Income Inequality and Psychosocial Pathways to Obesity

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kate E. Pickett ◽  
Richard G. Wilkinson
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Drug Abuse ◽  
Well Being ◽  
General Picture ◽  
Income Differences ◽  
Causal Pathways ◽  
The Social ◽  
Class Status ◽  
Teenage Births ◽  
Almost All

Almost all health and social problems that have social gradients (more common further down the social ladder) are very much more common in societies with bigger income differences between rich and poor. Obesity is part of a very general picture to do with class, status and inequality that affects longevity, violence, mental health, teenage births, drug abuse and child well-being, among other outcomes. The causal pathways through which obesity might be affected by inequality are discussed in this chapter.

National Identification, A Social Cure for COVID-19? Evidence From 67 Countries

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Bonetto ◽  
Sylvain Delouvée ◽  
Yara Mahfud ◽  
Jais Adam-Troian
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Physical Health ◽  
Perceived Risk ◽  
Mixed Model ◽  
Health Benefits ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
National Identification ◽  
The Social ◽  
Mental Health Benefits

Social distancing and mass quarantines were implemented worldwide in response to the current COVID-19 pandemic. Prior research on the effects of social isolation has shown that such measures bear negative consequences for population health and well-being. Conversely, a growing body of evidence suggests that feeling positively identified with a group is associated with a range of physical and mental health benefits. This effect is referred to as the social cure and generalizes to various identities. In line with these findings, this study tested whether national identification could promote wellbeing and physical health during the COVID-19 pandemic. To do so, we used survey data conducted among 67 countries (N = 46,450) which included measures of wellbeing, national identification, and subjective physical health. Mixed-model analyses revealed that national identity was indeed associated with wellbeing - despite adjustment on social belonging, COVID-19 perceived risk, exposure, and ideology. This effect did not extend to subjective health. These results suggest that the mere feeling of belonging to a national group may have mental health benefits and could be leveraged by governments. We discuss the implications of our findings within the social cure framework and their relevance for population mental health under COVID-19.

Comparing the social networks of service users with long term mental health needs living in community with those in a general adult in-patient unit

2021 ◽  
pp. 002076402110175
Author(s):  
Roberto Rusca ◽  
Ike-Foster Onwuchekwa ◽  
Catherine Kinane ◽  
Douglas MacInnes
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Social Networks ◽  
Social Network ◽  
Patient Group ◽  
Mental Health Problems ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Health Problems ◽  
Practical Support ◽  
The Social

Background: Relationships are vital to recovery however, there is uncertainty whether users have different types of social networks in different mental health settings and how these networks may impact on users’ wellbeing. Aims: To compare the social networks of people with long-term mental illness in the community with those of people in a general adult in-patient unit. Method: A sample of general adult in-patients with enduring mental health problems, aged between 18 and 65, was compared with a similar sample attending a general adult psychiatric clinic. A cross-sectional survey collected demographic data and information about participants’ social networks. Participants also completed the Short Warwick Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale to examine well-being and the Significant Others Scale to explore their social network support. Results: The study recruited 53 participants (25 living in the community and 28 current in-patients) with 339 named as important members of their social networks. Both groups recorded low numbers in their social networks though the community sample had a significantly greater number of social contacts (7.4 vs. 5.4), more monthly contacts with members of their network and significantly higher levels of social media use. The in-patient group reported greater levels of emotional and practical support from their network. Conclusions: People with serious and enduring mental health problems living in the community had a significantly greater number of people in their social network than those who were in-patients while the in-patient group reported greater levels of emotional and practical support from their network. Recommendations for future work have been made.

scholarly journals Renaming schizophrenia: 5 × 5

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (03) ◽  
pp. 254-257 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sinan Guloksuz ◽  
Jim van Os
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Long Run ◽  
The Social ◽  
Technical Features ◽  
In The Beginning

AbstractThere had been a long way to go before we felt comfortable about even discussing the issues revolving around the concept of ‘schizophrenia’, let alone reckoning on mere semantic revision. In this editorial, we aim to extend our discussion on the reasons behind the slow death of the concept of ‘schizophrenia’ and the benefits of changing the name and embracing a spectrum approach with an umbrella psychosis spectrum disorder (PSD) category (similar to autism spectrum disorder) that goes further than a mere semantic revision. We attempted to cover the topic of the renaming by providing five most pertinent points categorised under five domains: reasons, signals, challenges, promises and steps for the change. Admittedly, even a modest revision, such as classifying all psychotic disorder categories under an umbrella category of PSD, and abolishing the term schizophrenia requires careful deliberation and some effort in the beginning, but the revision is well worth the effort considering the benefits in the long run. Renaming a particular form of mental suffering should be accompanied by a broader debate of the entire diagnosis-evidence-based-practice (EBP)-symptom-reduction model as the normative factor driving the content and organisation of mental health services that may be detached from patients’ needs and reality, overlooks the trans-syndromal structure of mental difficulties, appraises the significance of the technical features over the relational and ritual components of care, and underestimates the lack of EBP group-to-individual generalisability. Individuals may make great strides in attaining well-being by accommodating to living with mental vulnerabilities through building resilience in the social and existential domains. Changing the name and the concept of ‘schizophrenia’, which goes beyond a mere semantic revision, may become the first step that allows catalysation of the process of modernising psychiatric science and services worldwide.

scholarly journals Social Representations of e-Mental Health Among the Actors of the Health Care System: Free-Association Study (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margot Morgiève ◽  
Pierre Mesdjian ◽  
Olivier Las Vergnas ◽  
Patrick Bury ◽  
Vincent Demassiet ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health System ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Mental Health Problems ◽  
Social Representations ◽  
Free Association ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Social Representation ◽  
System P ◽  
The Social

BACKGROUND Electronic mental (e-mental) health offers an opportunity to overcome many challenges such as cost, accessibility, and the stigma associated with mental health, and most people with lived experiences of mental problems are in favor of using applications and websites to manage their mental health problems. However, the use of these new technologies remains weak in the area of mental health and psychiatry. OBJECTIVE This study aimed to characterize the social representations associated with e-mental health by all actors to implement new technologies in the best possible way in the health system. METHODS A free-association task method was used. The data were subjected to a lexicometric analysis to qualify and quantify words by analyzing their statistical distribution, using the ALCESTE method with the IRaMuTeQ software. RESULTS In order of frequency, the terms most frequently used to describe e-mental health in the whole corpus are: “care” (n=21), “internet” (n=21), “computing” (n=15), “health” (n=14), “information” (n=13), “patient” (n=12), and “tool” (n=12). The corpus of text is divided into 2 themes, with technological and computing terms on one side and medical and public health terms on the other. The largest family is focused on “care,” “advances,” “research,” “life,” “quality,” and “well-being,” which was significantly associated with users. The nursing group used very medical terms such as “treatment,” “diagnosis,” “psychiatry”,” and “patient” to define e-mental health. CONCLUSIONS This study shows that there is a gap between the representations of users on e-mental health as a tool for improving their quality of life and those of health professionals (except nurses) that are more focused on the technological potential of these digital care tools. Developers, designers, clinicians, and users must be aware of the social representation of e-mental health conditions uses and intention of use. This understanding of everyone’s stakes will make it possible to redirect the development of tools to adapt them as much as possible to the needs and expectations of the actors of the mental health system.

scholarly journals Case Studies in the Culture of Professional Football Players and Mental Welfare and Wellbeing

2020 ◽  
pp. 325-329
Author(s):  
Michael Bennett
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Lived Experience ◽  
Cultural Values ◽  
Personal Experience ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Football Players ◽  
Professional Football ◽  
The Social ◽  
Health And Well Being

AbstractThis chapter draws on the author’s personal experience together with the findings from his qualitative research, to explore the cultural values driving problems of mental health and well-being among professional footballers. The study makes explicit the way in which players are expected to hide their experiences of being objectified—of being subject to gendered, racialised and other forms of dehumanisation—and denied a legitimate lived experience, an authentic heard voice. The chapter illustrates the importance in values-based practice of knowledge of values gained as in this instance by way of qualitative methods from the social sciences being used to fill out knowledge derived from individual personal experience.

The scale of the problem

Psychiatry ◽  
2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca McKnight ◽  
Jonathan Price ◽  
John Geddes
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Disorders ◽  
Mental Disorder ◽  
Mental Health Problems ◽  
Clinical Medicine ◽  
Well Being ◽  
World Health ◽  
The Social ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Health Organization

One in four individuals suffer from a psychiatric disorder at some point in their life, with 15– 20 per cent fitting cri­teria for a mental disorder at any given time. The latter corresponds to around 450 million people worldwide, placing mental disorders as one of the leading causes of global morbidity. Mental health problems represent five of the ten leading causes of disability worldwide. The World Health Organization (WHO) reported in mid 2016 that ‘the global cost of mental illness is £651 billion per year’, stating that the equivalent of 50 million working years was being lost annually due to mental disorders. The financial global impact is clearly vast, but on a smaller scale, the social and psychological impacts of having a mental dis­order on yourself or your family are greater still. It is often difficult for the general public and clin­icians outside psychiatry to think of mental health dis­orders as ‘diseases’ because it is harder to pinpoint a specific pathological cause for them. When confronted with this view, it is helpful to consider that most of medicine was actually founded on this basis. For ex­ample, although medicine has been a profession for the past 2500 years, it was only in the late 1980s that Helicobacter pylori was linked to gastric/ duodenal ul­cers and gastric carcinoma, or more recently still that the BRCA genes were found to be a cause of breast cancer. Still much of clinical medicine treats a patient’s symptoms rather than objective abnormalities. The WHO has given the following definition of mental health:… Mental health is defined as a state of well- being in which every individual realizes his or her own po­tential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to her or his community.… This is a helpful definition, because it clearly defines a mental disorder as a condition that disrupts this state in any way, and sets clear goals of treatment for the clinician. It identifies the fact that a disruption of an individual’s mental health impacts negatively not only upon their enjoyment and ability to cope with life, but also upon that of the wider community.

scholarly journals Emotional well-being and social support in social housing neighbourhoods in China

2018 ◽  
Vol 46 (8) ◽  
pp. 3209-3218
Author(s):  
Jinhua Liu ◽  
Hongsheng Chen ◽  
Yang Chen ◽  
Zhigang Li
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Social Housing ◽  
Linear Regression Analysis ◽  
Positive Association ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Chi Square ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
The Social ◽  
Chi Square Test ◽  
Social Associations

Objective This study investigated the effect of the number of close friends (within and outside of social housing neighbourhoods) on the emotional well-being of men and women in social housing neighbourhoods in China. Methods Data (n = 535) were collected in 13 social housing neighbourhoods in Guangzhou from September to December 2013 using the random sample method. The t-test, chi-square test, and linear regression analysis were used to analyse the factors influencing residents’ emotional well-being. Results Having a greater number of close friends living within the social housing neighbourhood had a significantly positive association with the respondents’ emotional well-being (regression coefficient = 0.473). The number of close friends living in nearby neighbourhoods was only positively related to women’s emotional well-being (coefficient = 0.433). Conclusions These results highlight the importance of friendship for residents’ emotional well-being. Especially for women, friendship outside the social housing neighbourhood is essential for good mental health. This conclusion is based on analysis of cross-sectional data, and reflects the directionality of social associations. The mental health of the poor warrants greater attention in China.

scholarly journals “Just as Canadian as Anyone Else”? Experiences of Second-Class Citizenship and the Mental Health of Young Immigrant and Refugee Men in Canada

2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 210-220 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carla T. Hilario ◽  
John L. Oliffe ◽  
Josephine P. Wong ◽  
Annette J. Browne ◽  
Joy L. Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Social Context ◽  
Narrative Analysis ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Young Men ◽  
Transnational Migration ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The Social ◽  
Group Interviews ◽  
Immigrant And Refugee

In recent years, the experiences of immigrant and refugee young men have drawn attention worldwide. Human-induced environmental disasters, local and global conflicts, and increasingly inequitable distributions of wealth have shaped transnational migration patterns. Canada is home to a large immigrant and refugee population, particularly in its urban areas, and supporting the mental health and well-being of these communities is of critical importance. The aim of this article is to report findings from a qualitative study on the social context of mental health among immigrant and refugee young men, with a focus on their migration and resettlement experiences. Informed by the conceptual lens of social context, a thematic narrative analysis approach was used to examine qualitative data from individual and group interviews with 33 young men (age 15 to 22 years) self-identified as immigrants or refugees and were living in Greater Vancouver, western Canada. Three thematic narratives were identified: a better life, living the (immigrant) dream, and starting again from way below. The narratives characterized the social context for immigrant and refugee young men and were connected by a central theme of negotiating second-class citizenship. Implications include the need for mental health frameworks that address marginalization and take into account the contexts and discourses that shape the mental health of immigrant and refugee populations in Canada and worldwide.

scholarly journals Masculinity, Social Connectedness, and Mental Health: Men’s Diverse Patterns of Practice

2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 1247-1261 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah K. McKenzie ◽  
Sunny Collings ◽  
Gabrielle Jenkin ◽  
Jo River
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Social Support ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Social Connectedness ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Support Networks ◽  
Social Connections ◽  
Science Literature ◽  
The Social ◽  
Patterns Of Practice

Men’s mental health has remained undertheorized, particularly in terms of the gendered nature of men’s social relations. While the importance of social connections and strong supportive networks for improving mental health and well-being is well documented, we know little about men’s social support networks or how men go about seeking or mobilizing social support. An in-depth understanding of the gendered nature of men’s social connections and the ways in which the interplay between masculinity and men’s social connections can impact men’s mental health is needed. Fifteen life history interviews were undertaken with men in the community. A theoretical framework of gender relations was used to analyze the men’s interviews. The findings provide rich insights into men’s diverse patterns of practice in regards to seeking or mobilizing social support. While some men differentiated between their social connections with men and women, others experienced difficulties in mobilizing support from existing connections. Some men maintained a desire to be independent, rejecting the need for social support, whereas others established support networks from which they could actively seek support. Overall, the findings suggest that patterns of social connectedness among men are diverse, challenging the social science literature that frames all men’s social relationships as being largely instrumental, and men as less able and less interested than women in building emotional and supportive relationships with others. The implications of these findings for promoting men’s social connectedness and mental health are discussed.

scholarly journals The Social Distribution of Distress and Well-Being in the Canadian Aboriginal Population Living Off Reserve

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Wingert
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Social Support ◽  
Health Outcomes ◽  
Social Status ◽  
Process Model ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Coping Resources ◽  
Mental Health Outcomes ◽  
Aboriginal Population ◽  
The Social

This article examines how the social structure distributes risk and protective factors and mental health outcomes within the off reserve Aboriginal population in Canada. It uses the stress process model, a prominent model in the sociology of mental health, to explore pathways between social status, stress, coping resources, and mental health outcomes. Path analyses are used to decompose total effects on distress and well-being into direct and indirect or mediating pathways. The results suggest that stress, mastery, and social support are important mediators between social status and mental health outcomes. Stress appears to be a stronger contributor to distress while mastery and social support are of higher relative importance to well-being.

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