American Medical Sociology and Health Problems in the Global South

2022 ◽  
pp. 073112142110677
Author(s):  
Rebecca Farber ◽  
Joseph Harris
Keyword(s):  
American Medical ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Medical Sociology ◽  
The United States ◽  
Health Problems ◽  
Emerging Diseases ◽  
Noncommunicable Disease ◽  
Disease Spread ◽  
Noncommunicable Diseases ◽  
Official Journal

COVID-19 has focused global attention on disease spread across borders. But how has research on infectious and noncommunicable disease figured into the sociological imagination historically, and to what degree has American medical sociology examined health problems beyond U.S. borders? Our 35-year content analysis of 2,588 presentations in the American Sociological Association’s (ASA) Section on Medical Sociology and 922 articles within the section’s official journal finds less than 15 percent of total research examined contexts outside the United States. Research on three infectious diseases in the top eight causes of death in low-income countries (diarrheal disease, malaria, and tuberculosis [TB]) and emerging diseases—Ebola, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)—was nearly absent, as was research on major noncommunicable diseases. Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS) received much more focus, although world regions hit hardest received scant attention. Interviews suggest a number of factors shape geographic foci of research, but this epistemic parochialism may ultimately impoverish sociological understanding of illness and disease.

scholarly journals Risk factors of adolescent health: mass poll results

2020 ◽  
Vol 65 (3) ◽  
pp. 91-99
Author(s):  
R. U. Khabriev ◽  
R. I. Yagudina ◽  
M. A. Rashid ◽  
E. E. Arinina
Keyword(s):  
Risk Factors ◽  
Healthy Lifestyle ◽  
The Body ◽  
Noncommunicable Disease ◽  
Disease Spread ◽  
Noncommunicable Diseases ◽  
Fresh Vegetables ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Close Relatives ◽  
Public Health Epidemiology

Objective. To study the risk factors of noncommunicable disease spread in adolescents based on the mass pole results.Methods. The authors conducted four waves of study within the framework of the monitoring project “Risk factors for human health” in 2014–2017. The study included a multistage stratified territorial random sample of 1,691 patients over 11 years. The research population included 170 adolescents (11–19 years) (10%).Results. An adverse profile of risk factors for noncommunicable diseases was predetermined by: overweight in adolescents (10%), increased blood pressure (18%), unfavorable history of cardiovascular events in close relatives (60–70%), nutritional disorders (80–96%) , low level of physical activity (5%), smoking (20%), and alcohol consumption (26% of respondents). The body weight deficiency (35%) and overweight (10%), along with sufficient consumption of fresh vegetables and fruits in only 7% of cases reflects gross malnutrition of adolescents, which determines their future development. Awareness of adolescents of the main risk factors for noncommunicable diseases remains low (less than 30–40% for different factors). The example of close relatives, friends and stressful situations predetermine the emergence of bad habits (consumption of alcohol and tobacco) in adolescents.Scope of application. Pediatrics, public health, epidemiology.Conclusion. In order to correct adverse risk factors of noncommunicable diseases, it is necessary to attract a wide range of specialists, including intensive family and personal psychological consultations with adolescents. These measures will motivate adolescents to a healthy lifestyle and reduce the burden of noncommunicable diseases in the population of the Russian Federation.

scholarly journals Expanding the definition of noncommunicable disease

2016 ◽  
Vol 04 (02) ◽  
pp. 067-070 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ranabir Salam
Keyword(s):  
Liver Disease ◽  
Road Traffic ◽  
Public Health Problem ◽  
The United States ◽  
Noncommunicable Disease ◽  
World Health ◽  
Noncommunicable Diseases ◽  
World Population ◽  
The World ◽  
Definition Of

AbstractNoncommunicable diseases (NCDs) are responsible for 68% of all deaths in 2012. Eighty-two percent of these “premature” deaths occurred in low- and middle-income countries. Most of the NCD deaths are caused by cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes, chronic respiratory diseases, mental health, road traffic accidents, and violence. The World Health Organization, several governments, and nongovernmental organizations have taken up numerous programs to curb the menace of NCDs. However, the present programs do not include some common chronic medical conditions which also lead to considerable morbidity and mortality. The present review highlights three important chronic disorders: chronic kidney disease (CKD), liver disease (cirrhosis and nonalcoholic fatty liver), and thyroid diseases. CKD is an internationally recognized public health problem affecting 5–10% of the world population. CKD resulted in 956,000 deaths in 2013 and proposes them to be included in the world wide accepted definition of NCD. Cirrhosis and chronic liver disease were the tenth leading cause of death for men and the twelfth for women in the United States in 2001. Moreover, 4–10% of the global population have thyroid dysfunction. This mini-review proposes to expand the definition of NCD to include these three major illnesses.

scholarly journals Community health workers at the dawn of a new era

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (S3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph M. Zulu ◽  
Henry B. Perry
Keyword(s):  
Community Health ◽  
Population Health ◽  
Community Health Workers ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Health Workers ◽  
The United States ◽  
Noncommunicable Diseases ◽  
Full Potential ◽  
New Era

Abstract Background There is now rapidly growing global awareness of the potential of large-scale community health worker (CHW) programmes not only for improving population health but, even more importantly, for accelerating the achievement of universal health coverage and eliminating readily preventable child and maternal deaths. However, these programmes face many challenges that must be overcome in order for them to reach their full potential. Findings This editorial introduces a series of 11 articles that provide an overview highlighting a broad range of issues facing large-scale CHW programmes. The series addresses many of them: planning, coordination and partnerships; governance, financing, roles and tasks, training, supervision, incentives and remuneration; relationships with the health system and communities; and programme performance and its assessment. Above all, CHW programmes need stronger political and financial support, and this can occur only if the potential of these programmes is more broadly recognized. The authors of the papers in this series believe that these challenges can and will be overcome—but not overnight. For this reason, the series bears the title “Community Health Workers at the Dawn of a New Era”. The scientific evidence regarding the ability of CHWs to improve population health is incontrovertible, and the favourable experience with these programmes at scale when they are properly designed, implemented, and supported is compelling. CHW programmes were once seen as a second-class solution to a temporary problem, meaning that once the burden of disease from maternal and child conditions and from communicable diseases in low-income countries had been appropriately reduced, there would be no further need for CHWs. That perspective no longer holds. CHW programmes are now seen as an essential component of a high-performing healthcare system even in developed countries. Their use is growing rapidly in the United States, for instance. And CHWs are also now recognized as having a critically important role in the control of noncommunicable diseases as well as in the response to pandemics of today and tomorrow in all low-, middle-, and high-income countries throughout the world. Conclusion The promise of CHW programmes is too great not to provide them with the support they need to achieve their full potential. This series helps to point the way for how this support can be provided.

scholarly journals XGBoost-Based Framework for Smoking-Induced Noncommunicable Disease Prediction

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (18) ◽  
pp. 6513
Author(s):  
Khishigsuren Davagdorj ◽  
Van Huy Pham ◽  
Nipon Theera-Umpon ◽  
Keun Ho Ryu
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
The United States ◽  
Noncommunicable Disease ◽  
Noncommunicable Diseases ◽  
Gradient Boosting ◽  
Chi Square ◽  
Proposed Model ◽  
Extreme Gradient Boosting ◽  
Chi Square Test ◽  
Interpretable Models

Smoking-induced noncommunicable diseases (SiNCDs) have become a significant threat to public health and cause of death globally. In the last decade, numerous studies have been proposed using artificial intelligence techniques to predict the risk of developing SiNCDs. However, determining the most significant features and developing interpretable models are rather challenging in such systems. In this study, we propose an efficient extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost) based framework incorporated with the hybrid feature selection (HFS) method for SiNCDs prediction among the general population in South Korea and the United States. Initially, HFS is performed in three stages: (I) significant features are selected by t-test and chi-square test; (II) multicollinearity analysis serves to obtain dissimilar features; (III) final selection of best representative features is done based on least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO). Then, selected features are fed into the XGBoost predictive model. The experimental results show that our proposed model outperforms several existing baseline models. In addition, the proposed model also provides important features in order to enhance the interpretability of the SiNCDs prediction model. Consequently, the XGBoost based framework is expected to contribute for early diagnosis and prevention of the SiNCDs in public health concerns.

The reality of the Noncommunicable disease policy landscape in Low Income Countries: the example of Mozambique

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Khatia Rebeca Munguambe ◽  
Tavares Madede ◽  
Vasco Muchanga ◽  
Claire Somerville ◽  
David Henri Beran ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Noncommunicable Disease ◽  
Low Income Countries ◽  
Noncommunicable Diseases ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
External Resources ◽  
Low Income Country ◽  
Middle Income Countries ◽  
Government Documents

Abstract Background Noncommunicable diseases (NCD) are the leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide with a disproportionate burden affecting low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). Mozambique, is a low income country situated in Southern Africa with an emerging burden of NCDs, but still facing a large challenge with regards to communicable diseases. Using the policy prioritisation framework developed by Shiffman and Smith this study aims to present the different elements that have shaped the current policy landscape for NCDs in Mozambique.Results The policy review identified 18 documents, and seven KIs were interviewed. The policy community could be seen as cohesive in that a few leading experts in Mozambique agreed on both the challenges of NCDs and the possible response, but overall leadership was lacking. Although the Ministry of Health and its NCD Department were seen as the guiding institutions the Department was not resourced to be able to fulfil its mandate. Some external resources were available to assist, but these were insufficient. In addition civil society mobilisation was missing. With regards to ideas three disconnects were present: language used in overarching government documents and their translation into practice; the views of experts; and the perceptions of NCDs in a context like Mozambique in contrast to other health issues. The NCD Department and different strategies and government documents laid out the governing structure, but again a lack of resources hampered progress. This was compounded by a lack of understanding of the problem and solutions, as well as barriers to integrate the NCD response with HIV/AIDS for example. Conclusions This study shows that despite gaining prominence on the global health agenda, NCDs have yet to truly gain a strong foothold on the policy agenda of LMICs such as Mozambique. In order to do this both governments and donors need to be sensitised to this issue as well as clear guidance developed to enable countries to have practical solutions to address both prevention and treatment of NCDs in underfunded and weak health systems, but also be able to build on existing initiatives to improve the health and well-being of populations.

The Role of Nutrition in Integrative Preventive Medicine

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Walter C. Willett
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Healthcare Providers ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The United States ◽  
Fellowship Training ◽  
Dietary Factors ◽  
Low Income Countries ◽  
Noncommunicable Diseases ◽  
Premature Deaths ◽  
Major Illness

Until recently, and still today in low-income countries, undernutrition during pregnancy and early childhood was a major cause of mortality. However, in recent decades, noncommunicable diseases account for the majority of premature deaths both in the United States and globally. Although dietary factors have been identified as the most important causes of this, physicians and other healthcare providers are taught little about nutrition in medical school or fellowship training. In conventional medical practice almost no attention is given to knowing what a patient is eating or providing dietary guidance that has the potential to improve dramatically their long-term health. This chapter describes what we know about the elements of a healthy diet and how these elements can be combined into an overall dietary pattern for the prevention of major illness and promotion of well-being. A brief section considers ways that this knowledge can be integrated into preventive healthcare.

scholarly journals The EAT-Lancet Commission's Dietary Composition May Not Prevent Noncommunicable Disease Mortality

2020 ◽  
Vol 150 (5) ◽  
pp. 985-988 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francisco J Zagmutt ◽  
Jane G Pouzou ◽  
Solenne Costard
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
Dietary Guidelines ◽  
Noncommunicable Disease ◽  
Noncommunicable Diseases ◽  
Independent Validation ◽  
Disease Mortality ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Commission Report ◽  
Reduction Effect ◽  
The Impact

ABSTRACT The recently published EAT-Lancet Commission report on dietary impacts on the environment suggested that their proposed diet could prevent more than 10 million annual premature mortalities from noncommunicable diseases globally. The report did not meet standards for transparency and replicability, nor did it fully account for statistical uncertainty. Our attempt to replicate the mortality calculations for the United States revealed flaws in the assumptions and methods used to estimate the avoided mortalities. After correcting some calculation errors and fully accounting for uncertainty in the avoided mortalities, the mortality reduction effect of the EAT-Lancet proposed diet in the USA is no greater than the impact of energy consumption changes that would prevent under-weight, over-weight, and obesity alone. As our findings call into question the global conclusions of the EAT-Lancet report, futher independent validation is needed before it can be used to inform dietary guidelines.

Demonstrating Nutrient Cost Gradients: A Brooklyn Case Study

2014 ◽  
Vol 84 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 244-251 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert J. Karp ◽  
Gary Wong ◽  
Marguerite Orsi
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Energy Content ◽  
Food Selection ◽  
The United States ◽  
United States Department ◽  
Micronutrient Deficiencies ◽  
Caloric Density ◽  
Low Income Families ◽  
The Cost ◽  
The Impact

Abstract. Introduction: Foods dense in micronutrients are generally more expensive than those with higher energy content. These cost-differentials may put low-income families at risk of diminished micronutrient intake. Objectives: We sought to determine differences in the cost for iron, folate, and choline in foods available for purchase in a low-income community when assessed for energy content and serving size. Methods: Sixty-nine foods listed in the menu plans provided by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) for low-income families were considered, in 10 domains. The cost and micronutrient content for-energy and per-serving of these foods were determined for the three micronutrients. Exact Kruskal-Wallis tests were used for comparisons of energy costs; Spearman rho tests for comparisons of micronutrient content. Ninety families were interviewed in a pediatric clinic to assess the impact of food cost on food selection. Results: Significant differences between domains were shown for energy density with both cost-for-energy (p < 0.001) and cost-per-serving (p < 0.05) comparisons. All three micronutrient contents were significantly correlated with cost-for-energy (p < 0.01). Both iron and choline contents were significantly correlated with cost-per-serving (p < 0.05). Of the 90 families, 38 (42 %) worried about food costs; 40 (44 %) had chosen foods of high caloric density in response to that fear, and 29 of 40 families experiencing both worry and making such food selection. Conclusion: Adjustments to USDA meal plans using cost-for-energy analysis showed differentials for both energy and micronutrients. These differentials were reduced using cost-per-serving analysis, but were not eliminated. A substantial proportion of low-income families are vulnerable to micronutrient deficiencies.

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