Gender and cross-cultural differences in somatic symptoms associated with emotional distress. An international study in primary care

1997 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 433-444 ◽  
Author(s):  
MARCO PICCINELLI ◽  
GREGORY SIMON
Keyword(s):  
Primary Care ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Cultural Differences ◽  
Emotional Distress ◽  
General Health ◽  
Somatic Symptoms ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
World Health ◽  
Cross Cultural Differences ◽  
The World

Background. Gender and cross-cultural differences in the association between somatic symptoms and emotional distress were investigated, using data from the World Health Organization Collaborative Project on Psychological Problems in General Health Care.Methods. Data were collected at 15 centres in 14 countries around the world. At each centre, a stratified random sample of primary care attenders aged 15–65 years was assessed using, among other instruments, the 28-item General Health Questionnaire and the Composite International Diagnostic Interview-Primary Health Care Version.Results. Females reported higher levels of somatic symptoms and emotional distress than males. A strong correlation between somatic symptoms and emotional distress was found in both sexes, with females reporting more somatic symptoms at each level of emotional distress. However, linear regression analysis showed that gender had no significant effect on level of somatic symptoms, when the effects of centre and emotional distress were controlled for. In both sexes, no specific pattern of association emerged between somatic symptom clusters and either anxiety or depression. Primary care attenders from less developed centres reported more somatic symptoms and showed greater gender differences than individuals from more developed centres, but inter-centre differences were small. Finally, gender was not a significant predictor of reason for consultation (somatic versus mental/behavioural symptoms), after controlling for levels of somatic symptoms and emotional distress as well as for centre effect.Conclusions. These data do not support the common belief that females somatize more than males or the traditional view that somatization is a basic orientation prevailing in developing countries. Instead, somatic symptoms and emotional distress are strongly associated in primary care attenders, with few differences between the two sexes and across cultures.

Identification of somatic and anxiety symptoms which contribute to the detection of depression in primary health care

2004 ◽  
Vol 19 (5) ◽  
pp. 250-257 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katrin Barkow ◽  
Reinhard Heun ◽  
T. Bedirhan Üstün ◽  
Mathias Berger ◽  
Isaac Bermejo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Primary Care ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Primary Health Care ◽  
General Health ◽  
Depressive Disorders ◽  
Somatic Symptoms ◽  
Anxiety Symptoms ◽  
Primary Health ◽  
The World ◽  
Detection Of Depression

AbstractSomatic symptoms and anxiety symptoms are often disregarded in the detection of depression in primary care. The present investigation examined to what extent somatic and anxiety symptoms recorded with the Composite International Diagnostic Interview—Primary Health Care Version (CIDI—PHC) can improve the detection of depression as compared to the General Health Questionnaire—12-item version alone. Data from the World Health Organization study on Psychological Problems in General Health Care were used. The study sample consisted of primary care attenders from 15 centres from all over the world who underwent a psychiatric examination with the CIDI—PHC. Medically unexplained somatic symptoms (back pain, feelings of heaviness/lightness in parts of the body, periods of bodily weakness, seizures/convulsions, permanent tiredness, exhaustion after a minimum of effort) and—to a smaller extent—diverse anxiety symptoms (e.g. feelings of anxiousness/nervousness, feelings of tension, difficulties relaxing) significantly contributed to the detection of depression in a logistic regression analysis. The results confirm the observation that in primary care somatic symptoms play an important role in the manifestation of depressive disorders. The items investigated herein could prove beneficial for future depression screening instruments to improve the detection of depressive disorders in primary care.

scholarly journals Lessons Learned in Afghanistan: A Multi-national Military Mental Health Perspective

10.18060/1880 ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 98-111 ◽  
Author(s):  
Randall C. Nedegaard ◽  
Rachel E. Foster ◽  
Mercy Yeboah-Ampadu ◽  
Andrew J. Stubbs
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Great Britain ◽  
Cultural Differences ◽  
North Atlantic ◽  
The United States ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Cross Cultural Differences ◽  
Military Mental Health ◽  
The World

America has been at war for almost 10 years. Because of this, continuing missions in the Middle East require the support and cooperation of our allied North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) forces from around the world. In this paper we provide an overview of the mission at Kandahar Air Field (KAF) and the Multi-National Role 3 hospital located at KAF. Next, we explain the mental health capabilities and unique perspectives among our teammates from Canada, Great Britain, and the United States to include a discussion of the relevant cross-cultural differences between us. Within this framework we also provide an overview of the mental health clientele seen at KAF during the period of April 2009 through September 2009. Finally, we discuss the successes, limitations, and lessons learned during our deployment to Kandahar, Afghanistan.

An Overview of Primary Health Care

1976 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 309-314 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Fry
Keyword(s):  
Primary Care ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Primary Health Care ◽  
World Health Organization ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
World Health ◽  
Training And Education ◽  
Primary Health ◽  
The World ◽  
Health Organization

Primary health care has become a focus of interest from the World Health Organization down. The hopes that more emphasis on primary care will lead to less expensive and better care will not be realized unless a more critical analysis of its problems is undertaken and some of its defects and deficiencies put right. Its roles must be better defined and the work shared within a team; training and education must be more related to its needs; and much sharper research is required to decide what is useful and what is useless.

scholarly journals Age-Friendly Health Care: A Systematic Review

Healthcare ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 83
Author(s):  
Jéssica Tavares ◽  
Gonçalo Santinha ◽  
Nelson P. Rocha
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Older Adults ◽  
Primary Care ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Health Services ◽  
World Health Organization ◽  
Web Of Science ◽  
World Health ◽  
The World ◽  
Health Organization

Background: Health care provided to older adults must take into account the characteristics of chronic diseases and the comorbidities resulting from ageing. However, health services are still too oriented towards acute situations. To overcome this problem, the World Health Organization (WHO) proposed a set of Age-Friendly Principles that seek to optimize the provision of health care for this population. This article aims to understand how such Principles are considered in the implementation of age-friendly health care worldwide. Methods: A systematic review was conducted to synthesize the literature on age-friendly health care in accordance with the PRISMA recommendations in the PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus databases. Results: The research identified 34 articles, with only seven recognizing the WHO Principles and only four using the implementation toolkit. In addition, in the context of primary care, three studies recognize the WHO Principles, but only two use the toolkit. Conclusions: The WHO Principles are being implemented in health care, but in a smaller scale than desired, which reveals possible flaws in their dissemination and standardization. Thus, a greater scientific investment in age-friendly health care should be considered, which represents a greater operationalization of the Principles and an evaluation of their effectiveness and impacts.

“We’ve Always Done It Like This …Except for a Few Details”: “Tradition” and “Innovation” in Okiek Ceremonies

1993 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-65 ◽  
Author(s):  
Corinne A. Kratz
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Differences ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Cross Cultural Differences ◽  
Temporal Continuity ◽  
The World ◽  
The Many ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Cultural Concept

How does any practice become canonized as tradition? What counts as tradition and what does not and to whom? What temporal continuity is required and how is it defined? This essay is about African initiation ceremonies, in particular the practices of the Okiek people in Kenya. Considering the many papers spawned by Hobsbawm and Ranger's book on the “invention of tradition” (1983), it may not be surprising that Okiek also construct their ceremonies as traditional. Despite the attention devoted to the topic, few essays evaluate their own definition of tradition or consider the concept critically and comparatively. An unexamined premise thus incorporated into them takes one of two forms: either the notion of tradition is more or less the same throughout the world, and cross-cultural differences are of no consequence; or some societies (traditional ones) do not have notions of tradition. This essay argues that tradition itself must be explored as an indigenous cultural concept which shapes and is shaped by different perspectives and processes, as shown by the ways Okiek endow their images of tradition on ceremonies to spin their notions of history and identity.

Primary Health Care and Person Centered Medicine

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 45-50
Author(s):  
Juan E Mezzich ◽  
James Appleyard ◽  
Michel Botbol ◽  
Tesfa Ghebrehiwet ◽  
Joanna Groves ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Primary Care ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Primary Health Care ◽  
World Health ◽  
Special Role ◽  
The Past ◽  
Primary Health ◽  
The World ◽  
Global Initiative ◽  
Health Organization

The popular usual meaning of primary care is health care at a basic rather than specialized level for people making an initial approach to a doctor or nurse for treatment. The concept of primary health care has evolved dramatically over the past four decades, particularly under the aegis of the World Health Organization with the additional participation of other institutional actors around the world. It is increasingly recognized as a fundamental concept and strategy for the advancement of health care and the promotion of health at national and international levels.Separately, as the programmatic global initiative on person centered medicine has been unfolding over the past decade, primary care, not surprisingly, is emerging as a prominent topic and concern for advancing person-centered medicine and health care. There are certainly conceptual and strategic reasons for such emergence. There have been as well institutional reasons for this. At the same time, person-centeredness is an open road for the optimization of primary care.Further understanding of the prominent position, special role, and particular challenges of primary care in person centered medicine is contributed by several of the papers published in the present issue of the International Journal of Person Centered Medicine.

Cognitive gadgets: A provocative but flawed manifesto

2019 ◽  
Vol 42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Del Giudice
Keyword(s):  
Theory Of Mind ◽  
Cultural Differences ◽  
Twin Studies ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Evolutionary Approach ◽  
Genetic Inheritance ◽  
Double Standards ◽  
Cross Cultural Differences ◽  
Cherry Picking ◽  
Dichotomous Thinking

Abstract The argument against innatism at the heart of Cognitive Gadgets is provocative but premature, and is vitiated by dichotomous thinking, interpretive double standards, and evidence cherry-picking. I illustrate my criticism by addressing the heritability of imitation and mindreading, the relevance of twin studies, and the meaning of cross-cultural differences in theory of mind development. Reaching an integrative understanding of genetic inheritance, plasticity, and learning is a formidable task that demands a more nuanced evolutionary approach.

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