Approaching Human Health as an Integrative Challenge: Introduction and Overview

2018 ◽  
pp. 2-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carol D. Ryff ◽  
Robert F. Krueger
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Human Health ◽  
Daily Diary ◽  
The United States ◽  
Health Science ◽  
Depth Information ◽  
Multidisciplinary Research ◽  
The Road ◽  
Integrative Health ◽  
National Longitudinal Study

This chapter provides an overview of the Oxford Handbook of Integrative Health Science. A first section examines the rationale for multidisciplinary research on human health via evolution of biopsychosocial integration in a major national longitudinal study, known as MIDUS (Midlife in the United States). It began with in-depth survey assessments of sociodemographic and psychosocial factors and a daily diary component and was then expanded to include assessments of cognition, biomarkers, and neuroscience as well as a city-specific minority sample. Multiple waves of longitudinal data and recruitment of a “refresher” sample followed. The remainder of this introduction highlights scientific advances (elaborated in subsequent chapters) that followed from collecting in-depth information on the same set of participants. Each chapter offers a narrative of multiple scientific findings in targeted areas. We end with a glimpse at the road ahead in advancing integrative health science.

The Oxford Handbook of Integrative Health Science

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Adult Life ◽  
The United States ◽  
Sociodemographic Factors ◽  
Population Based ◽  
Health Science ◽  
National Study ◽  
Integrative Health ◽  
Social Structural ◽  
Research Population ◽  
Psychosocial Influences

This handbook signals a paradigm shift in health research. Population-based disciplines have employed large national samples to examine how sociodemographic factors contour rates of morbidity and mortality. Behavioral and psychosocial disciplines have studied the factors that influence these domains using small, nonrepresentative samples in experimental or longitudinal contexts. Biomedical disciplines, drawing on diverse fields, have examined mechanistic processes implicated in disease outcomes. The collection of chapters in this handbook embraces all such prior approaches and, via targeted questions, illustrates how they can be woven together. Diverse contributions showcase how social structural influences work together with psychosocial influences or experiential factors to impact differing health outcomes, including profiles of biological risk across distinct physiological systems. These varied biopsychosocial advances have grown up around the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) national study of health, begun over 20 years ago and now encompassing over 12,000 Americans followed through time. The overarching principle behind the MIDUS enterprise is that deeper understanding of why some individuals remain healthy and well as they move across the decades of adult life, while others succumb to differing varieties of disease, dysfunction, or disability, requires a commitment to comprehensiveness that attends to the interplay of multiple interacting influences. Put another way, all of the disciplines mentioned have reliably documented influences on health, but in and of themselves, each is inherently limited because it neglects factors known to matter for health outside the discipline’s purview. Integrative health science is the alternative seeking to overcome these limitations.

The Roles of Twin Studies and Modern Genomic Technologies in Integrative Health Science

2018 ◽  
pp. 34-46
Author(s):  
Robert F. Krueger ◽  
Susan C. South
Keyword(s):  
Allostatic Load ◽  
Twin Studies ◽  
Transcriptional Response ◽  
The United States ◽  
Health Science ◽  
Research Strategies ◽  
Integrative Health ◽  
Genomic Technologies ◽  
Health And Illness ◽  
Modern Genomic

This chapter focuses on genetically informative research design and strategy in integrative health science (IHS). A feature of IHS is studying individual differences in health outcomes together and in a multidisciplinary manner. The chapter focuses on the advantages of using genetically informative research strategies for IHS. Genetically informative strategies are tools to enrich inferences within the IHS paradigm. They help parse the meaning of observed associations between exposures and outcomes. Two strategies are considered for the Midlife in the United States study : (1) Gene × Environment interactions and (2) correlations between education and allostatic load. A strategy likely to be employed in IHS research involves using segments of RNA to understand mechanisms underlying health and illness, focusing on the conserved transcriptional response to adversity (CTRA). The conclusion is that IHS and genetically informative research strategies are natural allies in understanding origins of health and illness in the population at large.

Creating Intersectional Subjects: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Health Science Breastfeeding Research

2021 ◽  
pp. 233264922098109
Author(s):  
Shannon K. Carter ◽  
Ashley Stone ◽  
Lain Graham ◽  
Jonathan M. Cox
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Black Women ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
The United States ◽  
Health Science ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Race Disparities ◽  
Breastfeeding Policy

Reducing race disparities in breastfeeding has become a health objective in the United States, spurring research aimed to identify causes and consequences of disparate rates. This study uses critical discourse analysis to assess how Black women are constructed in 80 quantitative health science research articles on breastfeeding disparities in the United States. Our analysis is grounded in critical race and intersectionality scholarship, which argues that researchers often incorrectly treat race and its intersections as causal mechanisms. Our findings reveal two distinct representations. Most commonly, race, gender, and their intersection are portrayed as essential characteristics of individuals. Black women are portrayed as a fixed category, possessing characteristics that inhibit breastfeeding; policy implications focus on modifying Black women’s characteristics to increase breastfeeding. Less commonly, Black women are portrayed as a diverse group who occupy a social position in society resulting from similar social and material conditions, seeking to identify factors that facilitate or inhibit breastfeeding. Policy implications emphasize mitigating structural barriers that disproportionately impact some Black women. We contribute to existing knowledge by demonstrating how dominant health science approaches provide evidence for health promotion campaigns that are unlikely to reduce health disparities and may do more harm than good to Black women. We also demonstrate the existence of a problematic knowledge set about Black women’s reproductive and infant feeding practices that is both ahistorical and decontextualized.

scholarly journals Complementary and Integrative Health Knowledge and Practice in Primary Care Settings: A Survey of Primary Care Providers in the Northwestern United States

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 216495612110233
Author(s):  
Malaika R Schwartz ◽  
Allison M Cole ◽  
Gina A Keppel ◽  
Ryan Gilles ◽  
John Holmes ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Primary Care ◽  
Health Knowledge ◽  
Care Delivery ◽  
Primary Care Providers ◽  
The United States ◽  
Research Network ◽  
Care Providers ◽  
Integrative Health ◽  
And Training

Background The demand for complementary and integrative health (CIH) is increasing by patients who want to receive more CIH referrals, in-clinic services, and overall care delivery. To promote CIH within the context of primary care, it is critical that providers have sufficient knowledge of CIH, access to CIH-trained providers for referral purposes, and are comfortable either providing services or co-managing patients who favor a CIH approach to their healthcare. Objective The main objective was to gather primary care providers’ perspectives across the northwestern region of the United States on their CIH familiarity and knowledge, clinic barriers and opportunities, and education and training needs. Methods We conducted an online, quantitative survey through an email invitation to all primary care providers (n = 483) at 11 primary care organizations from the WWAMI (Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana and Idaho) region Practice and Research Network (WPRN). The survey questions covered talking about CIH with patients, co-managing care with CIH providers, familiarity with and training in CIH modalities, clinic barriers to CIH integration, and interest in learning more about CIH modalities. Results 218 primary care providers completed the survey (45% response rate). Familiarity with individual CIH methods ranged from 73% (chiropracty) to 8% (curanderismo). Most respondents discussed CIH with their patients (88%), and many thought that their patients could benefit from CIH (41%). The majority (89%) were willing to co-manage a patient with a CIH provider. Approximately one-third of respondents had some expertise in at least one CIH modality. Over 78% were interested in learning more about the safety and efficacy of at least one CIH modality. Conclusion Primary care providers in the Northwestern United States are generally familiar with CIH modalities, are interested in referring and co-managing care with CIH providers, and would like to have more learning opportunities to increase knowledge of CIH.

C. Sharon Advisor Dov Weisglass, Remarks on Relations with the United States, Disengagement, the Road Map, and the Possibilities of a Palestinian State, Tel Aviv, October 2004 (excerpts)

2005 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 203-207
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
National Security ◽  
Full Text ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
The United States ◽  
Sharp Contrast ◽  
Tel Aviv ◽  
The Road ◽  
Road Map ◽  
The Relationship

Ha'Aretz's lengthy interview with Dov Weisglass, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's ““point man”” with Washington and probably his closest advisor, was conducted by Ari Shavit and published first in excerpts and two days later in its entirety. In addition to bringing into sharp contrast the contradiction between Israel's declaratory policies and assurances and its actual policies and intentions——and in so doing eliciting a swift ““clarification”” from the Prime Minister's Office——the interview also conveys a sense of the intimacy and easy camaraderie that characterizes U.S.-Israeli interactions. The full text is available at www.haaretz.com. Tell me about the dynamics of the relationship between you [and U.S. national security advisor Condoleezza Rice], and whether it's an unusual relationship.

The Telephone Problem and the Road to Telephone Regulation in the United States, 1876–1917

1991 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey E. Cohen
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Interest Group ◽  
The United States ◽  
Policy Outcomes ◽  
Policy Outcome ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Road ◽  
Telephone Companies ◽  
Private Interests ◽  
Multiple Interest

Between 1876 and 1917, government philosophy toward telephone regulation began moving away from laissez-faire and toward some kind of involvement in economic affairs. However, while some early studies of regulation suggest business hostility to that policy, AT&T actively sought regulation, jogging government and the public in that direction. But this study is not just a restatement of the interest-group-capture theory, as offered by such economists as Stigler or historians as Kolko. Regulation resulted from the convergence of interests of many affected players, including residential and business telephone subscribers, the independent telephone companies that competed with AT&T, and the state and federal governments, as well as AT&T. I employ a multiple interest theory to account for telephone regulation, but unlike other studies using such a framework, I suggest that government is an independent actor with impact on the final policy outcome, and not merely an arena where private interests battle for control over policy outcomes, as is so common among other multiple interest studies of regulation.

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