Suchergebnisse

Camp Pain: Talking with Chronic Pain Patients. Jean E. Jackson. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2000. 281 pp.

The Human Elder in Nature, Culture and Society. David Gutmann. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1997. 250 pp.

The relatively slim social science literature on drug treatment is reviewed. Attention is paid to the institutionalization of treatment at the meso (local community or clinic) level and the micro (client) level rather than to the more commonly examined macro (societal or national) level. The inter-penetration across these levels of ideologies and practices around drugs is revealed through discussion of the targeting of certain populations for treatment, methods of client control in treatment settings, and the client's view of treatment. In the literature, drug users are often presented as passive individuals, subject to various forms of restrictive social control in therapeutic settings. Their perspective on the processes or efficacy of treatment is rarely sought. The concept of drug treatment as necessarily beneficial to clients is questioned in this paper.

This article presents evidence of a "Latino oral health paradox," in which Mexican immigrant parents in California's Central Valley report having had better oral health status as children in Mexico than their U.S.‐born children. Yet little research has explored the specific environmental, social, and cultural factors that mediate the much‐discussed "Latino health paradox," in which foreign‐born Latinos paradoxically enjoy better health status than their children, U.S.‐born Latinos, and whites. Through ethnography, we explore the dietary and environmental factors that ameliorated immigrant parents' oral health status in rural Mexico, while ill preparing them for the more cariogenic diets and environments their children face in the United States. We argue that studies on the "Latino health paradox" neglect a binational analysis, ignoring the different health status of Latino populations in their sending countries. We use the issue of immigrant children's high incidence of oral disease to initiate a fuller dialogue between U.S.‐based studies of the "health paradox" and non‐U.S.‐based studies of the "epidemiological transition." We show that both models rely on a static opposition between "traditional" and "modern" health practices, and argue that a binational analysis of the processes that affect immigrant children's health can help redress the shortcomings of epidemiological generalizations.

Abstract Background Globalization and increased marketing of non-nutritious foods and beverages are driving a nutrition transition in developing countries, adversely affecting the health of vulnerable populations. This is a visual interpretive study of food, snack, and beverage advertisements (ads) in rural and urban El Salvador to discern the strategies and messages used to promote consumption of highly processed, commercialized products. Methods Digital photographs of billboard and wall advertisements recorded a convenience sample of 100 advertisements, including 53 from rural areas and 47 from urban areas in El Salvador. Advertisements were coded for location, type of product, visual details, placement and context. Qualitative methods were used to identify common themes used to appeal to consumers. Results Advertisements depicted "modern" fast foods, processed snacks and sugary beverages. Overall, the most prominent themes were: Cheap Price, Fast, Large Size, and Modern. Other themes used frequently in combination with these were Refreshment, Sports/Nationalism, Sex and Gender Roles, Fun/Happy Feelings, Family, Friendship and Community, and Health. In rural areas, beverage and snack food ads with the themes of cheap price, fast, and large size tended to predominate; in urban areas, ads for fast food restaurants and the theme of modernity tended to be more prominent. Conclusions The advertisements represented a pervasive bombardment of the public with both explicit and subliminal messages to increase consumerism and shift dietary patterns to processed foods and beverages that are low in micronutrients and high in carbohydrates, sugar, fat and salt—dietary changes that are increasing rates of child and adult diseases including tooth decay, obesity, cardiovascular disease and cancer. Global food and beverage industries must be held accountable for the adverse public health effects of their products, especially in low-middle income countries where there are fewer resources to prevent and treat the health consequences. In addition, public health and governmental authorities should learn from the advertising strategies to promote social marketing of public health messages, and enact and enforce regulations to limit the advertisement and sale of unhealthy products, particularly for children in and around schools. This will create healthier social norms and environments for the entire population.