scholarly journals The Role of Images on Illness Behaviour: Interdisciplinary Theory, Evidence, and Ideas

2020 ◽  
pp. 003329412094560
Author(s):  
Jennifer Murray ◽  
Brian Williams
Keyword(s):  
Health Outcomes ◽  
Health Beliefs ◽  
Intervention Development ◽  
Current Paper ◽  
Illness Experience ◽  
Illness Behaviour ◽  
The Social ◽  
Image Representations ◽  
Behavioural Sciences

If illness behaviour is to be fully understood, the social and behavioural sciences must work together to understand the wider forms in which illness is experienced and communicated with individuals and society. The current paper synthesised literature across social and behavioural sciences exploring illness experience and communication through physical and mental images. It argues that images may have the capacity to embody and influence beliefs, emotions, and health outcomes. While four commonalities exist, facilitating understandings of illness behaviour across the fields (i.e., understanding the importance of the patient perspective; perception of the cause, sense of identity with the illness, consequences, and level of control; health beliefs influencing illness experience, behaviours, and outcomes; and understanding illness beliefs and experiences through an almost exclusive focus on the written or spoken word), we will focus on exploring the fourth commonality. The choice to focus on the role of images on illness behaviour is due to the proliferation of interventions using image-based approaches. While these novel approaches show merit, there is a scarcity of theoretical underpinnings and explorations into the ways in which these are developed and into how people perceive and understand their own illnesses using image representations. The current paper identified that the use of images can elucidate patient and practitioner understandings of illness, facilitate communication, and potentially influence illness behaviours. It further identified commonalities across the social and behavioural sciences to facilitate theory informed understandings of illness behaviour which could be applied to visual intervention development to improve health outcomes.

Resisting the ‘mask’ of old age?: the social meaning of lay health beliefs in later life

1998 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 469-494 ◽  
Author(s):  
STEPHEN CONWAY ◽  
JENNY HOCKEY
Keyword(s):  
Health Beliefs ◽  
Conventional Medicine ◽  
Death And Dying ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Postmodern Theory ◽  
The Social ◽  
Health And Illness ◽  
Lay Health Beliefs ◽  
Depth Interviews

While the substantial literature on lay health beliefs gives some consideration to older people's conceptions of health and illness, it is material which has yet to be examined from the perspective of postmodern theory. This article, therefore, critically examines the value of using ideas from postmodernism in such a context and focuses on data obtained from a series of in-depth interviews with a sample of fifteen older people. During the interviews they were asked to talk about themselves in relation to issues which included health, illness, disease, death and dying. What they said revealed that, while medicine remained a location of power and knowledge, many of their health beliefs were nonetheless at odds with conventional medicine and indeed with the traditionally passive role of the NHS patient. In conclusion, we suggest that, whilst not always in an explicit or conscious sense, interviewees were discovering self-empowering strategies by questioning the meta-narratives through which the social world is fabricated.

‘A Friend a Day Keeps the Doctor Away’: Social Support and Health

2018 ◽  
pp. 24-49
Author(s):  
Ann Oakley
Keyword(s):  
Social Support ◽  
Health Outcomes ◽  
Pregnancy Outcome ◽  
Modern Medicine ◽  
The Social ◽  
Health And Illness ◽  
Research Challenge ◽  
Childbearing Women

Among the social origins of the Social Support and Pregnancy Outcome study, as described in Chapter 1, was the idea that social support is good for health. This chapter attempts to draw together ideas, insights, and problems from disparate areas of sociology, psychology, psychiatry, history, epidemiology, and medicine to address the question: why, in the first place, should anyone suppose that social support can be helpful to childbearing women and their families? The discussions cover the health outcomes influenced by social support; the link between social support and reproduction; how social support works; and the research challenge posed by the certain hostility of modern medicine towards the role of social factors in influencing patterns of health and illness.

scholarly journals Workshop: Social-to-biological processes over the lifecourse and social inequalities in health

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (Supplement_4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Outcomes ◽  
Systemic Inflammation ◽  
Social Inequalities ◽  
Social Inequalities In Health ◽  
Inequalities In Health ◽  
Biological Responses ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract Context Socioeconomic inequalities in health and ageing are observed across contexts and over time, presenting a challenge for public health. The mechanisms driving associations between social conditions and health include biological responses, which in turn are associated with health outcomes. This workshop aims to describe and discuss evidence on the biological embedding of the social environment from research carried out within a large European consortium, and place it within the context of public health. Methods The Lifepath project was funded by the European Commission between 2014-19 and brought together longitudinal datasets from across Europe, as well as an interdisciplinary collective of researchers keen to examine how social inequalities in health are constructed over the lifecourse. Results Four separate studies are presented here. First, Carmeli et al examine the relationship between social position and systemic inflammation through the mediating role of gene regulation. Second, Fraga et al describe the social patterning of chronic inflammation observed in early adolescence. Third, Castagné et al analyse the relationship between social position across the lifecourse and systemic inflammation, and the role of inflammation within the allostatic load heuristic. Fourth, Chadeau-Hyam et al describe social gradients in a multi-system biological health score, and its subsequent relationship with a number of major health outcomes. Discussion We will coordinate a discussion between the audience and workshop participants. The contribution of the inflammatory system to capturing social inequalities and in its association with chronic disease will be discussed. Is it a key player in the construction of health inequalities, or merely an effective signal for many diverse processes? The role biological markers can play in enhancing our understanding of health inequalities, and how the public health community can respond to the evidence will be discussed. Conclusions Socially patterned biological responses begin early in the lifecourse and may be key factors in the construction of social inequalities in health and ageing. As such, they should be taken into account in public health activities and policy. Key messages The biological embodiment of social conditions is observed from early life and across the lifecourse. Systemic inflammation appears to be a central mechanism which is socially patterned and associated with many health outcomes.

scholarly journals The Social Construction of the Social Epigenome and the Larger Biological Context

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
ute deichmann
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Epigenetic Inheritance ◽  
Social Study ◽  
Epistemic Status ◽  
Regulatory Sequences ◽  
Epigenetic Marks ◽  
The Social ◽  
Lamarckian Inheritance ◽  
Behavioural Sciences

Abstract Epigenetics researchers in developmental, cell, and molecular biology greatly diverge in their understanding and definitions of epigenetics. In contrast, social epigeneticists, e.g. sociologists, scholars of STS, and behavioural scientists, share a focus on what they allege to be environmentally-caused and trans-generationally inherited epigenetics. Their emphasis on the environment and so-called Lamarckian inheritance may be the result of wishful thinking and a predilection for the environment, not the gene, as defining factor for phenotypes. However, it also reflects an interdisciplinary power struggle with genetics, in which epigenetics appears to grant the social sciences a higher epistemic status. This article argues that social epigeneticists make far-reaching claims while ignoring widely confirmed scientific evidence, such as the dependence of epigenetic marks on DNA sequence specific events, and the lacking evidence for the lasting influence of the environment on epigenetic marks. Moreover, they treat as given crucial questions that are far from resolved, such as what, if any, the role of DNA methylation is in the complex biochemical system of regulating gene activity. Such shortcomings are not confined to epigenetic studies in the social study of science and behavioural sciences. The article points out biases and media hypes in scientific studies of epigenetics and calls attention to an apparent bias among scientific journals that prefer papers that promote transgenerational epigenetic inheritance over articles that critique it. The article concludes that while research labelled epigenetics contributes significantly to our knowledge about chromatin and the genome, it does not, as is often claimed, rehabilitate Lamarck or overthrow the fundamental biological principles of gene regulation, which are based on specific regulatory sequences of the genome.

scholarly journals What does God have to do with my health?

2014 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Peet J. Van Dyk ◽  
Alta C. Van Dyk
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Health Beliefs ◽  
Medical Model ◽  
Direct Role ◽  
Empirical Survey ◽  
The Social ◽  
Prevention Programmes ◽  
Statistical Program ◽  
African Context

Perceptions about God�s involvement in the health of people have always been an issue in Christianity. Conflicting views regarding the transcendent versus immanent nature of Godhave therefore played a prominent part within theological discussions. The purpose of this empirical survey was to explore the extent to which South African Christians directly attribute their health and/or diseases to the hand of God. A total of 3000 structured questionnaires were distributed of which 575 were received back. The IBM Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS 21) statistical program was used to analyse the data. Most participants disagreed with the view that God largely determined their health, although the majority did think that diseases (including AIDS) were sent by God, whilst playing down the role of natural causes.In conclusion, one could say that health beliefs amongst South Africans are closely linked to supernatural agents, although the direct role of God is seen mostly in terms of the sending of occasional diseases rather than constant involvement in general health.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: The study challenges the applicability of a secularised medical model within the South African context and its relevance for prevention programmes.

‘Chronic cough, cause unknown’: A qualitative study of patient perspectives of chronic refractory cough

2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (6) ◽  
pp. 707-716 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katrin Hulme ◽  
Sian Dogan ◽  
Sean M Parker ◽  
Vincent Deary
Keyword(s):  
Psychological Factors ◽  
Intervention Development ◽  
Social Dimension ◽  
Treatment Resistant ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Physiological Processes ◽  
Cognitive Behavioural ◽  
The Social ◽  
Patients Experience

Chronic refractory cough patients have persistent, unexplained, treatment-resistant symptoms. Very little is known about non-physiological processes underlying chronic refractory cough or patients’ experience of the condition. In all, 14 patients participated in semi-structured interviews. Interviews were based on the comprehensive cognitive behavioural model and analysed thematically. Eight key themes emerged illustrating that the experience of the onset and persistence of chronic refractory cough is complex, often involving multiple interlinking factors. Themes highlighted the involvement of biological and psychological factors, and the prominent role of the social dimension in how the cough is experienced, perceived and managed. Implications for intervention development are discussed.

Chronic Pain: Fundamental Scientific Considerations, Specifically for Legal Claims

2013 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert J. Barth
Keyword(s):  
Health Outcomes ◽  
Pain Perception ◽  
Driving Forces ◽  
Psychological Treatment ◽  
Dominant Role ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
General Medicine ◽  
Pain Syndrome ◽  
Problematic Relationship

Abstract Scientific findings have indicated that psychological and social factors are the driving forces behind most chronic benign pain presentations, especially in a claim context, and are relevant to at least three of the AMA Guides publications: AMA Guides to Evaluation of Disease and Injury Causation, AMA Guides to Work Ability and Return to Work, and AMA Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment. The author reviews and summarizes studies that have identified the dominant role of financial, psychological, and other non–general medicine factors in patients who report low back pain. For example, one meta-analysis found that compensation results in an increase in pain perception and a reduction in the ability to benefit from medical and psychological treatment. Other studies have found a correlation between the level of compensation and health outcomes (greater compensation is associated with worse outcomes), and legal systems that discourage compensation for pain produce better health outcomes. One study found that, among persons with carpal tunnel syndrome, claimants had worse outcomes than nonclaimants despite receiving more treatment; another examined the problematic relationship between complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) and compensation and found that cases of CRPS are dominated by legal claims, a disparity that highlights the dominant role of compensation. Workers’ compensation claimants are almost never evaluated for personality disorders or mental illness. The article concludes with recommendations that evaluators can consider in individual cases.

Social Representations and Commitment

2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 233-249 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Bonetto ◽  
Fabien Girandola ◽  
Grégory Lo Monaco
Keyword(s):  
Social Representations ◽  
Social Representation ◽  
Second Line ◽  
Review Of The Literature ◽  
First Line ◽  
Research Perspectives ◽  
The Social ◽  
Bibliographic Search ◽  
English Articles

Abstract. This contribution consists of a critical review of the literature about the articulation of two traditionally separated theoretical fields: social representations and commitment. Besides consulting various works and communications, a bibliographic search was carried out (between February and December, 2016) on various databases using the keywords “commitment” and “social representation,” in the singular and in the plural, in French and in English. Articles published in English or in French, that explicitly made reference to both terms, were included. The relations between commitment and social representations are approached according to two approaches or complementary lines. The first line follows the role of commitment in the representational dynamics: how can commitment transform the representations? This articulation gathers most of the work on the topic. The second line envisages the social representations as determinants of commitment procedures: how can these representations influence the effects of commitment procedures? This literature review will identify unexploited tracks, as well as research perspectives for both areas of research.

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