Overview
- Calls for strengthening the theoretical basis for epidemiological research, moving it from description to explanation
- Examines concepts and explanatory theories from related disciplines to interpret how social determinants actually influence health patterns
- Assembles concepts and theories to establish transdisciplinary thinking about the connections between social circumstances, wellbeing and health
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About this book
This book assembles a wide range of explanatory perspectives on social inequalities in health. Everywhere in the world, those with less advantage die younger and suffer more illness than the wealthy. Decades of research have documented this reality and yet we lack a comprehensive understanding of the mechanisms through which social circumstances ultimately influence the biological processes that lead to disease. Explanations have been proposed from various disciplines – economics, psychology, behavioral science, geography, and neuroscience – and each sheds light on parts of the overall process. But very few texts assemble these insights into an overall explanatory paradigm.
Through a review of concepts and theories from a wide range of disciplines, the author outlines how these may be woven together to offer a more complete picture of how social influences 'get under the skin' to affect health and disease. As well as understanding individual health, the book assembles explanations for social disparities in health. It concludes with a proposal for a set of explanatory models that cross disciplinary boundaries. Topics explored include:- Social Inequalities in Health
- Explanation and Causal Models for Social Epidemiology
- Social and Economic Theories to Explain Patterns of Disease
- Biological Pathways Linking Social Determinants to Health
- Theoretical Models of Health Behavior
- Work Environment and Health
- Social Networks, Social Support and Health
- Positive Influences on Health: Coping and Control
- The Relationship Between Personality and Health
Understanding Health Determinants: Explanatory Theories for Social Epidemiology is a textbook for graduate students in epidemiology, health sciences, health policy, and psychology, as well as social science students who are studying health. It will also be of interest to general readers, and can serve as a reference for researchers in epidemiology and the health sciences who are planning studies of the social determinants of health. The book reviews theories that could be tested in such studies.
Keywords
- understanding health inequalities
- from social determinants of health to personal health
- causal models in social epidemiology
- health determinants
- moving epidemiology from statistical to theoretical analysis
- Why are some people healthy and others not?
- Why does where I live affect my health?
- social inequalities in health
- social explanations for disease patterns
- wealth, poverty, and material resources
- relative income and psychosocial explanations
- biological pathways
- the life course perspective
- health behavior theories
- work environment and health
- stress and health
- social networks and support
- mental processes, coping and control
- mind-body links
- personality and health
Table of contents (13 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Ian McDowell is an Emeritus Professor in the School of Epidemiology and Public Health at the University of Ottawa, Canada. Author of Measuring Health: A Guide to Rating Scales and Questionnaires, he was also the principal investigator of the Canadian Study of Health and Aging, a nationwide study of the epidemiology of the dementias. He divides his time between Canada and Jamaica.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Understanding Health Determinants
Book Subtitle: Explanatory Theories for Social Epidemiology
Authors: Ian McDowell
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-28986-6
Publisher: Springer Cham
eBook Packages: Medicine, Medicine (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-031-28985-9Published: 31 May 2023
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-031-28988-0Due: 01 July 2023
eBook ISBN: 978-3-031-28986-6Published: 30 May 2023
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XXV, 526
Number of Illustrations: 2 b/w illustrations, 47 illustrations in colour
Topics: Epidemiology, Social Structure, Social Inequality, Public Health, Health Policy