Health Discourse Research Articles

BTS from “N.O” to “ON” and BEyond: Innovation in Effective Mental Health Messaging and Modelling

Over seven years, BTS have organically embedded consistent mental health messaging and modelling of various mental health modalities, representing innovation within mental health discourse, within and outside the pop and K-pop culture and fandom. Their personal and artistic journeys have resulted in songs, imagery, and relationship dynamics within the group and within and between their fans ARMY, that organically model behaviours associated with mental health therapeutic modalities and normalize the discussion of mental health and well-being. This practice is vitally important in the effort to end stigma and encourage mental health well-being and recovery. BTS’s authenticity establishes empathy with their audience ARMY and increases their ability to deliver these messages effectively. This includes fostering the creation of a peer support community within the group that extends to their fanbase ARMY, and from which fan-created mental health programs have emerged. BTS’s innovation will be explored by examining content creation throughout their career, illustrating their consistent and organic messaging, culminating in overt and conscious mental health content in their latest album BE, which was released three weeks after the initial paper was presented, and provides proof of concept.

BTS from “N.O” to “ON” and BEyond: Innovation in Effective Mental Health Messaging and Modelling

Over seven years, BTS have organically embedded consistent mental health messaging and modelling of various mental health modalities, representing innovation within mental health discourse, within and outside the pop and K-pop culture and fandom. Their personal and artistic journeys have resulted in songs, imagery, and relationship dynamics within the group and within and between their fans ARMY, that organically model behaviours associated with mental health therapeutic modalities and normalize the discussion of mental health and well-being. This practice is vitally important in the effort to end stigma and encourage mental health well-being and recovery. BTS’s authenticity establishes empathy with their audience ARMY and increases their ability to deliver these messages effectively. This includes fostering the creation of a peer support community within the group that extends to their fanbase ARMY, and from which fan-created mental health programs have emerged. BTS’s innovation will be explored by examining content creation throughout their career, illustrating their consistent and organic messaging, culminating in overt and conscious mental health content in their latest album BE, which was released three weeks after the initial paper was presented, and provides proof of concept.

Structural Inequity and Pregnancy Desires in Emerging Adulthood.

Public health discourses often claim that delaying pregnancy is associated with social and economic benefits. Yet research suggests that, for young people, structural inequity is most influential in future outcomes, regardless of childbearing. We conducted in-depth interviews with 50 young women (ages 18-24) and their male partners (n = 100) and investigated the influence of structural inequity on pregnancy desires and plans. Three themes emerged, stratified by social advantage. In the "Things Will Be Different Later" theme, socially advantaged participants envisioned that their future lives would surely be different due to achievement of educational, professional, and economic goals; thus, their pregnancy plans aligned with their desires, often reflected in use of highly effective contraception. In the "I Don't Have Everything I Need" theme, participants expressed delaying desired pregnancies (primarily through condom use) until they could contend with structural barriers. Their pregnancy plans, shifted by way of structural inequity, were not aligned with their desires. Under the "I'll Never Have Everything I Need" theme, socially disadvantaged participants expressed significant doubt about ever realizing ideal circumstances for pregnancy preparedness; as pregnancy prevention was not salient, these participants used condoms or no contraception. This analysis indicates that structural inequities constrain reproductive self-determination in emerging adulthood, creating a chasm between desired and actual childbearing that was reflected in contraceptive decision-making. Public health narratives emphasizing the importance of pregnancy prevention for socially disadvantaged groups without addressing the manifestation of structural inequity in their lives perpetuate reproductive oppression vis-à-vis emphasis on contraceptive use to ensure future economic success.

‘I am a culprit’: neoliberal public health discourses versus social risks for HIV within marriages in Kenya

ABSTRACT Rates of HIV within marriages in Kenya remain high. While critical public health scholars have argued that socio-structural contexts shape HIV vulnerability, public health emphasizes neoliberal health management approaches that prioritize individual responsibility to avoid HIV risks. This article examines Kenya’s marital fidelity campaign as a manifestation of neoliberal health governance techniques. It considers the sexual morality of the campaign including how the campaign frames extramarital risks and gender relations in marriage. Further, using ethnographic data from a cash-cropping community in rural Kenya, the article examines how participants’ conceptions of marriage as a gendered site shape their everyday moral/rational reasoning that challenges public health’s neoliberal logic of risk and responsibility. Participants deploy the social risk concept to show how they engage in reasoning that is informed by their social and material context. The article argues that public health should consider how the gendered social organization of marriages within specific political-economic contexts shapes HIV vulnerabilities as an alternative to neoliberal governmentality.

The sustainability of gender norms: women over 30 and their physical appearance on holiday

The present study examines women’s experiences of their physical appearance on holiday questioning whether gendered norms, focussed on the “ïdeal” body, are sustainable if women are to experience fully the health and wellness benefits promised in a holiday. While the research focus on body image has most often been adolescents and young women, this study explores the experiences of midlife and older women. Employing the feminist research method, memory-work, women individually wrote memories of recent experiences of physical appearance while on holiday and discussed them in collectives. The findings suggest that while some of the older women appear to have resisted societal directives for the body by focussing on what the body could do, rather than what the body looked like, for most, the dominant image of the body was oppressive with memories of appearance related to body weight/shape and clothing. The findings suggest that women, as they age, are confronted by gender, age and health discourses which are difficult to resist. Whether or not women can challenge core societal beliefs about appearance has implications for whether they can experience the freedom and lack of constraints popularly associated with a holiday.

Qualia of Stress and Bodily Enregisterment in Ice Swimming

Combining an ethnographic account of the Finnish national pastime of ice swimming and its remediation through the Wim Hof Method with an analysis of media representations, this article expands linguistic and semiotic anthropological scholarship on the enregisterment of bodily and affective qualia by looking at how practitioners of this therapeutic technology elaborate on their corporeal and semiotic selves and the transformations of those selves after indulging in full-body contact with freezing cold water. Laying particular emphasis on stress as a discursive hub and an intensely circulating qualisign within vernacular and institutionalized health discourses, the article discusses how pedagogical ice swimming exegesis is contributing to the enregisterment of emergent forms of personhood through metasemiotic regimentations of the body that draw from natural and holistic as well as scientific and technical registers.

The Forbidden Reward. The Emergence of Parent-Child Conflicts About Food Over Time and the Influence of Parents' Communication Strategies and Feeding Practices.

One of the most critical arenas for conflicts between parents and their children relates to food. Although parent-child conflicts about food are a real occurrence, this form of parent-child interaction has been rarely examined. Given the special role of parents in shaping children's diet, we especially focus on the impact of parental measures. This study investigates how parental communication strategies (i.e., active vs. restrictive) and feeding practices (i.e., overt control vs. covert control) affect the emergence of parent-child conflicts about food over time. Based on previous research, we assessed overt control through parents' use of food as a reward and restriction of their children's access to specific food types. We explored the impact of our predictors on both conflicts about unhealthy and healthy food with a two-wave panel study including parents and their children (N = 541; children aged between 5 and 11) in Austria between fall 2018 and spring 2019. Results of two multiple linear regressions indicated that predominantly parents' use of unhealthy food as a reward is connected to both healthy and unhealthy food conflicts. Furthermore, inconsistent parental educational styles increased the respective conflict potential. Active food-related mediation and covert control did not relate to food-related conflicts about unhealthy and healthy food. Parents' increased use of overtly controlling and restrictive feeding practices might not be only counterproductive for children's diet but also for food-related parent-child interactions. Instead, a “health discourse” (i.e., active food-related mediation) might prevent food-related conflicts and foster a healthy growth in the future.

Framing global discourses on non-communicable diseases: a scoping review

BackgroundThe choices that policymakers make are shaped by how their problems are framed. At last, non-communicable diseases (NCDs) have risen high on the global policy agenda, but there are many disputed issues. First, what are they? Their name refers not to what they are but what they are not. Second, where do their boundaries lie? What diseases are included? Third, should we view their causes as mainly biomedical, behavioural, or social, or a combination? Our failure to resolve these issues has been invoked as a reason for our limited progress in developing and implementing effective remedies. In this scoping review, we ask “What is known from the existing literature about how NCDs are framed in the global policy discourses?” We answer it by reviewing the frames employed in policy and academic discourses.MethodsWe searched nine electronic databases for articles published since inception to 31 May 2019. We also reviewed websites of eight international organisations to identify global NCDs policies. We extracted data and synthesised findings to identify key thematic frames.ResultsWe included 36 articles and nine policy documents on global NCDs policies. We identified five discursive domains that have been used and where there are differing perspectives. These are: “Expanding the NCDs frame to include mental health and air pollution”; “NCDs and their determinants”; “A rights-based approach to NCDs”; “Approaches to achieving policy coherence in NCDs globally”; and “NCDs as part of Sustainable Socio-economic Development”. We further identified 12 frames within the five discursive domains.ConclusionsThis scoping review identifies issues that remain unresolved and points to a need for alignment of perspectives among global health policy actors, as well as synergies with those working on mental health, maternal health, and child health. The current COVID-19 pandemic warrants greater consideration of its impact on global NCDs policies. Future global strategies for NCDs need to consider explicitly how NCDs are framed in a changing global health discourse and ensure adequate alignment with implementation and global health issues. There is a need for global strategies to recognise the pertinent role of actors in shaping policy discourses.

Older adults living in social housing in Canada: the next COVID-19 hotspot?

Older adults in social housing have high rates of chronic diseases and live in clustered housing, creating the ideal situation for a tragic outbreak in this vulnerable population, which has been largely unrecognized in the public health discourse. It is estimated that two thirds of this population have cardiometabolic conditions that put them at higher risk of poor outcomes from COVID-19. In addition, their social isolation, low mobility, low health literacy, and limited internet access are barriers to accessing basic needs, health information, and health care in a Canadian context where many services have moved to virtual platforms. Since older adults in social housing tend to be clustered in apartment buildings with shared facilities, there is an increased risk of exposure through common spaces (e.g., elevator, laundry room) and high-touch surfaces. Compared to long-term care homes, there is substantial movement in and out of social housing buildings as residents are required to go out to meet their basic needs and individuals providing support enter the buildings without screening (e.g., personal support workers, volunteers delivering groceries). Without a targeted public health strategy to support this vulnerable population, we surmise that social housing will be the next COVID-19 hotspot.

“Whatever happened to our great gay imaginations?”: The invention of safe sex and the visceral imagination

ABSTRACT This essay develops a theory of the visceral imagination by analyzing the first safe sex manual written in the age of AIDS—How to Have Sex in an Epidemic: One Approach. At the time of the manual’s publication in 1983, no one knew for certain what caused AIDS. Drawing on the transmission pathways of common sexually transmitted infections and through thick descriptions of the contact between bodily fluids and internal membranes, the manual’s authors, Michael Callen and Richard Berkowitz, constructed a comprehensive, customizable AIDS prevention framework. In this essay, I argue that these descriptions stabilized the controversies surrounding AIDS transmission by activating what I call the visceral imagination. The visceral imagination supports speculative, non-technical arguments about health with localized, vivid portrayals of the body, its orifices, and its fluids. Analysis of this case study illustrates that the visceral imagination can resist universalizing, curative approaches to biomedical intervention by inviting non-experts to negotiate risk against personalized assessments of bodily permeability. More broadly, a theory of the visceral imagination productively extends recent rhetorical interests in viscerality by illuminating embodied, imaginative practices that queer, grassroots, and other subjugated rhetors might use to resist the homogenizing effects of dominant, normative health discourses.

The Burden of Moderate and Serious Mental Health Distress Among Immigrant and Non-Immigrant Asian Adults in California

Background Despite significant burden of mental health among Asians in the US, a focus on “culture” driving such disparities obscures the role of structural influences in development of these burdens, shifting the blame onto communities themselves. It also makes it more challenging to identify appropriate interventions, due to stigmatization. Furthermore, public health research and discourse on these issues often overlooks potential differences in distress and needs for interventions among immigrant versus non-immigrant Asians in the US. Purpose To examine how levels of moderate and serious mental health distress in the past year vary among Asian immigrant versus non-immigrant subgroups. Methods We used data from the 2011-2018 California Health Interview Survey (N=15,138) to assess prevalence of moderate and serious distress for immigrants compared to non-immigrants using both a single Asian category and five disaggregated categories: Chinese, Filipino, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese. Results U.S. Asian immigrants were more likely to experience moderate (33%) and serious (9%) levels of distress compared to non-immigrants (26% and 5%, respectively). Filipino and Vietnamese immigrants experienced more moderate distress than their counterparts, and Filipino immigrants also experienced more serious distress than their counterparts. Discussion These findings highlight the clear association between immigration status and mental health in California. Differences in distress and subgroup-specific needs for U.S. immigrants and non-immigrants appear relevant for developing specific interventions (i.e. culturally sensitive scales and other measurement tools) and public health policies to improve ease of access to proper mental health care for various Asian immigrant populations.

"Walking with a Smile but Her Shoulders are Hanging Down" Exploring "Coloured" Women's Occupational Resistance in the Face of Personal, Historied and Societal Suffocation

ABSTRACT Women in South African townships remain an invisible population in terms of understanding their lives and the implications on wellbeing. "Coloured" women's narratives problematise and critically explore their lived realities as socially constructed oppression that has not been addressed following the end of legislated apartheid. The politics of the personal, display the matrix of domination at play, in a specific sociocultural milieu while contrapuntally illustrating their standing up to resist capitulation. These actions and activities are occupations of resistance, occupations that are in opposition to, and possibly a reaction to, perceived injustice as well as the suppression of occupational choice and self-determinism. Occupations ofresistance are hard work, performed with or without public acknowledgement while fostering perseverance to cope, to feel in control and, against the odds, to be resilient. The suffocating conditions that belie the narratives illustrate the lack of adequate solutions to these issues and call for a new humanism. These women's narratives allow us to envision authentic public health discourses that recognise grassroots explanations and solutions. Keywords: Coloured women, occupations of resistance, new humanisms, women's suffocation.

Reflecting on Global Challenges on the Way to Advancing Mental Healthcare.

The 12 narratives included in this symposium on living with mental health challenges reflect the broad spectrum of experiences and interpretations of individuals who have mental health conditions. They also reflect the range of views within global mental health discourse about effective ways to improve the mental health of individuals and populations. Some important issues are common in these narratives, notably how experiencing trauma, particularly in childhood, can impact mental health. The narratives present a broad spectrum of views regarding the interpretation of mental health conditions and the ways mental healthcare systems have addressed them. These narratives demonstrate an urgent need globally to liberate the field of mental health from the overuse of the biomedical model and allow other models to compete and receive support.

Specialized Hospitals To Faced The Epidemic Beri-Beri On The War In Aceh

The epidemic beri-beri on the war in Aceh effect in high mortality on the Dutch army. The emergence of beri-beri as a contagious disease triggers the government to evacuate patients and establishing a special hospital in Sumatra Westkust. However, indigenous people never known and not infected the epidemic beri-beri. Treatment in special hospitals as a new epidemic became the main solution of the beri-beri problem which also had spread in various centers of the Dutch East Indies government. Through the evidence in Algemene Secreterie Atjeh Zaken, Geneeskundig Tijdschrift voor Nederlandsch Indies archive and other primary sources, indicate that the existence of specialized hospitals has solved the beri-beri problem. This historical research reconstructs the importance of the policy beri-beri hospitals and medical management to encounter of epidemics. The results also showed that discourse and topography of health in Sumatra Westkust with the locality approach became part of a long process to the discovery of anti-beri-beri or thiamine.

Ukrainian state vector of value goal setting of physical culture and sports

Value vector of goal setting of physical culture and sports set by the state in Ukraine. Various laws, concepts, strategies codify the direction and development goals of physical culture and sports. Three "National Targeted Social Program Concepts of the Physical Culture and Sport Development" and two development strategies of physical culture/physical education was analysed by this article. It found that the "National Targeted Social Program Concepts of the Physical Culture and Sport Development" 2007-2011 and 2012-2016 had clear sports goals, while the "Concept ... until 2020" had more scattered goals, and this mainly concerns of the health protection and civic goals. In the goal of the Concept until 2020 sport are not mention, but the goal-deployment still shows a sports vector. It is revealed that the goal-setting of the latest state strategies for the development of physical culture is represented in the health discourse, but the goal-setting is sports-mass and high-achievement sports. The Ukrainian state vector of the value goal of physical culture and sports shows ambivalence: theoretical discourse corresponds to world trends focused on the physical health and well- being of citizens, and the system formed in the USSR reduces everything to sports and competitions.

Perspectives on sugar consumption expressed on social media by French-speaking and Danish-speaking parents.

Meanings and practices attributed to sugar emerged as important barriers to healthy eating in an earlier study with French and Danish parents. Considering the impact of excessive sugar intake on human health and childhood obesity, this study focuses on gaining further understanding of connotations, perceptions and attitudes related to sugar among parents. A thematic analysis of sugar-related posts and comments on blogs and Facebook pages was performed, and in-depth interviews with experts (one in each country) were conducted. Data were set in a Social Judgment Theory analytical framework. Sugar consumption appears as a two-sided experience, being at times dangerous, sinful and addictive, but also comforting and delightful. This "sugar dilemma" unfolded aspects between asceticism and hedonism, state governance and personal responsibility. Three main behavioral strategies on how parents deal with these ambivalences emerged: i) restriction, ii) moderation, and iii) liberation. Restriction was more noticeable in France, whereas liberation was more pronounced in Denmark. In both countries, the ones who defended the respective opposite positions (restriction or liberation) were targets of judgmental moral tones. The three behavioral strategies corresponded to the main attitudes demonstrated in reaction to anti-sugar messages, which align to the Social Judgment Theory constructs: acceptance, non-commitment and rejection. Findings shed light on dietary, behavioral and social challenges faced by parents and highlight the importance of a diversified approach to tackle sugar consumption among families - an approach that considers individuals' attitudes, social context and value systems. Furthermore, online sugar-related content yields valuable information on the social construction and morality of health and nutrition discourses and the misleading, confusing and overwhelming nature of social media content. Parents' discussions are an example of the general dilemmas between (gendered) parenting expectations, individual freedom and morality of food choices.

“Tiny new ingredients are a big concern”. The popularization of nanotechonologies in environmental organizations’ and institutions’ publications.

The chapter sets out to explore how nanotechnology is popularised in online reports and brochures in English issued by European and American institutions and environmental organizations. Nanotechnologies, by manipulating matter at a nanoscale, have a great impact on several disciplines and find applications in sectors such as medicine, engineering, electronics, food, and renewable resources. Given the repercussions on humans’ daily life, many information campaigns have been launched in order to disseminate nanotechnological knowledge to lay people. Different forms and media have been exploited as in other knowledge dissemination processes, with the new media and Web 2.0 playing an important role (Garzone 2007). If knowledge dissemination has been often seen in terms of a “recontextualization” (Calsamiglia, Van Dijk 2004) and a “translation” (Gotti 2013) of specialized information from experts to non-experts as opposed to specialized discourse (Ciapuscio 2003; Calsamiglia, van Dijk 2004; Minelli de Oliveira, Pagano 2006; Kermas, Christiansen 2013; Bongo, Caliendo 2014; Garzone 2014; Gotti 2014; Bathia et al . 2015; Salvi, Bowker 2015), it is nonetheless true that this transfer of information often goes beyond the aim of making exclusive knowledge more comprehensible to the generic public. As a matter of fact, popularized discourse frequently aims “to inform, raise awareness and cause the reader to take action” (Gotti 2014, p. 29). A striking example is for instance health discourse (Cummings 2004, 2005, 2009; Hall 2006). Therefore, this chapter intends to analyse how specialized concepts pertaining to the domain of nanotechnology are popularized in online institutions’ and environmental organizations’ reports and brochures in English and in Italian. With the former emphasizing the advantages and the latter the risks of nanoscience, a common point they share is, however, their concern with the diffusion of nano knowledge and its related vocabulary. More specifically, the analysis, based on Calsamiglia and van Dijk’s classification of five “types of explanation” (2004, p. 372), will identify the discursive strategies adopted.

PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALTH AND ILLNESS AS ARTIFACTS OF CULTURE

The article examines the psychology of health and illness as cultural artifacts, provides a description of health discourses, and analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of each of them.

Women’s mental health as a public health priority: a call for action

PurposeThis paper aims to call the public health and mental health communities to action by making women’s mental health a public health priority.Design/methodology/approachThis conceptual paper introduces a “Female Psychology” approach to framing and interpreting mental health narratives and public health discourses. It also draws upon lifecourse research as a way of better understanding mental illness.FindingsThis paper calls for action to prioritise women’s mental health on the public health agenda like has never previously been done before.Research limitations/implicationsNew theoretical bases for research and practice are presented, encouraging the adoption of a “Female Psychology” approach to women’s lifecourses and mental health narratives.Practical implicationsSuggestions for changes to how we view, diagnose and treat women’s mental health are incorporated, ensuring women’s mental health narratives are placed firmly at the centre of their care and support.Social implicationsWomen’s mental health has long been marginalised and dismissed as exaggerated and/or insignificant, and therefore has not had the economic-, personnel- and time-resource allocated to it, which it so desperately requires. This paper aims to tip the imbalance.Originality/valueThis paper, though conceptual, offers “Female Psychology” as both a practical and pragmatic approach to improving women’s mental health research, practice, and care. It is the first of its kind to, so directly, call the public health and mental health communities to prioritise women’s mental health.

A masculinidade tóxica no discurso da saúde pública: estratégias de convocação dos homens em campanhas do SUS

Posto que há um imbricamento entre os discursos públicos de saúde que classifiam patologias e os modos de subjetivação que se materializam em discursos de consumo, o objetivo do presente artigo é mapear discursos sobre masculinidade que se entrecruzam no discurso da saúde pública sobre masculinidade tóxica. A partir dos pressupostos metodológicos da análise crítica do discurso, analisaremos os discursos que apelam para os modos de subjetivação em duas campanhas do SUS sobre masculinidade tóxica para que possamos explorar as formas de convocação do público masculino nelas presentes. É possível observar, em tais campanhas, a contraposição narrativa entre uma masculinidade saudável e outra doente, o deslocamento da responsabilidade pela saúde das instituições sociais para o indivíduo e elementos de legitimação do discurso que reforçam a masculinidade hegemônica nas mesmas peças (no caso, vídeos) que visam questioná-la.