and in‐depth interviews with 41 parents of paediatric cancer patients in the USA to examine how parents think about, evaluate, access and use the internet to seek information related to their child’s cancer. We find that, during the acute crisis of a child being diagnosed with cancer, parents preferred to receive information related to their child’s diagnosis, prognosis and treatment options from a trusted healthcare provider rather than through the internet. We find that access to medically related cancer information through the internet was deemed to be un... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5152599 Thu, 18 Aug 2011 23:00:00 +0100 5152599 ‘It’s got so politically correct now’: parents’ talk about empowering individuals with learning disabilities http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5114977&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01378.x AbstractOver the last decade the UK Government has made proposals to empower individuals with learning disabilities. Strategies have been implemented to reduce institutionalisation and social segregation. Consequently, some learning disability services are being phased out and the focus of care has moved away from institutions and into the community and family domain. Focusing on discourse as a site for social action and identity construction, we used critical discursive psychology to examine focus group discussions between family carers about facilitating the independence of adult family members with learning disabilities. Unlike official UK Government and learning disability services’ constructions of empowerment policy, we found that parents invoked empowerment talk: (1) as a resource... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5114977 Wed, 10 Aug 2011 23:00:00 +0100 5114977 How pressure is applied in shared decisions about antipsychotic medication: a conversation analytic study of psychiatric outpatient consultations http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5092385&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01363.x This study analyses audiotapes of 92 outpatient consultations involving nine consultant psychiatrists focusing on how pressure is applied in shared decisions about antipsychotic medication. Detailed conversation analysis reveals that some shared decisions are considerably more pressured than others. At one end of a spectrum of pressure are pressured shared decisions, characterised by an escalating cycle of pressure and resistance from which it is difficult to exit without someone losing face. In the middle are directed decisions, where the patient cooperates with being diplomatically steered by the psychiatrist. At the other extreme are open decisions where the patient is allowed to decide, with the psychiatrist exerting little or no pressure. Directed and open decisions occurred most freq... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5092385 Tue, 02 Aug 2011 23:00:00 +0100 5092385 Age‐related infertility: a tale of two technologies http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5092384&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01382.x AbstractThe reproductive body has become the site of intensive medical intervention, yet, paradoxically, women have never been more at risk of suffering the distress of infertility. Drawing on in‐depth interviews with 22 infertile women, this article explores their reproductive experience from fertility postponement to assisted conception. All had used both modern contraception and in vitro fertilisation, yet none achieved the fertility they desired, when they desired it. All had structured their use of these technologies around the social practice of postponement. Modern contraception, however, while removing the sexual costs of postponement, did not resolve its reproductive dilemmas. Rather it appeared to collapse the experience of this traditionally difficult process, sustaining an il... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5092384 Tue, 02 Aug 2011 23:00:00 +0100 5092384 Resisting the screening imperative: patienthood, populations and politics in prostate cancer detection technologies for the UK http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5092383&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01385.x AbstractThe introduction of mass screening programmes in the UK has been controversial. It is instructive to examine medical conditions for which screening has been actively considered but not introduced, such as prostate cancer. Incidence of the disease has escalated during the last 20 years, partly due to the upsurge in use of PSA (prostate‐specific antigen) detection technology. The controversy is moving into a new phase, associated with the development of new molecular genetic biomarkers and tests derived from genome‐association studies. The paper outlines the most recent scientific and technological developments for the three types of detection technology – PSA, genetic, and genomic. Applying concepts of risk, technology governance and technology expectations, it is shown that c... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5092383 Tue, 02 Aug 2011 23:00:00 +0100 5092383 The injured and diseased farmer: occupational health, embodiment and technologies of harm and care http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5152597&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01394.x This article reports on 26 in‐depth interviews with farmers throughout New Zealand. Farmers are exposed to a range of technologies which place them at risk of injury and disease and/or prevent injury and disease. In this article these technologies are respectively conceptualised as technologies of harm and technologies of care. Despite being vulnerable to high rates of injury, fatality and occupationally related diseases the uptake of technologies of care amongst farmers in New Zealand is poor. The analysis draws on body theory to explore the meaning attached to injury and disease and to examine the socio‐cultural field of agriculture. It is argued that the key features of subjective embodiment and social, cultural and symbolic capital can undermine the uptake of technologies of care, ... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5152597 Thu, 30 Jun 2011 23:00:00 +0100 5152597 The experience of risk as ‘measured vulnerability’: health screening and lay uses of numerical risk http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5136380&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01381.x AbstractAs clinical and epidemiological research turns increasingly to statistical probabilities in the identification and management of disease, numerous risk factors have emerged that are applied to individual health surveillance. However, the application of statistical risk is interpreted differently by lay persons from the way it is by public health or medical professionals. This paper examines the experience of being designated as at risk of a serious health condition. Specifically, an examination of the experiences of people with elevated blood cholesterol levels and men with elevated prostate‐specific antigen (PSA) levels is presented in order to characterise the risk experience. This paper deals primarily with how being at risk symbolically alters health identities, with an intro... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5136380 Thu, 30 Jun 2011 23:00:00 +0100 5136380 Explaining health marginalisation of the lower educated: the role of cross‐national variations in health expenditure and labour market conditions http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5114976&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01390.x AbstractSeveral studies have shown ample cross‐national variation in the risk that lower educated people run to be in poor health. However, explanations for this cross‐national variation are still scarce. In this article we aim at filling this lacuna by investigating to what extent cross‐national variation in the health gap between the lower and higher educated in Europe is explained by governmental health expenditure, namely, how much governments contribute to a country’s total healthcare costs, and labour market conditions, that is, unemployment rates and modernisation of the labour market. We used information from the European Social Survey (ESS) 2002–2008 on more than 90,000 individuals in 32 European nations, and estimated hierarchical models with cross‐level interactions ... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5114976 Thu, 30 Jun 2011 23:00:00 +0100 5114976 Embryo futures and stem cell research: the management of informed uncertainty http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5092382&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01367.x AbstractIn the social worlds of assisted conception and stem cell science, uncertainties proliferate and particular framings of the future may be highly strategic. In this article we explore meanings and articulations of the future using data from our study of ethical and social issues implicated by the donation of embryos to human embryonic stem cell research in three linked assisted conception units and stem cell laboratories in the UK. Framings of the future in this field inform the professional management of uncertainty and we explore some of the tensions this involves in practice. The bifurcation of choices for donating embryos into accepting informed uncertainty or not donating at all was identified through the research process of interviews and ethics discussion groups. Professional... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5092382 Thu, 30 Jun 2011 23:00:00 +0100 5092382 An Anthropology of Biomedicine http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5045994&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01374.x (Source: Sociology of Health and Illness) Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5045994 Thu, 30 Jun 2011 23:00:00 +0100 5045994 The Risks of Prescription Drugs http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5045993&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01383.x (Source: Sociology of Health and Illness) Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5045993 Thu, 30 Jun 2011 23:00:00 +0100 5045993 The Professional Guinea Pig: Big Pharma and the Risky World of Human Subjects http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5045992&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01379.x (Source: Sociology of Health and Illness) Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5045992 Thu, 30 Jun 2011 23:00:00 +0100 5045992 HIV Interventions: Biomedicine and the Traffic Between Information and Flesh http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5045991&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01380.x (Source: Sociology of Health and Illness) Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5045991 Thu, 30 Jun 2011 23:00:00 +0100 5045991 Examining Trust in Healthcare: a multidisciplinary Perspective http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5045990&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01375.x (Source: Sociology of Health and Illness) Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5045990 Thu, 30 Jun 2011 23:00:00 +0100 5045990 Evolving sociological analyses of ‘Pharmaceuticalisation’: a reply to Abraham http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5045989&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01396.x (Source: Sociology of Health and Illness) Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5045989 Thu, 30 Jun 2011 23:00:00 +0100 5045989 Evolving sociological analyses of ‘pharmaceuticalisation’: a response to Williams, Martin and Gabe http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5045988&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01353.x (Source: Sociology of Health and Illness) Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5045988 Thu, 30 Jun 2011 23:00:00 +0100 5045988 Men’s discourses of help‐seeking in the context of depression http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4973410&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01372.x AbstractDepression is an illness increasingly constructed as a gendered mood disorder and consequently diagnosed in women more than men. The diagnostic criteria used for its assessment often perpetrate and reproduce gender stereotypes. The stigma associated with mental illness and the gendered elements of depression suggest there are likely numerous discourses that position, explain, and justify help‐seeking practices. This qualitative study explored men’s discourses of seeking help for depression. The methodological approach was informed by a social constructionist perspective of language, discourse and gender that drew on methods from discourse analysis. We conducted individual in‐depth, semi‐structured interviews with 38 men with depression, either formally diagnosed or self rep... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4973410 Sun, 26 Jun 2011 23:00:00 +0100 4973410 Forgetting and remembering epilepsy: collective memory and the experience of illness http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4973409&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01373.x AbstractHow do people with epilepsy relate to the long and troubling history of this disease? Drawing on two sets of interviews with people with epilepsy, one cohort from the mid‐1970s and one from 2005 to 2006, this article examines how memories of what epilepsy has been shape the individual and collective identities of people living with epilepsy. We find striking similarities in how people in both interview cohorts talk about what epilepsy was in ‘the Dark Ages’, by which they refer to the recent past. Likewise, we find evidence of a collective identity among people with epilepsy. However, memories of epilepsy’s past do not appear to serve as a basis for collective identity. Rather, these recollections are located in narratives of hope, in which people with epilepsy express conf... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4973409 Sun, 26 Jun 2011 23:00:00 +0100 4973409 Advancing the business creed? The framing of decisions about public sector managed care http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4965871&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01360.x AbstractRelatively little research has clarified how executives of for‐profit healthcare organisations frame their own motivations and behaviour, or how government officials frame their interactions with executives. Because managed care has provided an organisational structure for health services in many countries, we focused our study on executives and government officials who were administering public sector managed care services. Emphasising theoretically the economic versus non‐economic motivations that guide economic behaviour, we extended a long‐term research project on public sector Medicaid managed care (MMC) in the United States. Our method involved in‐depth, structured interviews with chief executive officers of managed care organisations, as well as high‐ranking offici... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4965871 Thu, 23 Jun 2011 23:00:00 +0100 4965871 Grey spaces: the wheeled fields of residential care http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4965870&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01371.x AbstractMany individuals living in residential care use a wheelchair as their primary means of mobility. Although studies have documented challenges encountered by residents in these facilities, few have addressed the role that wheelchairs, as potential enablers and barriers to mobility and participation, play in their lives. To better understand residents’ experiences, an ethnographic study was conducted drawing on Bourdieu’s theoretical constructs of capital, field, and habitus. Participant observations were conducted at two facilities, and residents, family members and staff took part in in‐depth individual interviews. Our analysis revealed three themes. Ready to roll detailed how residents used wheelchairs as a source of comfort and means for expanding their social space, while s... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4965870 Thu, 23 Jun 2011 23:00:00 +0100 4965870 HIV and identity: the experience of AIDS support group members who unexpectedly tested HIV negative in Uganda http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4965869&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01384.x AbstractLiving with HIV, for many of those infected, has meant adjusting to life with a stigmatised condition and, until recently, the threat of looming death. We explore the adjustment of a group of long‐term former clients of The AIDS Support Organisation (TASO) in Uganda who, when tested for HIV during the rollout of antiretroviral therapy in 2004, were found to be HIV negative. In‐depth semi‐structured interviews with 34 former TASO clients were conducted between 2005 and 2007. Their narratives reveal a great deal about the biographical disruption they have faced, and the biographical work that they have undertaken in both the personal and the social dimensions of their lives in order to manage their new‐found HIV‐uninfected status. After the negative test result, as they wer... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4965869 Thu, 23 Jun 2011 23:00:00 +0100 4965869 Patients as team members: opportunities, challenges and paradoxes of including patients in multi‐professional healthcare teams http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4918254&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01356.x AbstractCurrent healthcare policy emphasises the need for more collaborative, team‐based approaches to providing care, and for a greater voice for service users in the management and delivery of care. Increasingly, policy encourages ‘partnerships’ between users and professionals so that users, too, effectively become team members. In examining this phenomenon, this paper draws on insights from the organisational‐sociological literature on team work, which highlights the challenges of bringing together diverse professional groups, but which has not, to date, been applied in contexts where users, too, are included in teams. Using data from a qualitative study of five pilot cancer‐genetics projects, in which service users were included in teams responsible for managing and developin... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4918254 Thu, 09 Jun 2011 23:00:00 +0100 4918254 Identity, emotion and the internal goods of practice: a study of learning disability professionals http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4918253&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01365.x AbstractContemporary transitions in the delivery of health and social care are a global phenomenon. They prompt a particular need to reconsider how quality in relation to professional practice should be understood and whether greater importance should be attached to values such as goodwill, altruism and commitment. Based on a qualitative study of a small voluntary sector organisation in the North of England, this paper addresses how changes in policy articulate with the identities of professionals who work in learning disability services. Drawing on MacIntyre’s After Virtue, which is discussed in relation to some recent sociological debates on emotion, it is suggested that professionals have an emotionally based commitment to their work as well as to the people they work with. Profession... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4918253 Thu, 09 Jun 2011 23:00:00 +0100 4918253 The swan effect in midwifery talk and practice: a tension between normality and the language of risk http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4918252&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01366.x This article sets out to explore the tension between these two tasks and shows how routine midwifery practice during labour can communicate certain understandings about birth. Using empirical evidence taken from an ethnographic study of midwifery talk and practice, attention is given to how midwives’ activity during labour and birth implicitly introduces a sense of danger, an imagined risk that confines practice and operates to unsettle normality. (Source: Sociology of Health and Illness) Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4918252 Thu, 09 Jun 2011 23:00:00 +0100 4918252 The rumouring of SARS during the 2003 epidemic in China http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4837777&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01329.x AbstractBy analysing rumour content as covered by major Chinese newspapers, this article explores the multiple dimensions of SARS‐related rumouring throughout China during the 2003 epidemic. Findings indicate a strong correlation between the scale of SARS infections and level of rumour activities across regions. As for channels of dissemination, the rumour process still found a natural habitat in word of mouth, while internet‐based platforms and cell phone text messaging emerged as viable grapevines. Our particular typology of SARS‐incurred rumours leads us to identify four distinct types of rumours: legendary rumours; aetiological narratives; proto‐memorates; and bogies. The four types of rumours are discussed against the background of superstitious beliefs, folklore practices, po... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4837777 Tue, 17 May 2011 23:00:00 +0100 4837777 Tissue donation to biobanks: a review of sociological studies http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4837776&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01342.x We report the findings of a review of qualitative literature regarding the ways in which lay people construct and experience the process of donation to biobanks. Our aim was to determine what the qualitative research literature tells us about the process of donating to biobanks, and how this can enrich existing insights from quantitative research and from theoretical sociology and bioethics. Qualitative research shows that donation to biobanks is a complex process shaped by donors’ embeddedness in a number of social contexts; by complex relations of trust in biomedicine; and by the ambiguous status of human tissue. While these findings are theoretically and practically useful, current sociological theorising is very general. A more detailed and nuanced ‘sociology of biobanking’ is ne... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4837776 Tue, 17 May 2011 23:00:00 +0100 4837776 ‘Filling one's days’: managing sick leave legitimacy in an online forum http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4810424&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01330.x This article explores online discourse about the kinds of activities people engage in when on sick leave. It employs a discursive psychological framework for analysis, drawing heavily on conversation analysis. A Swedish internet forum thread on sick leave is examined, focusing on how the participants describe and account for the things they do when staying home from work due to illness. The analysis suggests that the participants’ accounts of their activities delicately manage the legitimacy of their sick leave. In examining how this is done in practice, the analysis makes visible the balancing act between being ill enough to stay home from work and well enough for other activities. In the context of recent debates in Sweden and elsewhere about the legitimacy of sick leave in different s... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4810424 Tue, 10 May 2011 23:00:00 +0100 4810424 Long‐term effects of poor health on employment: the significance of life stage and educational level http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4810423&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01346.x AbstractPrevious research has found the employment consequences of poor health to be of increased magnitude in low qualified groups. The purpose of this study is to investigate if this relationship varies within different stages of the life course when focusing on long term associations with non‐employment. An expectation of the article is that stronger effects of poor health may be found in young adults compared to middle aged people. The article considers two possible explanations: normative change and life stage resources. Using three‐wave panel data from the Norwegian county of Nord‐Trøndelag, the HUNT study allows the study of respondents over two decades. Two narrow cohorts have been selected for comparison, and health was measured by self‐reported longstanding limiting illn... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4810423 Tue, 10 May 2011 23:00:00 +0100 4810423 Does reading keep you thin? Leisure activities, cultural tastes, and body weight in comparative perspective http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4973408&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01377.x This study aims to test theories of cultural distinction by examining relationships between leisure‐time activities and body weight. Using 2007 data on 17 nations from the International Social Survey Program (ISSP), the analysis estimates relationships between the body mass index and varied leisure‐time activities while controlling for SES, physical activities, and sociodemographic variables. Net of controls for SES and physical activities, participation time in cultural activities is associated with lower rather than higher body weight, particularly in high‐income nations. The results suggest that both cultural activities and body weight reflect forms of distinction that separate SES‐based lifestyles. (Source: Sociology of Health and Illness) Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4973408 Sat, 30 Apr 2011 23:00:00 +0100 4973408 From personal tragedy to personal challenge: responses to stigma among sober living home residents and operators http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4965868&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01376.x This article describes the responses of sober living home residents and operators to the threat of stigma across a diverse set of neighbourhoods. Ten focus groups were conducted with 68 residents and operators of 35 sober living homes in Los Angeles County, California, between January 2009 and March 2010. Results showed that few residents reported experiences of blatant stigmatisation by neighbours; however, they were well aware of the stereotypes that could be ascribed to them. Despite this potential stigma, residents developed valued identities as helpers in their communities, providing advice to neighbours whose family or friends had substance use problems, and organising community service activities to improve the appearance of their neighbourhoods. With their attention to local contex... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4965868 Sat, 30 Apr 2011 23:00:00 +0100 4965868 Neuroculture, active ageing and the ‘older brain’: problems, promises and prospects http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4950191&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01364.x Conclusions offer further reflections on the complex questions that arise regarding expectations, hopes and ethics in relation to the promises and perils of a neurocultural future. (Source: Sociology of Health and Illness) Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4950191 Sat, 30 Apr 2011 23:00:00 +0100 4950191 New tools for an old trade: a socio‐technical appraisal of how electronic decision support is used by primary care practitioners http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4929718&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01361.x This article explores Australian general practitioners’ (GPs) views on a novel electronic decision support (EDS) tool being developed for cardiovascular disease management. We use Timmermans and Berg’s technology‐in‐practice approach to examine how technologies influence and are influenced by the social networks in which they are placed. In all, 21 general practitioners who piloted the tool were interviewed. The tool occupied an ill‐defined middle ground in a dialectical relationship between GPs’ routine care and factors promoting best practice. Drawing on Lipsky’s concept of ‘street‐level bureaucrats’, the tool’s ability to process workloads expeditiously was of greatest appeal to GPs. This feature of the tool gave it the potential to alter the structure, process and... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4929718 Sat, 30 Apr 2011 23:00:00 +0100 4929718 Framing health inequalities for local intervention: comparative case studies http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4918251&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01362.x This article explores how health inequalities are constructed as an object for policy intervention by considering four framings: politics, audit, evidence and treatment. A thematic analysis of 197 interviews conducted with local managers in England, Scotland and Wales is used to explore how these framings emerge from local narratives. The three different national policy regimes create contrasting contexts, especially regarding the different degrees of emphasis in these regimes on audit and performance management. We find that politics dominates how health inequalities are framed for intervention, affecting their prioritisation in practice and how audit, evidence and treatment are described as deployed in local strategies. (Source: Sociology of Health and Illness) Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4918251 Sat, 30 Apr 2011 23:00:00 +0100 4918251 Self‐directed and interpersonal male violence in adolescence and young adulthood: a 30‐year follow up of a Stockholm cohort http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4837775&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01359.x AbstractIn line with Wilkinson’s theory on inequality and health, this study simultaneously analyses self‐directed and interpersonal violence among men in a Stockholm birth cohort born in 1953 with respect to their early life experiences of stress, their lack of social connectedness and their relative deprivation. Multinomial logistic regressions with cluster‐robust variance estimates were used. Self‐directed violence was found to be related to self‐rated loneliness and non‐membership of voluntary associations but not to a lack of friendship in school at the age of 12–13, while the opposite was shown to be true for interpersonal violence. Growing up in a family that received means‐tested social assistance at least once during the period 1953–1965 was taken as an objective... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4837775 Sat, 30 Apr 2011 23:00:00 +0100 4837775 Men, masculine identities and childbirth http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4810422&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01349.x AbstractIn recent years, fathers’ experiences during childbirth have attracted much research and policy interest. However, little of this work has been grounded in the first‐hand accounts of men and there is a lack of theory‐based research to help understand men’s thoughts and practices around childbirth. This paper is based on qualitative research undertaken with first‐time fathers and healthcare professionals. It draws on Connell’s (1995) conceptualisation of hegemonic masculinity to explore how men construct masculine identities within the context of pregnancy and childbirth and also how healthcare professionals construct masculinity. The paper demonstrates the ways in which men can find themselves marginalised within the context of pregnancy and childbirth, but are still ab... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4810422 Sat, 30 Apr 2011 23:00:00 +0100 4810422 Obesity surgery and the management of excess: exploring the body multiple http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4793339&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01358.x AbstractDrawing on ethnographic data gathered through observations and interviews at a surgical weight management clinic in a large hospital, this article argues that while the core values governing the provision of obesity surgery (obesity = ill health; obesity surgery = weight loss; weight loss = improved health and cost savings) can be seen as governing the clinical encounter, the singularity of these collective equations reflects neither the complexity of the patient experience of obesity surgery nor the extent to which the ‘war on obesity’ itself does not adhere strictly to those principles. Drawing on Annemarie Mol’s concept of the body multiple, and focusing on three different forms of excess (excess weight, excess consumption and excess skin) that emerged in the c... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4793339 Sat, 30 Apr 2011 23:00:00 +0100 4793339 New Directions in the Sociology of Chronic and Disabling Conditions: Assaults on the Lifeworld http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4786737&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01355.x (Source: Sociology of Health and Illness) Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4786737 Sat, 30 Apr 2011 23:00:00 +0100 4786737 Technogenarians: Studying Health and Illness Through an Ageing, Science, and Technology Lens http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4786736&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01354.x (Source: Sociology of Health and Illness) Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4786736 Sat, 30 Apr 2011 23:00:00 +0100 4786736 The Taste for Knowledge: Medical Anthropology Facing Medical Realities http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4786735&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01352.x (Source: Sociology of Health and Illness) Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4786735 Sat, 30 Apr 2011 23:00:00 +0100 4786735 The Matter of Death: Space, Place and Materiality http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4786734&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01351.x (Source: Sociology of Health and Illness) Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4786734 Sat, 30 Apr 2011 23:00:00 +0100 4786734 The Artificial Ear: Cochlear Implants and the Culture of Deafness http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4786733&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01350.x (Source: Sociology of Health and Illness) Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4786733 Sat, 30 Apr 2011 23:00:00 +0100 4786733 An interactional approach to conceptualising small talk in medical interactions http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4786732&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01343.x AbstractIn medical interactions, it may seem straightforward to identify ‘small talk’ as casual or social talk superfluous to the institutional work of dealing with patients’ medical concerns. Such a broad characterisation is, however, extremely difficult to apply to actual talk, and more specificity is necessary to pursue analyses of how small talk is produced and what it achieves for participants in medical interactions. We offer an approach to delineating a subgenre of small talk called topicalised small talk (TST), derived on the basis of conversation analytically‐informed analyses of routine consultations involving orthopaedic surgeons and older patients. TST is a line of talk that is referentially independent from their institutional identities as patients or surgeons, orient... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4786732 Sat, 30 Apr 2011 23:00:00 +0100 4786732 Scripting sexual function: a qualitative investigation http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4786731&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01318.x AbstractThe biomedical model assumes universal agreement in what it means to have a functioning sex life. In reality there is significant variation in the criteria that individuals employ in assessing their sex lives. We use a scripting approach to understand the meaning of sexual function from a lay perspective. Based on the accounts of 32 individuals representing a range of sexual function experience, we identified three scripts employed by participants to describe their sexual experiences: the biomedical script emphasised genital function and physical release (orgasm), the relational script focused on relational aspects of encounters and valued emotional intimacy and security; and the erotic script focused on pleasure and valued novelty and excitement. Respondent accounts usually contai... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4786731 Sat, 30 Apr 2011 23:00:00 +0100 4786731 Understanding the gender disparity in HIV infection across countries in sub‐Saharan Africa: evidence from the Demographic and Health Surveys http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4786730&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2010.01304.x AbstractWomen in sub‐Saharan Africa bear a disproportionate burden of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infections, which is exacerbated by their role in society and biological vulnerability. The specific objectives of this article are to (i) determine the extent of gender disparity in HIV infection; (ii) examine the role of HIV/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) awareness and sexual behaviour factors on the gender disparity and (iii) establish how the gender disparity varies between individuals of different characteristics and across countries. The analysis involves multilevel logistic regression analysis applied to pooled Demographic and Health Surveys data from 20 countries in sub‐Saharan Africa conducted during 2003–2008. The findings suggest that women in sub‐Saharan ... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4786730 Sat, 30 Apr 2011 23:00:00 +0100 4786730 Factors associated with violence by a current partner in a nationally representative sample of German women http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4730496&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01319.x This study is based on a secondary analysis of the first national survey on violence against women in Germany. Women who reported partner violence by their current partner were compared to women who never reported partner violence. The prevalence of physical or sexual violence, or both, by current partners was 17 per cent. Women who experienced violence during their childhood had higher odds of experiencing partner violence. Partner violence was associated with women’s drug use in the last 5 years, physical disability or debilitating illness, having more than three children, experiencing violence by a non‐partner and feeling socially excluded. The odds of violence also increased if both partners were unemployed or lacked vocational training or if only the woman had vocational skills.... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4730496 Tue, 19 Apr 2011 23:00:00 +0100 4730496 Governing through time: preparing for future threats to health and security http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4730495&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01340.x AbstractDuring preparations for the Second Gulf War, Israel considered universal smallpox vaccination. In doing so, it faced a problem: how to legitimise carrying out a security action against an uncertain future danger (smallpox pandemic), when this action carried specific, known risks (vaccine complications). To solve this problem, the Israeli preparedness system created a new domain through which the security action could reach its goal with minimum risk: first responders (a group of medical personnel and security forces). First‐responder vaccination represents a shift in the form of ‘securing health’ and in the governmental technology applied to this goal, in which past, present, and future occurrences are governed to enable the execution of a security action. Through this practi... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4730495 Tue, 19 Apr 2011 23:00:00 +0100 4730495 ‘Wakey wakey baby’: narrating four‐dimensional (4D) bonding scans http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4730494&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01345.x This article describes in detail the process of commercial 4D scanning in the UK, paying particular attention to the discursive exchanges in the scan room. It is argued that sonographers and clients engage in a process of ‘collaborative coding’ that, despite the realism of 4D, is essential to making the imagery on the screen personally and socially meaningful. While sonographers first help clients to get their bearings, expectant parents and others often engage in a complex process of narrating the images on the screen as they are created. The capacities of 4D ultrasound to image facial features and movements inform stories about fetal experience and family resemblances as well as enabling playfully imagined interactions with the fetus. While these stories are primarily based in experi... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4730494 Tue, 19 Apr 2011 23:00:00 +0100 4730494 An essay on ‘health capital’ and the Faustian bargains struck by workers in the globalised shipping industry http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4730493&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01347.x AbstractIt has long been understood that work directly generates ill health and disability through injuries and occupational exposure to toxic and carcinogenic materials, but the more complex relationship between work and ill health that is seemingly mediated through psychological distress is more controversial. For example, the ‘Karasek model’, whereby high job demands coupled with limited latitude in decision making were thought to generate ill health, has not been supported in large‐scale surveys. This paper postulates an alternative linking mechanism between work and health, namely Mildred Blaxter’s concept of ‘health capital’, and specifically explores the value of the concept in understanding lay theorising about the links between labour intensification and self‐perceiv... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4730493 Tue, 19 Apr 2011 23:00:00 +0100 4730493 Enterprising or altruistic selves? Making up research subjects in genetics research http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4730492&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01348.x AbstractThe emergence of direct‐to‐consumer (DTC) personal genomics companies in 2007 was accompanied by considerable media attention and criticism from clinical geneticists and other health professionals, regulators, policy advisors, and ethicists. As well as offering genetic testing services, some firms are also engaged in building their own databases and conducting research with the data obtained from their customers. In this paper, we examine how one of these companies, 23andMe, is creating a certain kind of ‘research subject’ in opposition to that constituted in conventional forms of disease research. Drawing on debates about neoliberalism, contemporary health discourses and subjectivity, we consider two kinds of subjectivities produced through the discursive and material prac... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4730492 Tue, 19 Apr 2011 23:00:00 +0100 4730492 The pharmaceuticalisation of society? A framework for analysis http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4548305&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01320.x AbstractDrawing on insights from both medical sociology and science and technology studies this article provides a critical analysis of the nature and status of pharmaceuticalisation in terms of the following key dimensions and dynamics: (i) the redefinition or reconfiguration of health ‘problems’ as having a pharmaceutical solution; (ii) changing forms of governance; (iii) mediation; (iv) the creation of new techno‐social identities and the mobilisation of patient or consumer groups around drugs; (v) the use of drugs for non‐medical purposes and the creation of new consumer markets; and, finally, (vi) drug innovation and the colonisation of health futures. Pharmaceuticalisation, we argue, is therefore best viewed in terms of a number of heterogeneous socio‐technical processes th... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4548305 Fri, 04 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0100 4548305 Resistance and challenge: competing accounts in aftercare monitoring http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4548304&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2010.01321.x This article explores a candidate example of competing accounts of aftercare under supervision of a discharged forensic patient and worker in one part of the UK. It is taken from a study involving 59 in‐depth interviews with patients and their workers to investigate community return after detention in forensic psychiatric facilities. Fear of mental illness and associated dangerousness are embodied in discourses surrounding the forensic patient. In living with deviant labels and seeking to establish independence from the psychiatric system patients’ talk demonstrates nascent identity work in an attempt to resist alternative dominant discourses. Workers however deploy occupational knowledge of risk and associated monitoring as the basis for claims of safe aftercare. Both patient and work... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4548304 Fri, 04 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0100 4548304 Understanding fear of cancer recurrence in terms of damage to ‘everyday health competence’ http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4548303&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2010.01325.x AbstractAdvances in clinical treatments are resulting in cancer patients living longer, but with the threat of the disease returning at some later date. Anxiety associated with this fear of recurrence, which seems widespread among patients, can lead to an enhanced bodily awareness and a pronounced tendency to interpret mundane sensations as symptoms of pathology. Relatively little sociological work has been done to systematically document, understand, and find ways of addressing, this syndrome and its impact on the quality of patients’ lives. It is argued that this syndrome is best understood not in cognitive terms, as a form of irrationality, but rather as resulting from damage to certain aspects of social competence, namely one’s ‘everyday health competence’. In investigating thi... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4548303 Fri, 04 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0100 4548303 Beliefs and practices about antiretroviral medication: a study of poor urban Kenyans living with HIV/AIDS http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4548302&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2010.01328.x AbstractInterest in medication‐taking as a social behaviour is growing. Drawing on qualitative data, this study interrogates beliefs and practices related to antiretroviral therapy (ART) use among urban poor Kenyan people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA). Responding PLWHA relied on a range of ingenious strategies to remember to take their medications but did not necessarily perceive compliance with medical instructions as key to treatment efficacy. They also believed that compliance can even hurt some patients. PLWHA relied on both compliance and non‐compliance to seek social acceptance, maintain a reputation of being healthy, dispel rumours about one’s status, and minimise economic vulnerability. Compliance was further used to mark gratitude to supportive caregivers and providers, and n... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4548302 Fri, 04 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0100 4548302 Ambiguous gain: uncertain benefits of service use for dementia carers http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4548301&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2010.01332.x AbstractCommunity services for carers of people with dementia can assist in relieving caregiver burden and delay the institutionalisation of the person with dementia. Under some conditions, however, engagement with dementia services may produce unintended negative consequences, resulting in increased confusion and a reduction of agency for carers. Drawing on an analysis of three salient aspects of caregiver identities, this paper examines specific instances and consequences of ‘ambiguous gain’, defined as ‘a putative or demonstrated benefit that, as an unintended outcome, results in increased uncertainty and a consequent reduction of agency or wellbeing at the level of individual or collective identity’. The paper concludes with a discussion of implications for policy and practice.... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4548301 Fri, 04 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0100 4548301 Uniforms, status and professional boundaries in hospital http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4730491&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01357.x AbstractDespite their comparative neglect analytically, uniforms play a key role in the delineation of occupational boundaries and the formation of professional identity in healthcare. This paper analyses a change to the system of uniforms in one UK hospital, where management have required all professions (with the exception of doctors) to wear the same ‘corporate’ uniform. Focus groups were conducted with the professionals and patients. We analyse this initiative as a kind of McDonaldisation, seeking to create a new ‘corporate’ worker whose allegiance is principally to the organisation, rather than a profession. Our findings show how important uniforms are to their wearers, both in terms of the defence of professional boundaries and status, as well as the construction of professio... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4730491 Tue, 01 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0100 4730491 Means without ends: justifying supportive home care for frail older people in Canada, 1990–2010 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4702207&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01344.x AbstractThe challenges associated with ageing populations are very much on the policy and research agenda of many nations, with significant discussions focused on establishing appropriate, acceptable parameters of home care for those who are older and frail. This paper develops an analysis of changing justifications of home care in Canada (1990–2010) through examination of governmental and non‐governmental home care policy documents and position papers, as well as observations from recent fieldwork in home care. Boltanski and Thévenot’s sociology of justification provides a framework for analysis of these situations where competing and irreducible pluralities of goods complicate discussions of the ‘right’ way to proceed. (Source: Sociology of Health and Illness) Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4702207 Tue, 01 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0100 4702207 Establishing specialty jurisdictions in medicine: the case of American obstetrics and gynaecology http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4620331&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01341.x This article aims to correct this oversight. It develops an historical account of intra‐occupational factors influencing the decision to establish gynaecologic oncology as American ob/gyn’s surgical subspecialty in 1972. Working within the framework initially developed by Everett C. Hughes and his students, the article examines this development as the outcome of a three‐party relationship among gynaecologic oncologists, American ob/gyns, and gynaecologic pelvic surgeons. Aggressive movement by the gynaecologic pelvic surgeons challenging the established élite’s identity definition for the ob/gyn specialty helped spur official recognition of gynaecologic oncology, a less threatening subspecialty. The article draws theoretical implications from the case regarding the role of a threa... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4620331 Tue, 01 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0100 4620331 Medical Professionalism in the New Information Age http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4548311&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01337.x (Source: Sociology of Health and Illness) Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4548311 Tue, 01 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0100 4548311 Communication in Healthcare Settings: Policy, Participation and New Technologies http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4548310&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01333.x (Source: Sociology of Health and Illness) Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4548310 Tue, 01 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0100 4548310 Doctoring Medical Governance: Medical Self‐Regulation in Transition http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4548309&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01336.x (Source: Sociology of Health and Illness) Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4548309 Tue, 01 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0100 4548309 Assisting Reproduction, Testing Genes: Global Encounters with New Biotechnologies http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4548308&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01334.x (Source: Sociology of Health and Illness) Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4548308 Tue, 01 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0100 4548308 Can We Live Forever? A Sociological and Moral Inquiry http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4548307&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01335.x (Source: Sociology of Health and Illness) Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4548307 Tue, 01 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0100 4548307 Sickle cell, habitual dys‐positions and fragile dispositions: young people with sickle cell at school http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4548306&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2010.01301.x AbstractThe experiences of young people living with a sickle cell disorder in schools in England are reported through a thematic analysis of forty interviews, using Bourdieu’s notions of field, capital and habitus. Young people with sickle cell are found to be habitually dys‐positioned between the demands of the clinic for health maintenance through self‐care and the field of the school, with its emphases on routines, consistent attendance and contextual demands for active and passive pupil behaviour. The tactics or dispositions that young people living with sickle cell can then employ, during strategy and struggle at school, are therefore fragile: they work only contingently, transiently or have the unintended consequences of displacing other valued social relations. The disposition... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4548306 Tue, 01 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0100 4548306 Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose: senior NHS managers’ narratives of restructuring http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4548300&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2011.01338.x AbstractThe UK National Health Service (NHS) is regularly restructured. Its smooth operation and organisational memory depends on the insights and capability of managers, especially those with experience of previous transitions. Narrative methods can illuminate complex change from the perspective of key actors. We used an adaptation of Wengraf’s biographical narrative life interview method to explore how 20 senior NHS managers (chief executives, directors and assistant directors) had perceived and responded to major transitions since 1974. Data were analysed thematically using insights from phenomenology, neo‐institutional theory and critical management studies. Findings were contextualised within a literature review of NHS policy and management 1974–2009. Managers described how expe... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4548300 Tue, 01 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0100 4548300 The non‐display of authentic distress: public‐private dualism in young people’s discursive construction of self‐harm http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4515963&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2010.01322.x This article draws from focus groups and interviews investigating how young people talk about self‐harm. Some of the research participants had personal experience of self‐harm but this was not a prerequisite for their inclusion in the study. Thematic coding was used initially to organise and give an overview of the data, but the data were subsequently analysed using a discourse analytic approach. The article focuses on the young people’s constructions of deliberate self‐harm such as ‘cutting’. Throughout the focus groups and interviews, a dichotomy was set up by the young people between authentic, private self‐harm which is rooted in real distress (and warrants a sympathetic response) and public, self‐indulgent attempts to seek attention. This dualistic construction is disc... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4515963 Thu, 24 Feb 2011 00:00:00 +0100 4515963 The making of a risk object: AIDS, gay citizenship and the meaning of blood donation in Sweden in the early 1980s http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4463148&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2010.01299.x AbstractIn the early 1980s acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) presented a danger to the blood supply, the extent of which was difficult to ascertain before a reliable test became available in 1985. In a situation of uncertainty, the major Swedish gay organisation in early 1983 recommended voluntary exclusion from blood donation by their members, while internationally gay organisations protested and Swedish medical authorities hesitated about the appropriate action to take. At stake were definitions of gay citizenship, risk and the gift of blood. The article uses three sociological approaches to understand the controversies around blood from men‐who‐have‐sex‐with‐men as a risk to public health. An institutional approach is used to situate the symbolic meaning of blood dona... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4463148 Fri, 11 Feb 2011 00:00:00 +0100 4463148 Desperately seeking cancer drugs: explaining the emergence and outcomes of accelerated pharmaceutical regulation http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4463147&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2010.01310.x AbstractGovernment regulators have increasingly accelerated new cancer drugs on to the market by granting them approval based on less clinical data supporting drug efficacy than permitted under standard regulations. With more lenient regulatory standards, pharmaceutical companies have keenly sought to develop cancer drugs. Focusing on the US, this article examines how the emergence and implementation of such accelerated approvals should be understood, particularly in relation to corporate bias and disease‐politics theories. Drawing on longitudinal and case study data analysis, it is argued that the emergence of accelerated approval regulations for cancer drugs should be regarded primarily as part of a deregulatory regime driven by the interests of the pharmaceutical industry in partnersh... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4463147 Fri, 11 Feb 2011 00:00:00 +0100 4463147 Healthcare identities at the crossroads of service modernisation: the transfer of NHS clinicians to the independent sector? http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4463146&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2010.01311.x AbstractHealth policies increasingly support private businesses to take an active role in the organisation and delivery of public healthcare services. For the English NHS, this is exemplified by the introduction of Independent Sector Treatment Centres. A number of these facilities involve the wholesale secondment of NHS clinicians to the private sector which, we suggest, raises important questions about the identities of healthcare professionals accustomed to working in the public sector. Our paper investigates this transition highlighting three prominent discontinuities in clinical work: the ethos of private sector ownership, new lines of authority and fragmented relationships. Drawing on Giddens, we examine how clinicians experience and interpret these changes and how they keep their bio... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4463146 Fri, 11 Feb 2011 00:00:00 +0100 4463146 Defending the boundaries of science: AIDS denialism, peer review and the Medical Hypotheses saga http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4463145&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2010.01312.x AbstractThis paper explores the boundary work undertaken by HIV scientists and activists against the journal Medical Hypotheses over its lack of peer review. Their action was sparked by the publication of an article by Peter Duesberg claiming that HIV does not cause AIDS and that antiretrovirals do more harm than good. Precisely because such ‘AIDS denialism’ can undermine HIV prevention and treatment interventions, as was demonstrably the case in South Africa under President Mbeki, the episode raised questions about when, in the interests of public health, the boundaries of legitimate scientific debate may be drawn to exclude unreasonable and unscholarly arguments. The paper argues that normative concerns motivated the complaints which resulted in the publisher withdrawing Duesberg’s... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4463145 Fri, 11 Feb 2011 00:00:00 +0100 4463145 The construction of meaning by experts and would‐be parents in assisted reproductive technology http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4515962&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2010.01327.x This article explores the construction of meaning regarding assisted reproductive technology by legal framers, medical practitioners and would‐be parents, through the concept of ecology of knowledge. It is argued that these inter‐relationships between experts and lay people can be understood in terms of the formation of a social structure of ecology of knowledge, which depends on local and emotional knowledge co‐produced by medical doctors, jurists and lay people in dynamic ways without compromising the autonomy of medical, legal and lay knowledge and skills. The assessment of the benefits and risks of assisted reproductive technology partially represents negotiations of knowledge between these social and professional groups, aiming to reproduce existing relations and practices, part... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4515962 Tue, 01 Feb 2011 00:00:00 +0100 4515962 Modernisation as a professionalising strategy: the case of critical care in England http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4463144&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2010.01324.x AbstractThere has been broad agreement about how to characterise the processes of ‘modernisation’ of the public sector in welfare societies, but rather less consensus on the impact of this modernisation on professionals. This paper takes critical care in England as a case study to explore how professionals in one setting account for the changes associated with modernisation. In contrast to reports from other arenas, critical care professionals were positive about the processes and outcomes of ‘modernisation’ in general, and there was a surprising lack of nostalgia in their accounts of organisational changes. However, joking comments suggested considerable scepticism about the initiatives explicitly associated with the national organisation that was charged with ‘modernising’ cr... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4463144 Tue, 01 Feb 2011 00:00:00 +0100 4463144 Afterword: Body work and the sociological tradition http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4444688&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2010.01309.x (Source: Sociology of Health and Illness) Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4444688 Tue, 01 Feb 2011 00:00:00 +0100 4444688 Body work in respiratory physiological examinations http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4444687&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2010.01292.x This article focuses on respiratory physiological examinations conducted in the respiratory physiological lab of a Norwegian hospital ward. The examinations were aimed at producing exact and objective measures of patients’ respiratory functions or capacities. The quality of the examinations depended on correct use of technology and adequate body work by professionals and patients. The concept of ‘body work’ has several meanings. The professionals’ body work was not direct hands‐on work. Their contact with the patient was communicative and informed or guided by technical devices. Although the patient’s objective body constituted the focus of examination, it necessitated an active and compliant patient. The concrete outcome of the examination was a textual artefact that in the ex... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4444687 Tue, 01 Feb 2011 00:00:00 +0100 4444687 Actions speak louder than words: the embodiment of trust by healthcare professionals in gynae‐oncology http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4444686&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2010.01284.x This article draws on qualitative data from semi‐structured interviews with cervical cancer patients. The significance of body work in winning or, on occasions, undermining trust emerged as a key theme within the responses. Interpretations of professionals’ verbal and non‐verbal presentations‐of‐self were often mutually reinforcing and intrinsically linked – forming a more general locus of meaning from which assumptions of competence and care were drawn. Yet it also became apparent that, whilst verbal communication was useful in establishing the agenda of the professional in relation to that of the patient, it was body work which was crucial in corroborating and validating beliefs pertaining to the ability and willingness of the professional to deliver this agenda in the future... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4444686 Tue, 01 Feb 2011 00:00:00 +0100 4444686 Managing the body work of home care http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4444685&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2010.01331.x AbstractBody work is a key element of home healthcare. Recent restructuring of health and social care services means the home is increasingly a key site of long‐term care. While there is a growing literature on the social dynamics between care recipients and their family caregivers, less is known about the formal work dynamic between paid care workers and care recipients and family caregivers. Drawing on interview data from an Ontario‐based study of long‐term home care, we explore how body work is negotiated through the embodied practices of care in the home and through care relationships associated with home care. In particular we focus on how the practices of intimate body care (such as bathing, toileting, and catheter management) show the diverse dynamics of care work through whic... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4444685 Tue, 01 Feb 2011 00:00:00 +0100 4444685 Time, space and touch at work: body work and labour process (re)organisation http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4444684&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2010.01306.x This article examines the difficulties involved in (re)organising work which takes bodies as its object, or material of production. It shows that working on bodies (‘body work’) systematically delimits possibilities for labour process rationalisation which, in turn, constrains reorganisation of the health and social care sector. It does this in three main ways. First: rigidity in the ratio of workers to bodies‐worked‐upon limits the potential to increase capital‐labour ratios or cut labour. Secondly: the requirement for co‐presence and temporal unpredictability in demand for body work diminish the spatial and temporal malleability of the labour process. Thirdly: the nature of bodies as a material of production – complex, unitary and responsive – makes it difficult to standa... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4444684 Tue, 01 Feb 2011 00:00:00 +0100 4444684 ‘Promising’ therapies: neuroscience, clinical practice, and the treatment of psychopathy http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4422816&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2010.01286.x This article interrogates this ‘therapeutic promise’ of neuroscience through the case study of the psychiatric condition personality disorder. Specifically, the focus is on the promissory discourse of clinicians specialising in the management of two variants of personality disorder − antisocial personality disorder and psychopathy − and researchers investigating the neurobiology of these constructs. The article discusses the respondents’ ambivalent expectations regarding the therapeutic promise of brain research, and shows how these are structured by understandings of the ontology of personality disorder. In turn, these ambivalences direct our attention to practical issues surrounding the potential of neuroscience to translate into and enhance clinical practice, as well as theore... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4422816 Tue, 01 Feb 2011 00:00:00 +0100 4422816 Class and lifestyle ‘lock‐in’ among middle‐aged and older men: a Multiple Correspondence Analysis of the British Regional Heart Study http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4359477&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2010.01280.x This study provides evidence in support of attempts to theorise health lifestyles in terms of collectivities. Furthermore, the concept of selective lifestyle ‘lock‐in’ may be a useful way of understanding the relationship between class and health lifestyles in old age. (Source: Sociology of Health and Illness) Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4359477 Mon, 17 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0100 4359477 Educating with the hands: working on the body/self in Alexander Technique http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4359476&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2010.01283.x AbstractTraditionally, forms of body work such as Alexander Technique have been excluded from mainstream biomedicine and healthcare, despite attempts by practitioners to have the work accepted within the medical community. Using data from a UK‐based study of Alexander Technique which combined participant observation, interviews with 17 teachers and pupils, and analysis of historical texts, this article examines the relationship of the Alexander Technique to the field of healthcare, looking at its embodied practices, and contrasting these with the discourses in which it is framed. Applying Foucault’s concept of ‘techniques of the self’, the article examines Alexander Technique’s physical practices as a form of embodied knowledge, and goes on to look at its use of particular ideas ... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4359476 Mon, 17 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0100 4359476 Subjective social status and health in young people http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4359475&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2010.01285.x AbstractHealth inequalities according to objective socioeconomic position (SEP), have been well‐documented. Yet, in young people the associations are negligible. Recently, research on the association of subjective social status (SSS), and adult health has begun to accumulate. Studies on young people are rare and describe societies with large income inequalities. Here, we investigated the association between SSS and health, while controlling for own and familial SEP. The study population consisted of 15‐year‐olds (N = 2369) who have grown up in a context of low social inequalities. Data were derived from surveys carried out in 2004 in 29 secondary schools in Helsinki. The SSS was measured with an indicator specific to and validated for adolescents (a societal ladder). Outcome measures... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4359475 Mon, 17 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0100 4359475 Treating women’s sexual difficulties: the body work of sexual therapy http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4359474&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2010.01288.x AbstractThis paper seeks to illuminate the interactions of medics and other healthcare practitioners with women’s bodies by looking at intervention in the area of women’s sexual problems or ‘Female Sexual Dysfunction’ (FSD). Drawing on data produced in the first empirical study to date of women’s accounts of their experiences of seeking and receiving treatment for perceived sexual difficulties, we analyse two treatments for women’s sexual difficulties involving direct touch of the body: sexual medicine and pelvic physiotherapy. We adopt the concept of ‘body work’ as a way of illuminating practitioners’ focus on the bodies of patients and the complex, contradictory meanings of genital touch brought by these interactions. We conclude by considering the goals and methods of ... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4359474 Mon, 17 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0100 4359474 The co‐marking of aged bodies and migrant bodies: migrant workers’ contribution to geriatric medicine in the UK http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4359473&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2010.01290.x This article sits at the nexus between two bodies of work, gerontology and migration research, both of which have theorised the body as the locus of stigma. Gerontologists, while acknowledging the significance of perceptions of the ageing body for engagement and participation in society, have often evaded direct engagement with physical and medical understandings of older bodies. In parallel, research which focuses on migration, race and the body has focused on how the migrant body is stigmatised both because of its somatic markers and because of the status of the frail older people whom they tend. Drawing on oral history interviews with UK born and South Asian overseas‐trained geriatricians, the article argues that the two bodies, which are usually seen in negative ways, came together i... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4359473 Mon, 17 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0100 4359473 Innovation and evaluation: taming and unleashing telecare technology http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4359472&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2010.01293.x AbstractTelecare is advocated in most European countries with great, if not grandiose, promises: improving healthcare, lowering costs, solving workforce shortage. This paper does not so much question these specific promises, but rather the ‘register of promising’ as such, by comparing the promises with actual processes of incorporating technologies in healthcare practices. The case we study is the use of webcams in follow‐up care from a Dutch rehabilitation clinic for people with severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). This process shows many changes and contingencies, and corresponding shifts in goals and aims. The conclusion is that when innovative technologies such as telecare are actually put to work, ‘the same’ technology will perform differently. In order to fu... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4359472 Mon, 17 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0100 4359472 The violence of disablism http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4335763&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2010.01302.x This article addresses the multi‐faceted nature of violence in the lives of disabled people, with a specific focus on the accounts of disabled children and their families. Traditionally, when violence and disability have been considered together, this has emphasised the disabled subject whom inevitably exhibits violent challenging behaviour. Recently, however, more attention has been paid to violence experienced by disabled people, most notably in relation to hate crime. This article embraces theories that do not put the problems of disablism or violence back onto disabled people but magnify and expose processes of disablism that are produced in the relationships between people, which sometimes involve violence. This, we argue, means taking seriously the role of social relationships, ins... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4335763 Wed, 12 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0100 4335763 Meanings of the embryo in Japan: narratives of IVF experience and embryo ownership http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4335762&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2010.01282.x This article explores the sociocultural meanings of the embryo implied in the narratives of 58 women who have undergone in vitro fertilisation in Japan over a period from 2006 to 2008. We argue that a lack of sufficient analysis of the sociocultural meanings of the embryo result in a situation where the use of reproductive technologies in Japan advances without reflecting upon the voices of women and couples that use them. Additionally, we argue that the often‐heard view that pre‐implantation genetic diagnosis causes less pain to women and couples than selective abortion in which foetuses are discarded, should be reviewed in the light of the new empirical evidence offered in this article. Furthermore, this article shows that the view often expounded by Japanese scientists that in Japan... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4335762 Wed, 12 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0100 4335762 From recreational to regular drug use: qualitative interviews with young clubbers http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4335761&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2010.01303.x This article analyses the process of going from recreational use to regular and problematic use of illegal drugs. We present a model containing six career contingencies relevant for young people’s progress from recreational to regular drug use: the closing of social networks, changes in forms of parties, intoxication becoming a goal in itself, easier access to drugs, learning to recognise alternative effects of drugs and experiences of loss of control. The analysis shows that these dimensions are at play not only when young people develop a regular drug use pattern but also when they attempt to extricate themselves from this pattern. Hence, when regular drug users talk about their future, it is not a future characterised by total abstinence from illegal drugs but a future where they have... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4335761 Wed, 12 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0100 4335761 In a moment of mismatch: overseas doctors’ adjustments in new hospital environments http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4335760&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2010.01307.x AbstractThis paper contributes to studies of healthcare worker migration and, more broadly, to the study of occupational adjustment, with an analysis of finely detailed sensorial data. It focuses upon doctors, who are increasingly on the move around the world, working in hospital environments different from those in which they have trained. A number of unexamined questions remain in relation to how medical practitioners shift their work across contexts, in particular the tactile nature of adjustment, which has been under‐explored in health sociology. This paper examines a procedural skill; a skill in which tools have become almost natural extensions of the doctor’s hands. It focuses upon what happens when doctors travel overseas and find unfamiliar equipment, and their habitual practic... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4335760 Wed, 12 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0100 4335760 Ethical boundary‐work in the infertility clinic http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4335759&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2010.01308.x AbstractInfertility practice and reproductive technologies are generally seen as ‘controversial’ areas of scientific inquiry that raise many complex ethical issues. This paper presents a qualitative study that considered how clinicians constructed the role of the ‘ethical’ in their everyday practice. We use the concept of ethical boundary‐work to develop a theory of ‘settled’ and ‘controversial’ morality to illuminate how infertility clinicians drew boundaries between different conceptions of the role ethics played in their practice. An attention to areas of settled morality, usually rendered invisible by their very nature, enables us to see how clinicians manage the ‘ethical’ in their practice. We argue that by creating a space of ‘no‐ethics’ in their practice ... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4335759 Wed, 12 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0100 4335759 Shifting normalities: interactions of changing conceptions of a normal life and the normalisation of symptoms in rheumatoid arthritis http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4422815&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2010.01305.x This article aims to examine the relevance of these concepts in rheumatoid arthritis (RA), an unpredictable autoinflammatory disease characterised by painful and swollen joints, disability, fatigue and joint damage. Interviews were conducted with 23 people living with RA, and analysed using Framework, to enable people’s whole narratives and context to be considered. Six typologies of normality emerged from the data: disrupted; struggling to maintain; fluctuating; resetting; returning; and continuing normality. Multiple normalities were often present in individuals’ narratives, with one normality typology usually dominating at the time of the interview. The typologies connect to several biographical concepts, and instances of ‘biographical reinstatement’ were also found, where parti... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4422815 Sat, 01 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0100 4422815 Detraditionalisation, gender and alternative and complementary medicines http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4376137&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2010.01275.x This article is premised on the importance of locating the appeal and meaning of alternative and complementary medicines in the context of gendered identities. I argue that the discourse of wellbeing – captured in many alternative and complementary health practices – is congruent with culturally prevalent ideals of self‐fulfilling, authentic, unique and self‐responsible subjectivity. The discourse of wellbeing places the self at the centre, thus providing a contrast with traditional ideas of other‐directed and caring femininity. As such, involvement in alternative and complementary medicines is entwined with a negotiation of shifting femininities in detraditionalising societies. Simultaneously, many alternative and complementary health practices readily tap into and reproduce tra... Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4376137 Sat, 01 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0100 4376137 ‘You can’t ask for a Dubonnet and lemonade!’: working class masculinity and men’s health practices http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4359471&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2010.01300.x This study highlights how men’s conceptualisations of masculinity coupled with their class position informed their understanding of male roles and the expectations that flow from this. It shows how certain risky practices are firmly rooted in the material reality of men’s lives, not simply in their gender, and how aspects of masculinity and class position intimately entwine to structure men’s health seeking behaviour. (Source: Sociology of Health and Illness) Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4359471 Sat, 01 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0100 4359471 Thanks to Reviewers – October 2009 to September 2010 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4335770&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2010.01298.x (Source: Sociology of Health and Illness) Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4335770 Sat, 01 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0100 4335770 The Palgrave Handbook of Gender and Healthcare http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4335769&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2010.01314.x (Source: Sociology of Health and Illness) Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4335769 Sat, 01 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0100 4335769 Black Dogs and Blue Words: Depression and Gender in the Age of Self‐Care http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4335768&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2010.01315.x (Source: Sociology of Health and Illness) Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4335768 Sat, 01 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0100 4335768 Gender and the Language of Illness http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4335767&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2010.01316.x (Source: Sociology of Health and Illness) Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4335767 Sat, 01 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0100 4335767 The Autism Matrix: The Social Origins of the Autism Epidemic http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4335766&cid=s_31006_46_f&fid=31006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1111%252Fj.1467-9566.2010.01317.x (Source: Sociology of Health and Illness) Sociology of Health and Illness journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4335766 Sat, 01 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0100 4335766