The sociology of sleep

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Meadows ◽  
Simon J. Williams ◽  
Jonathan Gabe ◽  
Catherine Coveney ◽  
Sara Arber
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Context ◽  
Life Course ◽  
Social Factors ◽  
Public Health Intervention ◽  
Health Intervention ◽  
The Life Course ◽  
Gender Impacts

Sleep occurs in a social context and is socially, culturally, and historically variable. It is influenced by numerous social factors across the life course, as well as by transitions, such as marriage or cohabitation, parenthood, and widowhood. Gender impacts on sleep, and on the nature of power in negotiations about sleep. Sleep is a complex, if not contradictory, case of medicalization and is also a thoroughly moralized matter within contemporary societies. Understanding sleep requires the use of qualitative as well as quantitative methodologies, and a relational or dyadic focus on couples’ sleep is also called for. Sociology highlights arenas for public health intervention.

scholarly journals Round table: Using evidence for action – the story on life-course vaccination

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (Supplement_4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Older Adults ◽  
Life Course ◽  
Public Health Intervention ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Life Course Approach ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Patient Side ◽  
The Life Course ◽  
In Pregnancy

Abstract Vaccination represents a cost-effective public health intervention that saves millions of lives globally each year as well as increasing health and wellbeing of the population. Approximately 20 vaccines are currently in use in routine schedules, with several new or improved in the research pipeline. While immunisation programmes have traditionally targeted children, in recent strategic thinking around vaccination has shifted from an infancy focus to a life course approach that considers the benefits of vaccination at all ages. There are many benefits to targeting different age groups for vaccination, such as targeting individuals at an age that maximises protection (HPV among teenagers, shingles among older adults); boosting waning immunity (Td/IPV among teenagers); protecting at-risk individuals when they are most vulnerable (influenza in pregnancy, pneumococcal vaccine in older adults at clinical risk); protecting newborns in utero before they have the chance to be vaccinated (pertussis in pregnancy); or targeting an older age group to indirectly protect younger infants (MenACWY vaccination of teenagers). Even though the public health benefits of the life-course approach are evident, delivering vaccination programmes spanning such disparate groups represent constant challenges. These challenges can be grouped into: a) limited access to services b) communication challenges influencing attitudes and knowledge of vaccination and c) logistical challenges associated with the use of a wide range of settings for vaccination. This session will explore, at country and regional levels, experiences and reflections on delivering vaccination across the life course, and evidence-based policy and operational actions taken to deliver an optimal programme at all ages. Key messages Life course vaccination presents opportunities to better protect the population but also brings unique challenges, both from the patient side and from the health systems side. Evidence-based tools and strategies to improve vaccine programmes across the life-course are increasingly available. Country and European level action is needed to achieve optimal results.

The Affective Politics of Karma among Buddhist Cancer Charities in Vietnam

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 33-62
Author(s):  
Sara Swenson
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Global Existence ◽  
Food Production ◽  
Public Health Intervention ◽  
Health Intervention ◽  
Moral Failure ◽  
Cancer Rates ◽  
Charity Work

In this article, I explore how Buddhist charity workers in Vietnam interpret rising cancer rates through understandings of karma. Rather than framing cancer as a primarily physical or medical phenomenon, volunteers state that cancer is a product of collective moral failure. Corruption in public food production is both caused by and perpetuates bad karma, which negatively impacts global existence. Conversely, charity work creates merit, which can improve collective karma and benefit all living beings. I argue that through such interpretations of karma, Buddhist volunteers understand their charity at cancer hospitals as an affective and ethical form of public health intervention.

scholarly journals Comparison of the second and third waves of the COVID-19 pandemic in South Korea: Importance of early public health intervention

2021 ◽  
Vol 104 ◽  
pp. 742-745
Author(s):  
Hye Seong ◽  
Hak Jun Hyun ◽  
Jin Gu Yun ◽  
Ji Yun Noh ◽  
Hee Jin Cheong ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
South Korea ◽  
Public Health Intervention ◽  
Health Intervention

Measuring the Efficacy of a Pilot Public Health Intervention for Engaging Communities of Puerto Rico to Rapidly Write Hurricane Protection Plans

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Mark E. Keim ◽  
Laura A. Runnels ◽  
Alexander P. Lovallo ◽  
Margarita Pagan Medina ◽  
Eduardo Roman Rosa ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Puerto Rico ◽  
User Satisfaction ◽  
National Guard ◽  
Rapid Development ◽  
Public Health Intervention ◽  
Health Intervention ◽  
Project Work ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Community Based

Abstract Objective: The efficacy is measured for a public health intervention related to community-based planning for population protection measures (PPMs; ie, shelter-in-place and evacuation). Design: This is a mixed (qualitative and quantitative) prospective study of intervention efficacy, measured in terms of usability related to effectiveness, efficiency, satisfaction, and degree of community engagement. Setting: Two municipalities in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico are included. Participants: Community members consisting of individuals; traditional leaders; federal, territorial, and municipal emergency managers; municipal mayors; National Guard; territorial departments of education, health, housing, public works, and transportation; health care; police; Emergency Medical Services; faith-based organizations; nongovernmental organizations (NGOs); and the private sector. Intervention: The intervention included four community convenings: one for risk communication; two for plan-writing; and one tabletop exercise (TTX). This study analyzed data collected from the project work plan; participant rosters; participant surveys; workshop outputs; and focus group interviews. Main Outcome Measures: Efficacy was measured in terms of ISO 9241-11, an international standard for usability that includes effectiveness, efficiency, user satisfaction, and “freedom from risk” among users. Degree of engagement was considered an indicator of “freedom from risk,” measurable through workshop attendance. Results: Two separate communities drafted and exercised ~60-page-long population protection plans, each within 14.5 hours. Plan-writing workshops completed 100% of plan objectives and activities. Efficiency rates were nearly the same in both communities. Interviews and surveys indicated high degrees of community satisfaction. Engagement was consistent among community members and variable among governmental officials. Conclusions: Frontline communities have successfully demonstrated the ability to understand the environmental health hazards in their own community; rapidly write consensus-based plans for PPMs; participate in an objective-based TTX; and perform these activities in a bi-lingual setting. This intervention appears to be efficacious for public use in the rapid development of community-based PPMs.

Making the narrative walk-in-real-time methodology relevant for public health intervention: Towards an integrative approach

2010 ◽  
Vol 16 (6) ◽  
pp. 1166-1173 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sylvie Miaux ◽  
Louis Drouin ◽  
Patrick Morency ◽  
Sophie Paquin ◽  
Lise Gauvin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Public Health Intervention ◽  
Health Intervention ◽  
Integrative Approach

Insomnia, Medicalization, and Expert Knowledge

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenton Kroker
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Expert Knowledge ◽  
Public Health Intervention ◽  
Sleep Medicine ◽  
Health Intervention ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
Boundary Object ◽  
Medical Expertise ◽  
Health Authorities ◽  
Public Health Authorities

Historians have clearly articulated the ways in which sleeplessness has long been part of the human condition. As an object of medical expertise and public health intervention, however, insomnia is a much more recent invention, having gained its status as a pathology during the 1870s. But while insomnia has attracted considerable and concerted attention from public health authorities allied with sleep medicine specialists, this phenomenon is not well explained by classical medicalization theory, in part because it is the sleepless sufferers, not the medical experts, who typically have the authority to diagnose insomnia. The dynamics of insomnia’s history are better described as those of a boundary object, around which concepts and practices of biomedicine and psychology coalesce to frame contemporary notions of self-medicalization and self-experiment.

Understanding vaccine hesitancy: the evidence

2021 ◽  
Vol 32 (7) ◽  
pp. 282-287
Author(s):  
Alison While
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Professionals ◽  
Herd Immunity ◽  
Public Health Intervention ◽  
Health Intervention ◽  
Vaccine Hesitancy ◽  
Important Public Health ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
The Uk

Vaccine hesitancy is a concern both globally and within the UK. Alison While reviews the evidence relating to vaccine hesitancy, its underlying factors and the sociodemographic variations Vaccination is an important public health intervention, but its effectiveness depends upon the uptake of vaccination reaching sufficient levels to yield ‘herd’ immunity. While the majority of the UK hold positive attitudes about vaccination, some people, including health professionals, decline vaccinations. This article reviews the evidence relating to vaccine hesitancy, its underlying factors and the sociodemographic variations.

Experience Corps®: A Civic Engagement-Based Public Health Intervention in the Public Schools

2011 ◽  
pp. 469-487 ◽  
Author(s):  
George W. Rebok ◽  
Michelle C. Carlson ◽  
Jeremy S. Barron ◽  
Kevin D. Frick ◽  
Sylvia McGill ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Public Schools ◽  
Civic Engagement ◽  
Public Health Intervention ◽  
Health Intervention ◽  
The Public
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