Research In Medical Sociology Research Articles

Hospital Environment and Medical Sociology: User-Centered Environmental Sociology Model Based on a Systematic Review.

This study investigates the relationship between environmental quality and medical sociology in hospitals and suggests a conceptual framework for understanding their interrelation. Despite the importance of environmental properties in the sociological approach to users' health and the role of medical sociology research in the design of hospital environments, few studies have been conducted in the field of hospital environments and medical sociology interrelation. Therefore, this article attempts to fill this gap in our knowledge. A systematic review was carried out in five databases (Scopus, Web of Science, Google Scholar, MEDLINE, and ScienceDirect) based on PRISMA guidelines to survey how environmental quality and medical sociology factors are related in the medical/environmental sociology research and the hospital design. The search yielded the final 17 potentially relevant articles after finding 3,840 records, screening 1,295 nonduplicate articles, and reviewing 158 full-text articles. The findings revealed that four main aspects of medical sociology (physical-biological, psychological, social, and economic) and hospital environmental quality (physical, social, and psychological dimensions) influence users' health and disease status. The hospital environment includes various social issues in medical sociology (like interactions, behavior patterns, lifestyle, work motivation, and culture). The physical and psychosocial factors of the hospital environment (such as spatial configuration, aesthetics, scale, privacy, and collective spaces) are associated with psychosocial aspects of medical sociology (like social class, behavior patterns, culture, and lifestyle). Environmental features and psychosocial issues should be considered to improve users' health and experience in hospitals and to create a user-centered health-promoting environment.

Evaluating the Continued Integration of Genetics into Medical Sociology.

The 2010 special issue of Journal of Health and Social Behavior, titled "Fifty Years of Medical Sociology," defined the contours of the medical sociological perspective. We use this as a backdrop to outline and assess the continued integration of genetics into medical sociology research. We contend that the explosion of genetic and epigenetic data in population health data sources has made the medical sociological perspective increasingly relevant to researchers outside of sociology, including public health, epidemiology, and quantitative genetics. We describe vast, underappreciated, and mostly unsolved challenges that limit the scientifically appropriate interest in incorporating genetics into existing paradigms. It is our hope that medical sociologists continue this integration but redouble efforts to maintain the core insights in social science research, such as the importance of environmental and structural (i.e., nonbiological) factors in determining health processes and outcomes and the use of rich, integrated, and rigorous empirical analyses.

Playing Russian roulette with their kids: Experts' construction of ignorance in the California and Ohio measles outbreaks.

Vaccination has become a site of professional and social concern, particularly as parents choose not to vaccinate their children. Previous research in medical sociology has considered the role of parents, knowledge, and health beliefs within vaccination debates. Yet, what has been overlooked is the expert construction of ignorance that emerges in conflicts over vaccination. This construction crystallizes in news media coverage of public health crises created by un- or under-vaccinated populations. Drawing on the sociology of science and the social problems tradition, this article performs a comparative case analysis to reveal that experts' status as privileged knowers affords them the capacity to frame ignorance itself. Using a content analysis of two measles outbreaks-one in California at Disneyland and the second among the Amish in Ohio-I show how experts do not simply traffic in objective, knowledge-based claims. Rather, they incorporate moral valences into these claims, which become apparent through their assessments of ignorance. Experts in the news shape the epistemic contours of the debate, calling out Californians as willfully ignorant, while excusing the Amish as unintentionally ignorant. This framing of ignorance is underpinned by the moral culpability of each population and its tractability to policy intervention. More broadly, this study reveals how expertise can be linked with and even supported by assessments of the causes and motivations of ignorance.

Diagnosis as Topic and as Resource: Reflections on the Epistemology and Ontology of Disease in Medical Sociology

This article notes an enduring ambivalence in medical sociology concerning the epistemology and ontology of disease and shows this is precisely an ambivalence concerning whether biomedical disease categories are best understood as topics of, or as resources for, medical sociological research. The first section critically reviews the topic/resource debate in ethnomethodology. The second section elaborates upon the pertinence of this debate to sociological debates directly concerned with the epistemology and ontology of disease. The article concludes by demonstrating how framing the epistemology and ontology of disease in terms of the topics and resources of medical sociological analysis serves to clarify the work of thinking sociologically about disease and helps overcome protracted theoretical challenges that have persistently troubled medical sociological research.

COVID-19, 종교, 그리고 ‘코로나 이후’ 사회

This study discussed the relationship between the “COVID-19 phenomenon” as a medical phenomenon and the society as a whole (especially social change after COVID-19) through religion from a medical sociological perspective. The results are summarized as follows. First, in this article, a theoretical framework was proposed that could critically review prior studies at the theoretical level and then attempt medical sociological research through religion. Specifically, it refers to the theoretical framework that the relationship between the COVID-19 phenomenon and the whole society will appear differently depending on whether the religion of the trust(oracle religion) or the religion of Shim-tak(the Religion of the heart) intervenes. Second, based on the aforementioned theoretical framework. the dynamic relationship between the COVID-19 phenomenon. social distancing as a social immune system in Korean society. and the response of each religion (the religion of the trust and the religion of the heart) was demonstrated. As a result, it was found that the religion of the oracles was relatively more resistant to social distancing than the religion of Shim-tak. This means that as a medical phenomenon. the causal relationship between the COVID-19 phenomenon and the transformation of society as a whole can vary according to religion. Third, based on the above discussion. we not only presented in detail the social change as a social wave after COVID-19 at the social structural dimension and the living world dimension. but also specifically presented a new religious phenomenon that the COVID-19 phenomenon will bring. Finally, we presented what and how Buddhism would do as the religion of Shim-tak in practical terms. It could be confirmed that if the Buddha’s example in &lt;Bobai sutra&gt; was oriented. the experiment of <italic>Wonmyeongseonwon</italic> in Jeju Island was a Buddhist practice that followed the example of the Buddha.

'And breathe…'? The sociology of health and illness in COVID-19 time.

'And breathe…'? The sociology of health and illness in COVID-19 time.

‘You'll find lots of help here’ unpacking the function of an online Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) forum

The paper reports on the analysis of online postings from a Rheumatoid Arthritis asynchronous forum. Despite the rapid increase of internet users, the role of health related online communities is still underexplored. In this paper we draw on sociolinguistics and medical sociology research in order to problematize the online community notion and to unpack the functions of one forum through the analysis of data from newly diagnosed users. The analysis of the threads shows that the users orient to a set of roles which include both task and rapport oriented functions. We close the paper by showing how the members contribute to the construction of a collective identity. Finally we return to the theoretical considerations raised in our paper and identify areas for further research.

Health risks in different living circumstances of mothers. Analyses based on a population study

The objective of this study was to determine the living circumstances ('Lebenslagen') in mothers which are associated with elevated health risks. Data were derived from a cross-sectional population based sample of German women (n = 3129) with underage children. By means of a two-step cluster analysis ten different maternal living circumstances were assessed which proved to be distinct with respect to indicators of socioeconomic position, employment status and family-related factors. Out of the ten living circumstances, one could be attributed to higher socioeconomic status (SES), while five were assigned to a middle SES and four to a lower SES. In line with previous findings, mothers with a high SES predominantly showed the best health while mothers with a low SES tended to be at higher health risk with respect to subjective health, mental health (anxiety and depression), obesity and smoking. However, there were important health differences between the different living circumstances within the middle and lower SES. In addition, varying health risks were found among different living circumstances of single mothers, pointing to the significance of family and job-related living conditions in establishing health risks. With this exploratory analysis strategy small-scale living conditions could be detected which were associated with specific health risks. This approach seemed particularly suitable to provide a more precise definition of target groups for health promotion. The findings encourage a more exrensive application of the concept of living conditions in medical sociology research as well as health monitoring.

Barriers to standard precautions adherence in a dental school in Iran: A qualitative study

Setting up good infection control practices in educational institutions is crucial in shaping future health professionals. The implementation of standard precautions (SPs) in Iranian dental schools has not been explored qualitatively to identify barriers to good practice. Twelve focus group discussions and 8 semistructured interviews were conducted with students, residents, and staff members (n=83) of the Shiraz University of Medical Sciences Dental School. The interview guide addressed performance, subjective norms, and behavioral control domains of SP-related behaviors. Thematic analysis was performed manually to identify barriers to SP practices. Proximal factors of poor SP adherence were a lack of knowledge and technical difficulties. These factors were compounded by intermediate factors in the work environment: lack of facilities, heavy workload, patient expectations, interprofessional conflicts, and lack of good role models. Two underlying distal factors were financial issues and unsupportive organizational culture. The social constructionism theory was useful in analyzing the situation and suggesting an educational approach as part of the solution. Complex and intertwined barriers of SP adherence were found in this dental school. A social construction approach may assist in addressing these problems by shifting the culture through education to construct a contextual new knowledge. Further research in medical sociology of SP practices would be useful.

Eugenic utopias/dystopias, reprogenetics, and community genetics

The impetus for this review is the intriguing realisation that eugenics, viewed as dystopian and authoritarian in most of the 20th century, is in the process of being reinterpreted today--in the context of reproductive genetics--as utopian and liberal. This review offers an analytical framework for mapping the growing literature on this subject in order to provide a summary for both teaching and research in medical sociology. Recent works are subsumed and explored in three areas: historical criticism of the 'old eugenics'; the continuation of this stream in the form of criticism of reprogenetics as a new, 'backdoor' eugenic regime of bio-governmentality--an area which also includes the application of Foucauldian and feminist perspectives; and the recent enthusiasm regarding 'liberal eugenics,' claiming that reprogenetic decisions should be left to individual consumers thus enhancing their options in the health market. The review concludes by discussing and illustrating potential research directions in this field, with a focus on the social and ethical aspects of 'community genetics' and its emerging networks of individuals genetically at risk.

Dealing with prognostic uncertainty

How do professional futurists contend with prognostic uncertainty? There is an impressive body of medical–sociological research on how medical staff deals with uncertainty. We have used these insights to study patterns and manners in foresight practice that might not be evident otherwise. The question “Do professional futurists use approaches to deal with uncertainty that resemble those of medical staff?” is addressed by ongoing ethnographic research in Dutch foresight practice. The observed manners are grouped into four analytic categories: the construction of solidity, numeric discourse, communication habits and experience as anchor. In this paper, the construction of solidity and experience as anchor are described in detail. It is further more suggested that “certainification” is a possible upshot of these manners in use.

Developing, integrating, and perpetuating new ways of applying sociology to health, medicine, policy, and everyday life

As a framework for presenting ideas on developing ways to make sociology more applicable, we focus on the recent state of medical sociology research. Data for this paper were generated through a content analysis of a twelve-year period (1993–2004) of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior (JHSB) and Social Science & Medicine (SSM). The analysis aims to determine if the content of JHSB and SSM reflect the breadth of the sub-discipline of medical sociology as well as the stated goals of the journals. The selected issues of JHSB and SSM were coded on the basis of the following attributes: (1) Primary Substantive Topic, (2) Methodology, (3) Data Type and Analytic Technique, and (4) Research and Policy Recommendations. We found that the orientation of JHSB articles was towards generating research and theory that shy away from policy, interdisciplinary approaches, and applied issues. SSM content tends to display more interdisciplinary breadth and variety, but also reflects a dearth of applied recommendations. Our discussion focuses on what JHSB and SSM could be. We present ideas on how the sociological discipline in general—and JHSB and SSM in particular—can help generate and nourish new forms of inquiry that can impact the way research questions are framed. We conclude that such a shift is needed in order to maximize the applicability of social scientific evidence to everyday life, and we share examples situated within a socio-medical context, where there is a particular need for the application of social evidence to practice.

“Is There Life on Dialysis?”: Time and Aging in a Clinically Sustained Existence

ABSTRACT Increasingly, in the United States, lives are being extended at ever-older ages through the implementation of routine medical procedures such as renal dialysis. This paper discusses the lives and experiences of a number of individuals 70 years of age and older at two dialysis units in California. It considers what kind of life it is that is being sustained and prolonged in these units, the meanings of the time gained through (and lost to) dialysis for older people, and the relationship of “normal” life outside the units to an exceptional state on the inside that some patients see as not-quite-life. Highlighting the unique dimensions of gerontological time on chronic life support, the article offers a phenomenology of the end of life as that end is drawn out, deferred by technological means, and effaced by the ethos and experiential course of dialysis treatment. ANN JULIENNE RUSS is a medical anthropologist and member of the research faculty at the University of California, San Francisco. Her research has focused on end-of-life care and communication among clinicians, patients, and their families in hospice and high-tech medical environments. Her publications have appeared in Cultural Anthropology and Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry. JANET K. SHIM is assistant adjunct professor at the University of California, San Francisco. Her research in medical sociology has focused on issues at the intersections of health inequalities, biomedical science and technologies, and race, gender, and aging. Her publications have appeared in Sociology of Health and Illness, American Sociological Review, and Social Studies of Science. SHARON R. KAUFMAN is professor of medical anthropology at the University of California, San Francisco. Her recent research explores life extension, technologies of dying, and subjectification in an aging society. She is the author, most recently, of … And a Time to Die: How American Hospitals Shape the End of Life (Scribner, 2005).

Cohort and life-course patterns in the relationship between education and health: a hierarchical approach.

Recent medical sociological research has examined whether the relationship between education and health is dynamic across age, whereas recent demographic research has examined whether the relationship varies across cohorts. In this study, I examine how cohort structures the influence of education on life-course health trajectories. At the cohort level, changes in education and in the distribution of health and mortality make cohort differences in education's effect probable. At the life-course level, the effect of education may vary across age because the mediators of the education-health relationship may vary in their relevance to health across the life course. Using basic regression analyses and random-effects models of two national data sets, I find that the effect of education strengthens across age, that this pattern is becoming stronger across cohorts, and that these patterns are suppressed when either effect is ignored.

Verletzte soziale Reziprozität macht krank: Ein medizinsoziologisches Forschungsmodell

Non-Reciprocal Social Exchange Is a Health Risk: A Medical Sociological Research Model Contrary to a reductionist disease concept prevailing in molecular medicine, a systemic disease concept is emphasised in this sociopsychosomatic approach towards analysing disease as a result of disturbed social exchange among people. More precisely, violations of the norms of social reciprocity in core social roles in adult life, in particular in the work role, are assumed to trigger stressful experience with adverse long-term consequences for health. The model of effort-reward imbalance at work provides an illustrative case of nonreciprocal social exchange. It defines distinct conditions in which an imbalance between high efforts spent and low rewards received in turn is maintained by the workers. In this model social rewards are analysed in terms of money, esteem and promotion prospect including job security. The contribution summarises results from 6 international prospective and cross-sectional epidemiological investigations testing the model of effort-reward imbalance at work with regard to different health indicators (especially coronary heart disease, hypertension, depression, alcohol dependence). In all instances an elevated risk of illness is observed among those who experience non-reciprocal social exchange in terms of effort-reward imbalance at work, compared to people who are free from this type of stressful experience. Results are derived from logistic regression analysis adjusting for the effects of potential confounders. In view of this evidence the medical sociological approach outlined here may be helpful in contrasting a reductionist concept of disease with a systemic concept centred around the sociopsychosomatic aspects of human health and disease.

IMPLICATIONS OF INTERNET TECHNOLOGY FOR MEDICAL SOCIOLOGY IN THE NEW MILLENNIUM

Internet technology is changing the way individuals gather information, interact with others, and organize their time. This technology has implications for research in medical sociology in the new millennium. This study discusses the background and usage estimates of Internet technology and how this technology affects individuals' gathering of health information. Potential consequences of this technology for patient-provider interactions are also examined, as are the implications of Internet communication for social support and health. Current measures of social support may be underestimating the effects of social support on health by not assessing the influence of support garnered through communications on the Internet. The Internet also presents a variety of new research venues that medical sociologists should pursue. Two of these possibilities ? online surveys and analysis of online communication and text ? are discussed. Although the Internet is increasing research opportunities for medical sociologists, the fact that a digital divide still exists with regard to Internet access and use cannot be ignored.

Ethnographic Research in Medical Sociology

Medical sociology ranges from studies of formal medical care to those of health, healing, and caring practices outside the health care system. This field has had a history of ethnographic and qualitative research since its beginnings. Because few studies in medical sociology derive from immersion in a setting, the authors examine those qualitative works in which researchers and subjects had sustained contact. They focus only on major areas in which ethnographic contributions have clustered: (1) disability, chronic illness, and terminal illness; (2) caring and curing; (3) medical sociology in aging research; (4) socialization into health care professions; and (5) the ethnography of ethics. Throughout this review, the added value of ethnographic research to each specific area is noted. Ethnographic research has enriched medical sociology with its emphasis on descriptive detail, meanings, ongoing processes, and concepts. The article ends with a discussion of methodological considerations for conducting research and a summary statement.

Of Lungs and Lungers: The Classified Story of Tuberculosis

The experience of a long-term chronic illness weaves together problems in biography, the body, and the cultural and organizational meanings of the disease. Time meets infrastructure; experience meets classification. We present here a close reading of two studies of tuberculosis: Thomas Mann's novel The Magic Mountain and Julius Roth's empirical work Timetables. Drawing on research in medical sociology and information science, we show how the trajectories of disease, biography, and institution weave together. Mismatches in the trajectories produce distortions (or torques) in time and sense of self, accounting for the phantasmagoric imagery often associated with tuberculosis. We conclude with some general observations about how the concept of trajectory might be used in understanding the intersection of biography and organization.

Beyond the divide between cognition and discourse: Using interpretative phenomenological analysis in health psychology

This paper introduces interpretative phenomenological analysis (PA) and discusses the particular contribution it can make to health psychology. This is contextualized within current debates, particularly in social psychology, between social cognition and discourse analysis and the significance for health psychology of such debates is considered. The paper outlines the theoretical roots of PA in phenomenology and symbolic interactionism and argues the case for a role for PA within health psychology. Discussion then focuses on one area in the health field, the patient's conception of chronic illness and research in medical sociology from a similar methodological and epistemological orientation to PA is introduced. The paper concludes with an illustration of PA from the author's own work on the patient's perception of renal dialysis.

Social Constructionism and its Relevance to Health Policy

This paper tracks the development of the social constructionist approach to medical knowledge, and explores some ofits implications for health policy and medical sociology research. It suggests that the impetus for this approach came in part from Eliot Freidson’s recognition in the 1970s ofthe social character of medical knowledge in both its production and its application, and the difficulties this presented for the conventional conceptual schema in which he framed the rest ofhis work. It is suggested that any policy moves to impinge on medical decision-making in the name ofgreater efficiency would be preempted by the strong interest shared by the medical profession and the economic rationalists in shielding from public exposure the political values hidden within their respective knowledge bases.