SEARCH · Search PubMed

Results for “POLITICS”

Search indexed PubMed citations on genomics, clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health. Explore titles, authors and supplied subject terms, then open the PubMed record.

SourceResearch connectionFrom yearThrough year

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 1,009 records · Page 56Linked to original sources

PubMed2003

The politics of belonging and intercultural health care.

Belonging was one of the recurrent themes in an ethnography examining the social context of intergroup health care relations. Certain people, both patients and health care providers, were constructed as belonging in the social fabric of health care, whereas some were left on the margins and constructed as Other. In this article, the theme of belonging is explored through a multilayered analysis of the contexts of intergroup health care encounters. The macropolitics of belonging are situated in the larger societal setting, replete with practices that mark Other. Evidences of such Othering is then traced through organizational contexts, drawing on the exemplars of visiting hour policy, integration of alternative therapies, and provision of language services. Intergroup interactions are then reanalyzed in light of micropolitics at the individual nurse-patient level. The overall picture presented is one of a range of social, political, historical, and economic forces reproduced in everyday intercultural health care encounters.

Cultural Characteristics↗

PubMed1986

The political economy of famine.

This paper explores some of the reasons why the well-laid plans of the 1970's failed to be an effective bulwark against hunger. It is reflective rather than critical because we are faced with the certainty that just as surely as the famines of the 1980's followed the famines of the 1970's, the 1990's will again see drought, crop failure and, unless things change a great deal, famine as well. The analysis of the causes of hunger current in the 1970's can be summarized somewhat brutally as follows. Either there is not enough to eat, or what is available is poor in nutritional quality. Poor nutrition is synergistic with disease. Together they result in increasing debility and finally death. Famine is an unusual event, precipitated by this same triad of factors, on a catastrophic scale. The strategies which emerged from this analysis can be placed similarly under three broad headings. The first is that food production must be increased so that there is more available for everyone. The second is that national food security strategies should be developed and implemented. The third is that nutritional quality of people's diets should be improved. These are three major goals which have dominated international thinking for a decade. This paper argues that this analysis is at the very least incomplete and that the strategies based upon it have failed to make a marked impact on the risk vulnerable households face to famine. It goes on to suggest that, irrespective of the quantity and quality of food generally available, the households, poorer communities and poorer countries are able to lay claim to a share of what is available. These claims are mediated by a hierarchy of relationships--households within communities, communities within countries and countries in the world at large--and the nature of the relationships constitutes the 'political economy' within which famines arise and must be analysed.

Africa↗

PubMed1997

Activism, drug regulation, and the politics of therapeutic evaluation in the AIDS era: a case study of ddC and the 'surrogate markers' debate.

This paper presents an extended case study to demonstrate that the interpretation of clinical trials of antiviral AIDS drugs is significantly shaped by a widely dispersed allocation of scientific credibility. Specifically, the participation of AIDS activists in claims-making about AIDS trials and AIDS drugs complicates the politics of therapeutic evaluation, even as it challenges the monopolization of credibility by credentialed researchers. The paper tracks the social construction of belief about the efficacy of the combination therapy of AZT and ddC, between 1990 and 1995 in the United States. By intervening simultaneously in interpretative debates about the results of the clinical trials of this therapy and in methodological debates about how efficacy might best be measured in such trials, activists have helped to shape what is believed to be known about these drugs.

AIDS-Related Complex↗

PubMed2006

The terrorist mind: I. A psychological and political analysis.

Part I of this two-part article describes the major forms of domestic and foreign terrorism, the motivations of the perpetrators, and the psychological, social, and political forces that contribute to this most particular expression of violence. The article addresses the question of whether all terrorists are sick or evil and considers the possibility that some forms of terrorism, however odious their result, can be a rational response to a situation of perceived intolerable injustice. The article examines what motivates people to join terrorist groups and what may later move them to leave the terrorist lifestyle. Special consideration is given to the psychological and religious dynamics of suicide terrorism and what might motivate some people to give their lives for their cause. Finally, the article offers recommendations for a multipronged approach to dealing with this modern yet ageless scourge.

Aspirations, Psychological↗

PubMed2002

Nursing knowledge and human science revisited: practical and political considerations.

The human science tradition is rooted in human freedom and meaning and oriented toward narrative and dialogical methods. In the past 10 years, human science nursing has grown but the opposition has also increased. Whereas other health disciplines are turning to the study of lived experience, nursing on the whole may be turning away. This article updates progress in human science, including works related to major nursing theories. The authors address practical and political considerations related to language, community, theory-laden knowledge, and tolerance for diversity. The authors conclude that the suppression of human science imperils nursing as a practice of being-with, witnessing, and cocreating quality of life, lived by nurses. But theories live in the actions of those who support them; thus, any place where people seek human care has the potential to support a human science-based nursing practice.

Humans↗

PubMed1985

Supportive ties: a political economy perspective.

The growing body of evidence linking social support and health has important implications for health promotion, disease prevention and treatment. But serious unsolved problems remain in the areas of research, practice and policy. Key among these are the ethical issues which arise when the reality of the importance of social support is translated simplistically into a policy emphasis stressing individual and interpersonal responsibility for health and justifying major cutbacks in health and social programs. This article examines the interdependencies between supportive ties on the individual and community levels and the larger social and political environments within which social networks operate. The effectiveness of families and other micro level support systems is seen as heavily dependent upon the adequacy of programs and policies on the local state and national levels which provide help with income maintenance, housing, transportation and other basic necessities. The cutting back of these more basic programs and services will be seen to disrupt the delicate web of natural relationships. Professionals concerned with the application of social support and health findings need to look beyond the individual and interpersonal levels toward policy and institutional level interventions. They thus may make an important contribution in advocating on behalf of those policies and programs which are critical to the effective functioning of natural helping networks, and which are at the same time faced with cutbacks. By helping alert colleagues, policy makers and the public both to the promise of the social support and health findings, and to the interdependence of support on local, state and national levels, health educators and others in the health professions may help to facilitate the effective application of these findings in policy and practice.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed2006

Bio-politics and the promotion of traditional herbal medicine in Vietnam.

It is often suggested that, in the past 50 years, Vietnam has experienced a traditional medicine 'revival' that can be traced back to late President Ho Chi Minh's 1955 appeal 'to study means of uniting the effects of oriental remedies with those of Europe'. In this article, I demonstrate how traditional herbal medicine came to be recruited as an important component of national efforts to promote the public health of urban and rural populations in Vietnam. Importantly, this has entailed a rejection of a colonial biopolitics that sought to marginalize 'quackery' in favour of a postcolonial bio-politics that aims to promote the 'appropriate' use of traditional herbal medicines. While the Vietnamese case bears many parallels to other countries in this respect, notably China, Vietnam's ancient history of medicine, postcolonial isolation and extensive health delivery network have resulted in a unique strategy that encourages rural populations to become self-sufficient in the herbal treatment of their most common illnesses.

Health Education↗

PubMed1998

Political violence, family stress and mental health of refugee children in exile.

The mental health of 63 refugee children, with a mean age of 5.9 years, from Chile and the Middle East, were studied during the first 18 months of exile in Stockholm, Sweden. 46% of the children were rated as having poor mental health five months after resettlement in symptom interviews with parents based on the structured questionnaire developed by Cederblad, and 44% thirteen months later. Political violence in the home country and stress in the family sphere in exile were identified as the major determinants of poor mental health in this context.

Acculturation↗

PubMed1984

The impact of political violence on mild psychiatric morbidity in northern Ireland.

Evidence concerning the impact of the violence in Northern Ireland on psychiatric morbidity is limited to studies examining admission rates and psychotropic drug prescribing rates; their results varied from suggesting no effect to indicating that greater levels of violence are actually equated with higher levels of mental health. The present study is the first to use a community sample, in which respondents (797) from two towns, which have experienced contrasting levels of violence over the last ten years, completed the 30-item version of the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ), and also indicated their perception of the level of violence in their area and how safe they felt this was to live in. Those who lived in the more violent town scored higher on the GHQ, as did women compared to men and those who perceived that their area had experienced more violence. There was also a two-way interaction, such that the small number of people, who perceived much violence in their area and who also lived in the more violent town, scored more highly on the GHQ. It is possible that the majority of people in Northern Ireland deal effectively with stress generated by the political violence, but do so by denying the existence of this violence around them.

Adult↗

PubMed2006

Psychiatric drug promotion and the politics of neo-liberalism.

The pharmaceutical industry has popularized the idea that many problems are caused by imbalances in brain chemicals. This message helps to further the aims of neo-liberal economic and social policies by breeding feelings of inadequacy and anxiety. These feelings in turn drive increasing consumption, encourage people to accept more pressured working conditions and inhibit social and political responses.

Advertising↗

PubMed1976

The challenge of comparative health policy for political science.

After a brief review of the literature and some reflection on the state of the art, this paper argues that more analyses of health policy in an explicitly comparative perspective are needed. This conclusion is based on a discussion of the largely unexploited benefits that could accrue from a welding of political science and health services research and a consideration of a research design illustrating the compatibility of these two endeavors.

Delivery of Health Care↗

PubMed1987

The political development of the Hill-Burton program: a case study in distributive policy.

The Hill-Burton program offers a rare opportunity to study a distributive health policy from its adoption to its elimination. This study reveals that the political dynamics of the policy changed over time. It concludes by observing that interest group influence on distributive health policies may only be decisive when circumstances permit. Those circumstances include the involvement of powerful elected officials and the degree of consensus among policy experts about the need for the policy and the appropriateness of its objectives.

Financing, Government↗

PubMed1990

The medically uninsured: problems, policies, and politics.

The ranks of the medically uninsured have grown significantly in recent years, but no consensus on a policy solution has emerged. After summarizing the characteristics of the uninsured population, this paper reviews diverse policy responses and their troubled political prospects.

Federal Government↗

PubMed1991

Technological, economic, and political feasibility in OSHA's Air Contaminants Standard.

In 1989, after almost two decades of substance-by-substance standard setting, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) promulgated its Air Contaminants Standard, imposing new exposure limits for 376 toxic substances encountered in U.S. industry. In marked contrast to earlier regulations, the Air Contaminants Standard has generated relatively little industry opposition. This paper analyzes the standard in the context of the twenty-year debate over the appropriate role for technological feasibility and economic compliance costs in occupational health policy. The political feasibility of the new standard is traced to OSHA's abandonment of "technology forcing" in favor of reliance on "off-the-shelf" technologies already in use in major firms. While important as an embodiment of OSHA's new "generic" approach to regulation, the Air Contaminants Standard cannot serve as a model for future occupational health policy, due to its reliance on informal, closed-door mechanisms for establishing regulatory priorities and permissible exposure limits.

Air Pollutants↗

PubMed1994

Knowing and acting in medical practice: the epistemological politics of outcomes research.

Recent health care policymaking favors outcomes research as a response to the putative ineffectiveness, as well as the undeniable expense, of American medicine. This small-scale ethnographic study conducted in a department of internal medicine evaluates claims that probabilistic knowledge will improve clinical practice. It finds that physicians are primarily determinists and that although they reason probabilistically in some instances, they rely on personal experience over research data at these times; that doctors view outcomes research as useful but not definitive and in no way immune to the social influences on medical knowledge generally; and that their mix of determinism and probabilism is well suited to the nature of medical work. The recent ascendancy of outcomes research is as much political as scientific, empowering the research community relative to practicing physicians, lending medical legitimacy to payer-promulgated practice guidelines, and creating additional clinical work around a false standard of medical certainty.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗

PubMed1996

The Quinlan case revisited: a history of the cultural politics of medicine and the law.

This article explores the cultural politics of medicine and the law through a historical examination of the case of Karen Ann Quinlan. In viewing the Quinlan case as, in part, an unanticipated consequence of the 1968 redefinition of death, this article implicates the importance of historical perspective and methodology in examining the nuances of the cultural negotiation of professional power. Using popular, legal, medical, and bioethics sources in historical context, it reveals how the legal process can nurture misconceptions about medical practice and the role of technology. It also sheds light on how the search for legal protection can motivate medical behavior. In so doing, it challenges the view that Quinlan was an important gain for patients' rights. Instead it views Quinlan's chief legacy as its offer to the medical profession of freedom from criminal prosecution when removing life support from patients in a chronically vegetative state.

Adult↗

PubMed1999

The Oregon Health Plan and the political paradox of rationing: what advocates and critics have claimed and what Oregon did.

The article proceeds in three sections. First, we very briefly review the original proposals and ensuing (and misleading) debate over rationing in Oregon. Next, we explore how the politics of rationing unfolded in Oregon from the enactment of OHP to its implementation. Finally, we consider the character of Oregon's innovation and the broader lessons that it holds for reform efforts elsewhere.

Diffusion of Innovation↗

PubMed2001

HCFA and the states: politics and intergovernmental leverage.

In this article, we seek to explain variations in the Health Care Financing Administration's (HCFA) relationship to state governments. After reviewing several alternative models of the policy-making process, we argue that the utility of each model depends on certain issue characteristics, especially salience and conflict. We further argue that HCFA's choice of intergovernmental tools, rooted in a political setting, depends on the same issue characteristics. We illustrate our arguments by examining HCFA's behavior during the Clinton administration and by focusing on four cases: HMO performance measurement, nursing home regulation, lead screening for children, and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP).

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, U.S.↗