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Chronic Failures: Kidneys, Regimes of Care and the Mexican State is about Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) and the relentless search for renal care lived out in the context of poverty, inequality and uneven welfare arrangements. Based on ethnographic research conducted in the state of Jalisco, this book documents the routes uninsured Mexican patients take in order to access resource intensive biotechnical treatments, that is, different modes of dialysis and organ transplantation. It argues that these routes are normalized, bureaucratically, socially and epidemiologically, and turned into a locus for exploitation and profit. Without a coherent logic of healthcare access, negotiating regimes of renal care has catastrophic consequences for those with the least resources to expend in that effort. In carrying both the costs and the burden of care, the practices of patients without entitlement offer a critical vantage point on the interplay between the state, markets in healthcare and the sick body.

The relation between socioeconomic status and population health is evident in epidemiological studies. Socioeconomic status is typically measured using income and financial resources, occupation type, and educational attainment. In this book, the authors present topical research in the study of socioeconomic status and its health implications. Topics discussed include diabetes, marginality, and gender identity; the socioeconomic aspects of health services in Israel; low socioeconomic status and child mental health disparities; adolescent health risk behavior from a migrant population in the United Arab Emirates; Japanese women's health related to job stress and the hidden costs incurred by families and friends of patients with low health literacy.

Explores the moral dilemmas posed by disparities in health across nations. Millions around the world die from preventable diseases. Millions more suffer from poor health as a result of extreme poverty. Who bears responsibility for heath inequalities? Who should take responsibility for ameliorating them?Contributors to this volume consider whether health inequalities are a result of global distributive inequalities and are therefore of concern to those promoting global redistributive justice.

A small cadre of scientists -- collaborators and competitors -- are determined to develop a vaccine for malaria -- a feat most tropical disease experts have long considered impossible. Skepticism, doubt, and a host of logistical and financial obstacles dog their quest. Success may ultimately elude them. Why, and how, do they persist? Bill Shore is a writer, philanthropist, and business leader who knows from personal experience the rare and elusive nature of transformative innovation. In this moving and inspiring book, the story of these uncompromising scientists serves as springboard for his passionate inquiry into the character and moral fabric of those who devote their lives to solving the world's most pressing and perplexing problems. What does it take to achieve the impossible? It takes whatever it takes.

Indonesia has made improving the access to health workers, especially in rural areas, and improving the quality of health providers key priority areas of its next five-year development plan. Significant steps and policy changes were taken in the past to improve the distribution of the health force, but few studies have been undertaken to measure the actual impact of these policies and programs. This study begins the process of reviewing the impacts of the past policies and policy changes. It links the changes in supply and quality of health workers to past health work force policies but also t.

Disability and Public Health opens up a new vista and territory by drawing down a new set of tools and strategies from the public health domain to examine the social determinants of health for people with disabilities and to develop systems of health education, health literacy and organization of services to improve their health and well-being. It examines the circumstances of disability from a personal, cultural, environmental, clinical, and policy perspective and ties it together in a public health paradigm.

On average, black Americans are sicker and die earlier than white Americans. Uncertain Suffering provides a richly nuanced examination of what this fact means for health care in the United States through the lens of sickle cell anemia, a disease that primarily affects blacks. In a wide ranging analysis that moves from individual patient cases to the compassionate yet distanced professionalism of health care specialists to the level of national policy, Carolyn Moxley Rouse uncovers the cultural assumptions that shape the quality and delivery of care for sickle cell patients. She reveals a clinical world fraught with uncertainties over how to treat black patients given resource limitations and ambivalence. Her book is a compelling look at the ways in which the politics of racism, attitudes toward pain and suffering, and the reliance on charity for healthcare services for the underclass can create disparities in the U.S. Instead of burdening hospitals and clinics with the task of ameliorating these disparities, Rouse argues that resources should be redirected to community-based health programs that reduce daily forms of physical and mental suffering.

The Final Report of the Commission on Social Determinants of Health sets out key areas of daily living conditions and of the underlying structural drivers that influence them in which action is needed. It provides analysis of social determinants of health and concrete examples of types of action that have proven effective in improving health and health equity in countries at all levels of socioeconomic development.--Publisher's description.

Social inequality is widely recognized as an important cause of conflict and the social determinants of health in conflict settings reflect and reinforce these inequalities. This publication explores the impact of conflict and occupation on the health of people in six countries of the region, identifying loss of human rights, breaches of medical neutrality and psychosocial distress as key determinants that affect people's health in crisis settings. The publication also identifies some examples of activities and interventions that may help to mitigate the impact of these conflicts on the health.

In this book by the award-winning author of Just Healthcare, Norman Daniels develops a comprehensive theory of justice for health that answers three key questions: what is the special moral importance of health? When are health inequalities unjust? How can we meet health needs fairly when we cannot meet them all? Daniels'theory has implications for national and global health policy: can we meet health needs fairly in ageing societies? Or protect health in the workplace while respecting individual liberty? Or meet professional obligations and obligations of justice without conflict? When is an effort to reduce health disparities, or to set priorities in realising a human right to health, fair? What do richer, healthier societies owe poorer, sicker societies? Just Health: Meeting Health Needs Fairly explores the many ways that social justice is good for the health of populations in developed and developing countries.

Described as a Renaissance man of the twenty-first century, Sir George Alleyne, Chancellor of the University of the West Indies and Director Emeritus of the Pan American Health Organization, is one of the Caribbean's finest scholars. As a physician, scientist and public health leader, Sir George has had a profound impact on the Caribbean and the Americas, and the wider world. In this collection of oratory spanning three decades, readers are treated to the scope and breadth of George Alleyne's intellect. Rigorous and meticulous as a researcher, the 28 speeches bear witness to his disciplined, yet elegant skill as a Specialist in several fields, and Generalist in one – as a public health leader. Covering a range of topics delivered to various audiences at varying venue, this book brings Sir George's message of the quest for better health, to a wider audience. From medical and health research, to globalization and national security, chronic disease research and the challenges of HIV and Aids to the Caribbean, the speeches are expressions of global themes. Health and Development in Our Time resonates with the considered reflection of a Caribbean leader in World Health and will enrich the lives of its readers. Caribbean and world citizens alike will benefit from the eloquent expositions delivered by Sir George Alleyne.

Foreword by Lisa Berkman, Professor of Public Policy, Harvard University How welfare states influence population health and health inequalities has long been debated but less well tested by empirical research. This book presents new empirical evidence of the effects of Swedish welfare state structures and policies on the lives of Swedish citizens. The discussion, analysis and innovative theoretical approaches developed in the book have implications for health research and policy beyond Scandinavian borders. Drawing on a rich source of longitudinal data, the Swedish Level of Living Surveys (LNU), and other data, the authors shed light on a number of pertinent issues in health inequality research while at the same time showing how health inequalities have evolved in Sweden over several decades. Topics covered include how structural conditions relating to family, socio-economic conditions and the welfare state are important in producing health inequalities; how health inequalities change over the lifecourse and the impact of environment on health inequalities - at home, at school, in the workplace. Health inequalities and welfare resources will be invaluable to researchers, students and practitioners in sociology, social epidemiology, public health and social policy interested in the interplay between society and health.

This book offers a unique multi-disciplinary perspective on tackling health inequalities in a rich country, examining the New Labour policy agenda for tackling health inequalities and its inherent challenges. The book presents an overview of progress since the publication of the seminal and ambitious 1998 Acheson Inquiry into health inequalities, and the theoretical and methodological issues underpinning health inequalities. The contributors consider the determinants of inequality - for example, early childhood experience and ethnicity - the factors that mediate the relationship between determinants and health - nutrition, housing and health behaviour - and the sectoral policy interventions in user involvement, local area partnership working and social work. Challenging health inequalities offers a combination of broad analysis of progress from differing perspectives and will be key reading to academics, students and policy makers.

Most of the industrialized world now comprises of multi-ethnic societies, with_x000D_ people from widely varying ancestry, cultures, languages, and beliefs. With_x000D_ globalization of trade, increasing international travel, and migration, the whole_x000D_ world is destined to become multi-ethnic within the next 20 or 30 years. This poses_x000D_ huge challenges for doctors, nurses, public health practitioners, health care_x000D_ managers, and policy makers who have to meet legal and policy obligations to_x000D_ deliverhealth outcomes, and provide health care of equal quality and effectiveness._x000D_ To achieve this, they need a solid understanding of the underlying concepts of race_x000D_ and ethnicity, and how these are applied to achieve better health for ethnic_x000D_ minority populations. They also need to have an awareness of themisuses of these_x000D_ concepts, particularly taking into account the history of racism that permeates many_x000D_ societies to this day.Written in non-technical language, with all terminology_x000D_ explained and defined, this book provides an accessible introduction to these_x000D_ complex issues. The key concepts of race and ethnicity are explained, including_x000D_ their uses and misuses. The strengths and weaknesses of these concepts in terms of_x000D_ epidemiology, policy making, health service planning, research, health care, and_x000D_ health promotion are illustrated. The book emphasises theory, ideas, and principles,_x000D_ and and its aims are to helpcounteract the unethical and atheoretical methods often_x000D_ used to study ethnicity. Practical application of the theory is demonstrated through_x000D_ the use of extensive examples. The conceptual frameworks of ethnicity and race_x000D_ required by practitioners and researchers are slightly different, including the_x000D_ natureof research questions, the relative value of various methods of_x000D_ classification, and the approach to data analysis, presentation, and interpretation,_x000D_ and these differences are made explicit. Overall, the interdependence of theory and_x000D_ practice is demonstrated, making this and ideal foundation text or refresher for_x000D_ those involved in race and ethnicity from a health care perspective.

Essential reading for anyone who is concerned with global poverty and health disparity.

Where people live matters to their health. Health improvement strategies often target where people live, but do they work? Placing health tackles this question through an examination of England's Neighbourhood Renewal Strategy and its health targets. It evaluates the evidence base for the strategy, compares experiences from the United States and elsewhere in Europe, and illustrates the relevance of complexity theory to area-based health improvement work. The book brings together these topical issues with a social science analysis of current programmes based on the methods and concepts of complexity thinking. It concludes by setting out how local action based on these ideas offers a new approach to area-based health improvement work. Placing health is aimed at researchers, academics and students in the social and health sciences with an interest in area-based health improvement work, as well as practitioners in health services, local government and voluntary agencies working on neighbourhood renewal and health projects.

Cholera, although it can kill an adult through dehydration in half a day, is easily treated. Yet in 1992-93, some five hundred people died from cholera in the Orinoco Delta of eastern Venezuela. In some communities, a third of the adults died in a single night, as anthropologist Charles Briggs and Clara Mantini-Briggs, a Venezuelan public health physician, reveal in their frontline report. Why, they ask in this moving and thought-provoking account, did so many die near the end of the twentieth century from a bacterial infection associated with the premodern past?It was evident that the number of deaths resulted not only from inadequacies in medical services but also from the failure of public health officials to inform residents that cholera was likely to arrive. Less evident were the ways that scientists, officials, and politicians connected representations of infectious diseases with images of social inequality. In Venezuela, cholera was racialized as officials used anthropological notions of'culture'in deflecting blame away from their institutions and onto the victims themselves. The disease, the space of the Orinoco Delta, and the'indigenous ethnic group'who suffered cholera all came to seem somehow synonymous.One of the major threats to people's health worldwide is this deadly cycle of passing the blame. Carefully documenting how stigma, stories, and statistics circulate across borders, this first-rate ethnography demonstrates that the process undermines all the efforts of physicians and public health officials and at the same time contributes catastrophically to epidemics not only of cholera but also of tuberculosis, malaria, AIDS, and other killers. The authors have harnessed their own outrage over what took place during the epidemic and its aftermath in order to make clear the political and human stakes involved in the circulation of narratives, resources, and germs.

The social inequalities of health have persisted, or even increased, in Europe in the last few years. This text presents the experiences of professionals from various institutional backgrounds in eight European countries, as well as their recommendations to improve the access of excluded people.

In this book a team of international experts record the important lessons of the past decade and suggest what must be done in the research arena to ensure a healthy future for all. It follows up on the landmark publication Health Research: Essential Link to Equity in Development (Oxford University Press, 1990) and is unique in its combination of evocative human stories and expert insight from international health researchers. Forging Links for Health Research will be of interest to academics, researchers, students, and policymakers in public health, epidemiology, health sciences, international health, development studies, and international affairs; professionals in donor organizations, development organizations, and NGOs worldwide; and concerned citizens, particularly health-care workers, interested in international affairs and Third World development.

AIDS strikes most heavily at those already marginalized by conventional society. With no immediate prospect of vaccination or cure, how can liberty, dignity, and reasoned hope be preserved in the shadow of an epidemic? In this humane and graceful book, philosopher Timothy Murphy offers insight into our attempts—popular and academic, American and non-American, scientific and political—to make moral sense of pain.Murphy addresses the complex moral questions raised by AIDS for health-care workers, politicians, policy makers, and even people with AIDS themselves. He ranges widely, analyzing contrasting visions of the origin and the future of the epidemic, the moral and political functions of obituaries, the uncertain value of celebrity involvement in anti-AIDS education, the functional uses of AIDS in the discourse of presidential campaigns, the exclusionary function of HIV testing for immigrants, the priority given to AIDS on the national health agenda, and the hypnotic publicity given to'innocent'victims.Murphy's discussions of the many social and political confusions about AIDS are unified by his attempt to articulate the moral assumptions framing our interpretations of the epidemic. By understanding those assumptions, we will be in a better position to resist self-serving and invidious moralizing, reckless political response, and social censure of the sick and the dying.AIDS strikes most heavily at those already marginalized by conventional society. With no immediate prospect of vaccination or cure, how can liberty, dignity, and reasoned hope be preserved in the shadow of an epidemic? In this humane and graceful book, ph