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Clear as a bell? Policy stringency and elderly health during Covid-19 Social Science & Medicine (IF 5.4) Pub Date : 2024-04-16 Jules Dupuy, Thomas Barnay, Eric Defebvre
This paper investigates how restriction policies have impacted elderly self-assessed health (SAH) in Europe during the pandemic, and how the Covid-19 infection interacts with policy stringency to modulate the SAH deterioration. Using the Survey of Health, Aging and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) between October 2019 and August 2021, including 9,034 adults aged 50 years and above, alongside with a stringency
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From classroom to life: Gender differences in the persistent effect of learning disabilities on adult depressive symptoms Social Science & Medicine (IF 5.4) Pub Date : 2024-04-15 Hyunseo Rim, Hyewon Son, Jinho Kim
Despite the well-established link between adolescent learning disabilities (LD) and mental health, little is known about its long-term consequences. This study examines the relationship between adolescent LD and adult depressive symptoms, with a focus on gender differences and underlying mechanisms. Using a sibling sample from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health ( = 3,414)
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Comparing preferences for skin cancer screening: AI-enabled app vs dermatologist Social Science & Medicine (IF 5.4) Pub Date : 2024-04-15 Susanne Gaube, Isabell Biebl, Magdalena Karin Maria Engelmann, Anne-Kathrin Kleine, Eva Lermer
Skin cancer is a major public health issue. While self-examinations and professional screenings are recommended, they are rarely performed. Mobile health (mHealth) apps utilising artificial intelligence (AI) for skin cancer screening offer a potential solution to aid self-examinations; however, their uptake is low. Therefore, the aim of this research was to examine provider and user characteristics
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Access and triage in contemporary general practice: A novel theory of digital candidacy Social Science & Medicine (IF 5.4) Pub Date : 2024-04-13 Francesca H. Dakin, Sarah Rybczynska-Bunt, Rebecca Rosen, Aileen Clarke, Trisha Greenhalgh
To access contemporary healthcare, patients must find and navigate a complex socio-technical network of human and digital actors linked in multi-modal pathways. Asynchronous, digitally-mediated triage decisions have largely replaced synchronous conversations between humans. In this paper, we draw on a large qualitative dataset from a multi-site study of remote and digital technologies in general practice
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Understanding posthumous sperm retrieval during war through a terror management theory perspective Social Science & Medicine (IF 5.4) Pub Date : 2024-04-12 Ayelet Oreg, Orit Taubman – Ben-Ari
Terror Management Theory (Tmt, solomon et al., 1991) claims that individuals use three anxiety buffer mechanisms to regulate their death awareness – cultural worldviews, self-esteem, and proximity seeking. In this article, we use these three TMT anxiety buffers to explain the phenomenon of posthumous sperm retrieval, requested by spouses or parents, usually of young soldiers who died during their military
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Profits over care? An analysis of the relationship between corporate capitalism in the healthcare industry and cancer mortality in the United States Social Science & Medicine (IF 5.4) Pub Date : 2024-04-12 Teresa Perry, Alexandra Bernasek
The characteristic features of 21st-century corporate capitalism – monopoly and financialization – are increasingly being recognized by public health scholars as undermining the foundations of human health. While the “vectors” through which this is occurring are well known – poverty, inequality, climate change among others – locating the root cause of this process in the nature and institutions of
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Provision of gender affirming care among medical and allied health practitioners: The influence of transnormative beliefs in working with gender diverse patients Social Science & Medicine (IF 5.4) Pub Date : 2024-04-10 Molly Speechley, Jaimee Stuart, Riley A. Scott, Bonnie L. Barber, Melanie J. Zimmer-Gembeck
Gender diverse patients (including gender diverse, transgender, and non-binary people) deserve quality health care, which has been referred to as gender affirming care. Given that practitioners' attitudes and competence can influence their provision of gender affirming care, this study used a lens of transnormativity (Bradford & Syed, 2019; Johnson, 2016) to develop a measure of practitioners' transnormative
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Corrigendum to ‘Evaluating the effects of the 2017 National health Insurance coverage expansion on amenable mortality and its disparities between areas in South Korea using Bayesian structural time-series models’ [Soc. Sci. Med. 344 (2024) 116574] Social Science & Medicine (IF 5.4) Pub Date : 2024-04-09 Sang Jun Eun
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Getting it right with discrete choice experiments: Are we hot or cold? Social Science & Medicine (IF 5.4) Pub Date : 2024-04-09 Semra Ozdemir, Juan Marcos Gonzalez, Prateek Bansal, Vinh Anh Huynh, Ban Leong Sng, Eric Finkelstein
Discrete Choice Experiments (DCEs) are widely employed survey-based methods to assess preferences for healthcare services and products. While they offer an experimental way to represent health-related decisions, the stylized representation of scenarios in DCEs may overlook contextual factors that could influence decision-making. The aim of this paper was to evaluate the predictive validity of preferences
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Amazons in Mali? Women's experiences of breast cancer and gender (re)negotiation Social Science & Medicine (IF 5.4) Pub Date : 2024-04-08 Clémence Schantz, Abdourahmane Coulibaly, Kadiatou Faye, Drissa Traoré, the SENOVIE group
Breast cancer is the second most common cancer, with more than 2.31 million cases diagnosed worldwide in 2022. Cancer medicine subjects the body to invasive procedures in the hope of offering a chance of recovery. In the course of treatment, the body is pricked, burned, incised and amputated, sometimes shattering identity and often changing the way women perceive the world. In sub-Saharan Africa, incidence
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The illusion of treatment choice in abortion care: A qualitative study of comparative care experiences in England and Wales Social Science & Medicine (IF 5.4) Pub Date : 2024-04-07 Katy Footman
Treatment choice is a key component of quality, person-centred care, but policies promoting choice often ignore how capacity to choose is unequally distributed and influenced by social structures. In abortion care, the choice of either medication or a procedure is limited in many countries, but the structuring of treatment choice from the perspective of people accessing abortion care is poorly understood
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Examining the non-linear effects of education on Alzheimer's and non-Alzheimer's disease: Sex-stratified analysis of 17,671 older persons Social Science & Medicine (IF 5.4) Pub Date : 2024-04-04 Tau Ming Liew, Li Chang Ang
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Exploring experiences with alcohol and how drinking has changed over time among minority ethnic groups with a diagnosed mental health problem Social Science & Medicine (IF 5.4) Pub Date : 2024-04-04 Jo-Anne Puddephatt, Millissa Booth, Juliana Onwumere, Jayati Das-Munshi, Ross Coomber, Laura Goodwin
Minority ethnic groups are more likely to experience poor mental health but less likely to seek formal support. Mental health problems and alcohol use (including non-drinking) co-occur, the reasons for this among minority ethnic groups are not well understood. This study explored i) alcohol use among minority ethnic individuals with a mental health problem,ii) how alcohol was used before individuals
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Access Denied: A qualitative Study on transgender health policy in Egypt Social Science & Medicine (IF 5.4) Pub Date : 2024-04-03 Nora Noralla
For this paper, I conducted an interdisciplinary qualitative study to investigate transgender experiences accessing gender-affirming healthcare (GAH) in Egypt. I outline how the current health policy on GAH was developed and its negative impact, celebrating the resilience of transgender people in navigating the hostile anti-transgender environment, and conclude by offering some health policy recommendations
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Identifying promising themes and messages for youth vaping prevention: A national study Social Science & Medicine (IF 5.4) Pub Date : 2024-04-03 Emily F. Galper, Nisha Gottfredson O'Shea, Caroline Ritchie, Alex Kresovich, Haijing Ma, Erin L. Sutfin, Paschal Sheeran, Seth M. Noar
Use of e-cigarettes and vapes among adolescents continues to be a major public health concern. Health communication efforts can discourage e-cigarette use among adolescents by influencing beliefs and behavior. However, to do so, studies need to identify the most promising themes and messages based on the latest evidence about the harms of e-cigarettes and vaping. Participants were a nationally representative
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The effect of silent eating during school lunchtime on COVID-19 outbreaks Social Science & Medicine (IF 5.4) Pub Date : 2024-04-03 Ryo Takahashi, Kengo Igei, Yusuke Tsugawa, Makiko Nakamuro
Silent eating—no talking during mealtimes—has been used as a measure to reduce the spread of the COVID-19 infection because the emission of droplets during conversations has been considered a risk factor for spreading the virus. Japan implemented silent eating during school lunchtimes in May 2020, and it remained in effect until November 2022. However, concerns have been raised regarding its potential
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The impact of an economic empowerment intervention on intimate partner violence among women engaged in sex work in southern Uganda: A cluster randomized control trial Social Science & Medicine (IF 5.4) Pub Date : 2024-04-03 Josephine Nabayinda, Susan S. Witte, Samuel Kizito, Flavia Nanteza, Edward Nsubuga, Ozge Sensoy Bahar, Proscovia Nabunya, Fred M. Ssewamala
Women engaged in sex work (WESW) are at heightened risk of experiencing intimate partner violence (IPV) compared to women in the general population. This study examines the impact of an economic empowerment intervention on IPV among WESW in Southern Uganda. We used data from 542 WESW in Southern Uganda recruited from 19 HIV hotspots between June 2019 and March 2020. Eligible participants were 18+ years
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To stay or not to stay at home? The unintended consequences of public health advice for older adults in the context of Covid-19 and urban heat Social Science & Medicine (IF 5.4) Pub Date : 2024-04-03 Zofia Boni, Diotima Bertel, Viktoria Adler
Stay-at-home advice is one of the most widespread public health solutions to various health risks, including Covid-19 and heat stress. Authorities often direct this recommendation to adults above 65 years old, a group particularly vulnerable to multiple risks. While this advice aims to save lives, when prolonged it also comes with various negative unintended consequences. It increases older adults’
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Short-term changes in mental health help-seeking behaviors following exposure to multiple social stressors and a natural disaster Social Science & Medicine (IF 5.4) Pub Date : 2024-04-02 Sophia C. Ryan, Margaret M. Sugg, Jennifer D. Runkle, Luke Wertis, Devyani Singh, Shannon Green
In 2020, unprecedented circumstances led to significant mental health consequences. Individuals faced mental health stressors that extended beyond the devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, including widespread social unrest following the murder of George Floyd, an intense hurricane season in the Atlantic, and the politically divisive 2020 election. The objective of this analysis was to consider
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Health geography in the time of Covid-19: Selected papers from the 19th International Medical Geography Symposium, Edinburgh, UK, July 2022 Social Science & Medicine (IF 5.4) Pub Date : 2024-04-02 Jamie Pearce, Niamh Shortt
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Local government spending and mental health: Untangling the impacts using a dynamic modelling approach Social Science & Medicine (IF 5.4) Pub Date : 2024-03-31 Ekaterina Melianova, Tim T Morris, George Leckie, David Manley
This study investigated the impact of local government spending on mental health in England between 2013 and 2019. Guided by the “Health in All Policies" vision, which encourages the integration of health in all decision-making areas, we explored how healthcare and multiple nonmedical budgeting decisions related to population mental health. We used random curve general cross-lagged modelling to dynamically
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The mental health benefits and costs of critical consciousness: A longitudinal investigation of the co-occurring positive and negative effects of critical consciousness among sexual minorities Social Science & Medicine (IF 5.4) Pub Date : 2024-03-31 Randolph C.H. Chan
Critical consciousness is a powerful tool for individuals from marginalized groups to transcend their oppressive conditions through engagement in critical reflection, motivation, and action. Nonetheless, the mental health benefits and costs of critical consciousness have received limited research attention. The present study utilized a longitudinal research design to explore the positive and negative
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A single dose for me, A wealth of protection for us: The public health cost of individualism in the rollout of COVID-19 vaccine Social Science & Medicine (IF 5.4) Pub Date : 2024-03-31 Wei Fu, Li-San Wang, Shin-Yi Chou
This study examines whether individualism weakens the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccine eligibility expansions in the United States in 2021, and assesses the associated social benefits or costs associated with individualism. We construct a county-level composite individualism index as a proxy of culture and the fraction of vaccine eligible population as a proxy of vaccination campaign (mean: 41
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The gender of PrEP: Transgender men negotiating legitimacy in France Social Science & Medicine (IF 5.4) Pub Date : 2024-03-31 Clark Pignedoli, Paul Rivest
Transmasculine people (TM) constitute an invisibilized group within the transgender population. Little is known about their relationship to sexuality in transgender medicine. Their presence and needs are still unacknowledged within HIV prevention research and services. Pre-exposure prophylaxis (or PrEP) is an oral medication that prevents HIV in HIV-negative individuals at risk of infection with the
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“That’s not at all what I needed” trans adults' perspectives on trans-affirming primary care and eating disorders Social Science & Medicine (IF 5.4) Pub Date : 2024-03-30 Emil K. Smith, Erin N. Harrop
Transgender and gender diverse adults, referred to collectively as trans, experience eating disorders (EDs) at high rates and struggle to find primary care providers (PCPs) knowledgeable in both gender-affirming care and EDs. Most research regarding healthcare experiences of trans people with EDs focuses on specialized treatment. This qualitative study explored the experiences of trans patients with
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Impacts of active mobility on individual health mediated by physical activities Social Science & Medicine (IF 5.4) Pub Date : 2024-03-30 Hui Kong, Jingyi Wu, Pengfei Li
Active mobility, encompassing walking and cycling for transportation, is a potential solution to health issues arising from inadequate physical activity in modern society. However, the extent of active mobility's impact on individual physical activity levels, and its association with health as mediated by physical activities, is not fully quantified. This study aims to clarify the direct relationship
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Direct and vicarious exposure to healthcare discrimination and erasure among transgender and gender independent individuals: Testing the indirect effect of mistrust in healthcare on utilization behaviors Social Science & Medicine (IF 5.4) Pub Date : 2024-03-30 Kyle L. Mason, Kristina B. Hood, Paul B. Perrin, Faye Z. Belgrave, Kevin W. Allison, B. Ethan Coston
Direct exposure to gender identity-related discrimination and erasure among the transgender and gender independent (TGI) population are associated with healthcare underutilization, which may further exacerbate the health disparities that exist between this population and cisgender individuals in the United States (U.S.). Although the impacts of direct exposure to healthcare discrimination and erasure
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Cognitive function following early life war-time stress exposure in a cohort of Vietnamese older adults Social Science & Medicine (IF 5.4) Pub Date : 2024-03-29 Kim Korinek, Zachary Zimmer, Bussarawan Teerawichitchainan, Yvette Young, Long Cao Manh, Tran Khanh Toan
Although Alzheimer's Disease is a leading cause of death in Vietnam and other post-conflict, low- and middle-income countries, aside from studies of veterans in western populations, research on war-related violence and deprivation as risk factors for cognitive disorders remains sparse. Using data from the Vietnam Health and Aging Study, which relied upon a multistage probability sample of 2447 older
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Social media & subjectivity: Adolescent lived experiences with social media in a Southern California middle school Social Science & Medicine (IF 5.4) Pub Date : 2024-03-29 Giselle Sanchez, Janis H. Jenkins
The widespread use of social media (SM) platforms among adolescents has raised concerns over its role in increased adverse physical and mental health conditions. However, current research linking SM use with adolescent health relies on tenuous correlational associations, disproportionately focuses on harmful effects of its use, and seldom examines the perspectives of youth themselves (Odgers and Jensen
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Service restrictions from emergency shelters among people experiencing homelessness: Uncovering pathways into unsheltered homelessness and institutional circuitry Social Science & Medicine (IF 5.4) Pub Date : 2024-03-29 Nick Kerman, Carrie Anne Marshall, Alexia Polillo, Joseph Voronov, Timothy de Pass, Corinna Easton, Brooklyn Ward, Amanda Noble, Stephen W. Hwang, Nicole Kozloff, Vicky Stergiopoulos, Sean A. Kidd
Service restrictions refer to temporary or permanent bans of individuals from a program or an organization's services, and are widely used in emergency shelter systems. Limited research exists on how service restrictions unfold and their impacts on people experiencing homelessness. This qualitative study used in-depth interviews with timeline mapping to examine the antecedents and consequences of service
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‘Chugging along, plugging in and out of it’: Understanding a place-based approach for community-based support of mental health recovery Social Science & Medicine (IF 5.4) Pub Date : 2024-03-29 Caroline Claisse, Abigail C. Durrant, Dawn Branley-Bell, Elizabeth Sillence, Angela Glascott, Alisdair Cameron
Community-based Mental Health (MH) organisations in the United Kingdom (UK) are facing challenges for sustaining in-person service delivery. Without empirical evidence that demonstrates the value of a place-based approach for MH recovery, and the types of resources needed to build nurturing spaces for peer support, community-based MH organisations will struggle to maintain their physical spaces. We
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Sense of failure in end of life care: Perspectives from physicians and nurses Social Science & Medicine (IF 5.4) Pub Date : 2024-03-29 Yaffa Naomi Stokar Ph.D.
Limited knowledge exists regarding sensed failure resulting provision of end-of-life (EOL) care. Among medical health professionals (MHP), a sense of failure is associated with impaired patientcare and reduced worker wellbeing, including higher rates of burnout and secondary traumatic stress. As part of a larger mixed-methods study on the effects of EOL-care provision on MHP in general hospitals, semi-structured
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“All hands on deck”: a qualitative study of safeguarding and the transition to telemedical abortion care in England and Wales Social Science & Medicine (IF 5.4) Pub Date : 2024-03-28 Jordan A. Parsons, Elizabeth Chloe Romanis
The COVID-19 pandemic raised significant challenges for in-person healthcare provision, leading healthcare providers to embrace digital health like never before. Whilst changes were made as part of a public health response, many have now become permanent fixtures of the healthcare landscape, significantly altering the way care is provided not only for patients, but also for the healthcare professionals
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Problems with NICE's severity weights Social Science & Medicine (IF 5.4) Pub Date : 2024-03-28 Daniel M. Hausman
This essay examines the implications, plausibility, and justification of the severity weighting that NICE (The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) has endorsed for technology assessments in the U.K. It argues that the assignment by NICE of additional weights to health conditions which involve a large absolute or proportional shortfall of future expected QALYs (Quality-Adjusted Life Years)
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Intergenerational trauma transmission through family psychosocial factors in adult children of Rwandan survivors of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi Social Science & Medicine (IF 5.4) Pub Date : 2024-03-28 Jessica L. Bonumwezi, Sally L. Grapin, Monica Uddin, Samantha Coyle, D'Artagnan Habintwali, Sarah R. Lowe
Thirty years after the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, children of survivors are being increasingly documented to be at higher risk compared to their peers for adverse mental health outcomes. However, no studies in Rwanda have empirically explored family psychosocial factors underlying this intergenerational transmission of trauma. We investigated family psychosocial factors that could underlie
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Understanding Australian pharmacy degree holders’ job preferences through the lens of motivation-hygiene theory Social Science & Medicine (IF 5.4) Pub Date : 2024-03-28 Thao Thai, Emily Lancsar, Jean Spinks, Christopher Freeman, Gang Chen
Increasing the contribution of pharmacists to primary care has been long discussed, particularly in the context of health workforce shortages and the push to better integrate all providers across primary care. This study examines the employment preferences of Australian pharmacy degree holders (PDHs) elicited through a discrete choice experiment (DCE), to better understand the drivers of current labour
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Exposure to neighborhood violence, and laboratory-based and ambulatory cognitive task performance in adulthood Social Science & Medicine (IF 5.4) Pub Date : 2024-03-28 Elizabeth Muñoz, Jinshil Hyun, Jose A. Diaz Jr., Stacey B. Scott, Martin J. Sliwinski
Exposure to neighborhood violence may have negative implications for adults’ cognitive functioning, but the ecological sensitivity of these effects has yet to be determined. We first evaluated the link between exposure to neighborhood violence and two latent constructs of cognitive function that incorporated laboratory-based and ambulatory, smartphone-based, cognitive assessments. Second, we examined
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‘Kindling the fire’ of NHS patient data exploitations: The care.data controversy in news media discourses Social Science & Medicine (IF 5.4) Pub Date : 2024-03-27 Paraskevas Vezyridis
This paper explores news media discourse about care.data: an NHS England programme of work for amalgamating and sharing patient data from primary care for planning and research. It was scrapped in 2016 after three years of public outcry, delays and around 1.5 million opt-outs. I examine UK news media coverage of this programme through the ‘fire object’ metaphor, focusing upon the visions of purpose
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Immigrant-blind care: How immigrants experience the “inclusive” health system as they access care Social Science & Medicine (IF 5.4) Pub Date : 2024-03-27 Nilüfer Akalın
A growing body of scholarship examines the varying impact of legal status and race on accessing healthcare. However, a notable gap persists in comprehending the supplementary mechanisms that hinder immigrants' pathway to seek care. Drawing on ethnographic observations in various clinical settings and in-depth interviews with 28 healthcare professionals and 12 documented Haitian immigrants in a city
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The association between loneliness with health service use and quality of life among informal carers in Australia Social Science & Medicine (IF 5.4) Pub Date : 2024-03-27 Ishani Kartik Majmudar, Cathy Mihalopoulos, Julie Abimanyi-Ochom, Mohammadreza Mohebbi, Lidia Engel
The demanding nature of caregiving and limited social support can lead to informal carers experiencing loneliness, which can impact their well-being and overall health service use (HSU). The study aims to examine the association between loneliness with HSU and Health state utility values among informal carers in Australia. Data were derived from three waves (2009, 2013, and 2017) of the nationally
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Armed conflict, insecurity, and attitudes toward women's and girls' reproductive autonomy in Nigeria Social Science & Medicine (IF 5.4) Pub Date : 2024-03-27 Signe Svallfors, Karin Båge, Anna Mia Ekström, Kelly Elimian, Ezra Gayawan, Helena Litorp, Anna Kågesten
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Characterizing provider bias in contraceptive care in Tanzania and Burkina Faso: A mixed-methods study Social Science & Medicine (IF 5.4) Pub Date : 2024-03-26 Alexandra Wollum, Corrina Moucheraud, Jessica D Gipson, Willa Friedman, Manisha Shah, Zachary Wagner
Provider bias based on age, marital status, and parity may be a barrier to quality contraceptive care. However, the extent to which bias leads to disparities in care quality is not well understood. In this mixed-methods study, we used four different data sources from the same facilities to assess the extent of bias and how much it affects contraceptive care. First, we surveyed providers in Tanzania
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The biomedicalization of pregnancy prevention, neoliberal feminism, and college women's experiences of the contraceptive paradox Social Science & Medicine (IF 5.4) Pub Date : 2024-03-26 Emily S. Mann, Andrea M. Bertotti
Research examining the “contraceptive paradox” has illuminated how contraception can be a source of empowerment for some and oppression for others. This study advances theorizing of the contraceptive paradox by illustrating how 45 young women experience contraception as both liberating and constraining due to a confluence of biomedicalization processes, gender inequality, and neoliberal feminism. Drawing
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Civil service organization as a political determinant of health: Analyzing relationships between merit-based hiring, corruption, and population health Social Science & Medicine (IF 5.4) Pub Date : 2024-03-26 Andrew C. Patterson
A growing literature finds that the way governments are organized can impact the societies they serve in important ways. The same is apparent with respect to civil service organizations. Numerous studies show that the recruitment of civil servants based on their credentials rather than on nepotism or patronage reduces corruption in government. Political corruption in turn appears to harm population
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From the body as an object to embodied subjectivity: Social egg freezing as a personal definition rite among ultra-orthodox singles Social Science & Medicine (IF 5.4) Pub Date : 2024-03-26 Miriam Billig, Maya Maor
As an innovative reproductive technology, social egg freezing (SEF) challenges the ultra-Orthodox community's position in the tension between tradition and modernity. On the one hand, SEF can enable singles of advanced age to fulfill their most important social and religious role of building big families when they eventually marry. On the other hand, exposure to SEF may lead to openness to social change
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A happiness approach to valuing health states for children Social Science & Medicine (IF 5.4) Pub Date : 2024-03-26 Li Huang, Nancy Devlin, Gang Chen, Kim Dalziel
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The impact of devolution on local health systems: Evidence from Greater Manchester, England Social Science & Medicine (IF 5.4) Pub Date : 2024-03-25 Philip Britteon, Alfariany Fatimah, Stephanie Gillibrand, Yiu-Shing Lau, Laura Anselmi, Paul Wilson, Matt Sutton, Alex J. Turner
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Vacillating between “strange” and “familiar” - representations of children in migrant families and their health in Swedish school health services Social Science & Medicine (IF 5.4) Pub Date : 2024-03-24 Emmie Wahlström, Frida Wallander, Jonas Stier
Representations of migrants influence how they are perceived by others. Hence, how children who have migrated or whose parents have migrated (Children in Migrant Families: CMFs) are represented in clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) for Swedish school health services (SHS) may influence how they are perceived by school nurses. Thus, this study aimed to explore representations of CMFs in school nurses’
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Effects of communicating health disparities using social comparison framing: A comprehensive review Social Science & Medicine (IF 5.4) Pub Date : 2024-03-24 Jiawei Liu, Jeff Niederdeppe
Communicating health disparities in mass and social media has typically taken the form of comparing disease risks and outcomes between two or more social groups, a strategy known as social comparison framing. This comprehensive review examined the design and results of 17 studies from 15 peer-reviewed journal articles about the effects of social comparison framing of health disparities. Most studies
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Exploring social network typologies and their impact on health and mental well-being in older adults: Evidence from JAGES Social Science & Medicine (IF 5.4) Pub Date : 2024-03-24 Zaira Torres, Amparo Oliver, José M. Tomás, Naoki Kondo
The types of social networks, their prevalence, and their relationship to health outcomes in older age have been different across countries and cultures. Most of the literature has focused on USA or in European countries and little is known about the social network typologies among older adults from Japan. This study aimed to identify these patterns of social network typologies and examine the differences
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A novel approach to model cumulative stress: Area under the s-factor curve Social Science & Medicine (IF 5.4) Pub Date : 2024-03-24 Frank D. Mann, Adolfo G. Cuevas, Sean A.P. Clouston, Colin D. Freilich, Zlatan Krizan, Sascha Zuber, Linda Wänström, Graciela Muniz-Terrera, Patrick O'Keefe, Stacey Voll, Scott Hofer, Joseph L. Rodgers, Robert F. Krueger
Using a large longitudinal sample of adults from the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) study, the present study extended a recently developed hierarchical model to determine how best to model the accumulation of stressors, and to determine whether the rate of change in stressors or traditional composite scores of stressors are stronger predictors of health outcomes. We used factor analysis to estimate
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Health shocks, health and labor market dynamics, and the socioeconomic-health gradient in older Singaporeans Social Science & Medicine (IF 5.4) Pub Date : 2024-03-22 Terence C. Cheng, Seonghoon Kim, Dennis Petrie
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Preparing popular views for inclusion in a reflective equilibrium: A case study on illness severity Social Science & Medicine (IF 5.4) Pub Date : 2024-03-22 Borgar Jølstad, Mille Sofie Stenmarck, Mathias Barra
Principles for priority setting in health care are typically forged by experts influenced by the normative literature on priority setting. Meanwhile, their implementation is subject to democratic deliberation, political pressures, and administrative bureaucracy. Sometimes expert proposals are democratically rejected. This points towards a problem: on the one hand, the fact that a majority shares a
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Positive school climate and strong school identification as protective factors of adolescent mental health and learning engagement: A longitudinal investigation before and during COVID-19 Social Science & Medicine (IF 5.4) Pub Date : 2024-03-21 Siyu Chen, Diana Cárdenas, Haochen Zhou, Katherine J. Reynolds
The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in significant disruptions for children and youth around the world, especially given school closures and shifts in teaching modes (on-line and hybrid). However, the impact of these disruptions remains unclear given data limitations such as a reliance on cross-sectional and/or short-interval surveys as well as a lack of broad indicators of key outcomes of interest. The
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Structural gendered racism and preterm birth inequities in the United States Social Science & Medicine (IF 5.4) Pub Date : 2024-03-21 Taylor Riley, Daniel A. Enquobahrie, Lisa S. Callegari, Anjum Hajat
Structural gendered racism – the “totality of interconnectedness between structural racism and sexism” – is conceptualized as a fundamental cause of the persistent preterm birth inequities experienced by Black and Indigenous people in the United States. Our objective was to develop a state-level latent class measure of structural gendered racism and examine its association with preterm birth among
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Longitudinal attenuation in political polarization: Evidence from COVID-19 vaccination adherence in Brazil Social Science & Medicine (IF 5.4) Pub Date : 2024-03-20 Rodrigo Furst, Rafael Goldszmidt, Eduardo B. Andrade, Yan Vieites, Bernardo Andretti, Guilherme A. Ramos
While political polarization in policy opinions, preferences, and observance is well established, little is known about whether and how such divisions evolve, and possibly attenuate, over time. Using the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil as the backdrop, we examine the longitudinal evolution of a highly relevant and polarizing policy: adherence to the COVID-19 vaccination. Studies 1 (N = 3346) and 2 (N = 10
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Rural Friendship Bench: A qualitative study in Zaka district, Zimbabwe Social Science & Medicine (IF 5.4) Pub Date : 2024-03-20 K. Kidia, D. Machando, V. Dzoro, D. Chibanda, M. Abas, E. Manda, A. Mutengerere, T. Nyandoro, M. Chawarika, D. Majichi, J.H. van Dijk, H. Jack
We piloted the Friendship Bench—an evidence-based, urban-area task sharing intervention for common mental disorders—in rural Zimbabwe. The intervention combines problem solving therapy with income generating activities. This study sought to understand the intervention's implementation in terms of acceptability, feasibility, and sustainability as well as local attitudes towards mental wellbeing in rural
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Understanding the interplay of occupational, public health, and climate-related risks for informal workers: A new framework with findings from Zimbabwe and India Social Science & Medicine (IF 5.4) Pub Date : 2024-03-20 Alice Sverdlik, Kanupriya Kothiwal, Artwell Kadungure, Siddharth Agarwal, Rangarirai Machemedze, Shabnam Verma, Rene Loewenson
Globally, there are 2 billion ‘informal’ workers, who lack access to social protection while facing profound health risks and socioeconomic exclusions. The informal economy has generated most jobs in Low and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs), but few studies have explored informal workers' complex health vulnerabilities, including in the face of climate change.
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“I'm just searching to get better”: Constructions of treatment citizenship on injectable opioid agonist treatment Social Science & Medicine (IF 5.4) Pub Date : 2024-03-20 Samara Mayer, Emily Jenkins, Nadia Fairbairn, Al Fowler, Ryan McNeil
As part of the response to Canada's worsening overdose crisis driven by a toxic, adulterated drug supply, there has been increased attention to and expansion of drug treatment, options, including injectable opioid agonist treatment (iOAT). iOAT typically involves the, witnessed daily injection of opioids under healthcare provider supervision. There is a robust, evidence base on iOAT; however, there
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Consequences of receiving weight-related advice from a healthcare provider: Understanding the varied experiences of people with higher weight Social Science & Medicine (IF 5.4) Pub Date : 2024-03-19 Erin C. Standen, Alexander J. Rothman, Traci Mann
Healthcare providers regularly give weight-related advice (e.g., behavioral weight loss counseling) to patients with higher weight (BMI ≥30 kg/m). The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends this practice on the basis that behavioral weight-related advice can motivate patients to attempt weight loss; however, it is also possible that this advice has adverse consequences (e.g., negative psychological