Search results

Social networks have been a central focus of sociological research on inequalities but less has focused specifically on chronic illness and disability despite a policy emphasis on resources necessary to support self-management. In this chapter, we seek to unpack overlaps and distinctions between social network approaches and research on the experience and management of chronic illness. We outline four main areas viewed as central in articulating the potential for future work consistent with a critical realist perspective: (1) body–society connections and realist/relativist tensions; (2) the controversy of ‘variables’ and accounting for social and cultural context in studying networks for chronic illness support; (3) conceptualising social support, network ties and the significance of organizations and technology; and (4) translating theory into method.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the effect of depression symptoms and their associated severity on reducing treatment sought for chronic medical conditions in respondents living in a low-/middle-income country.

Data for this paper are provided by the national cross-sectional World Health Survey (2003) completed in Pakistan. The authors constructed two samples: one reporting an angina diagnosis (n=150) and another an arthritis diagnosis (n=176), each reporting two or more respective disease symptoms. Logistic regression models, after controlling for confounding variables, were performed to predict treatment received in the last two weeks for respondents’ respective disease.

In respondents with angina, depression severity significantly reduced the likelihood of angina treatment received in the two weeks before survey; depression treatment significantly increased this likelihood. In respondents with arthritis, no psychopathologic variables predicted arthritis treatment received.

This paper works to elucidate the constructs underlying the heavy chronic disease burdens, we currently witness in low-/middle-income countries. As the authors’ design is cross-sectional, future research would benefit from using longitudinal designs to further investigate the relationship between these morbidities.

These findings encourage further collaboration between medical and mental health professionals to develop stratified treatment strategies, especially in potentially underdeveloped settings, such as Pakistan. This paper also encourages the development of policy intended to provide residents of Pakistan and countries in similar socioeconomic positions with more medical and psychiatric treatment services.

This paper is unique in identifying the relationship between these morbidities in a large, population-based sample of respondents from a low-/middle-income country, Pakistan.

This review arises from a series of multidisciplinary Franco‐British workshops which were supported by a grant from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR). More than 30 participants from a range of institutions and agencies were involved in compiling the material in this review (Appendix I). The workshops offered an opportunity to exchange ideas from research on the relationships between migration, health and well‐being in Britain and France. In the following discussion we compare and contrast experiences in the two countries, with the aim of assessing the importance of international, national and local contexts, in their various cultural, social and political dimensions, for the relationships of interest. Drawing on these ideas, we suggest the definition of a future international research agenda.

This paper explores the evidence on risk and vulnerability to depression of older people, looking at the complex interplay between physical ill health, disability, loss of intimates and social relationships, loneliness and depression, and the resources and protective factors at individual, social and community level that either buffer risk or promote psychological well‐being. It concludes, with Blazer (2000), that effective strategies for the prevention, treatment and management of depression must ‘proceed across multiple domains simultaneously’, and address social, environmental and economic as well as medico‐biological factors if interventions are to prove effective in this greatly neglected field. Action at government level to address social inequalities throughout the life course would also have a significant protective impact on mental well‐being in old age.

This paper seeks to explore what disclosing illness and disability in the workplace means to workers with chronic illness and disabilities. It aims to argue that beginning analysis from the meanings of these workers contributes to a nuanced understanding of their situations; gaining this view requires knowing how individuals define their health as well as their meanings, risks, and dilemmas of disclosing illness and disability; understanding the employee's perspective and actions helps employers to make useful accommodations for illness and disability; and this analysis can offer researchers and managers in international business a starting‐point for making comparisons with worksites across the globe.

The analysis derives from qualitative data in which issues concerning disclosure emerged as a recurring theme, and on studies reported in literatures that illuminate ill and disabled workers' views and experience. The paper draws on material from 185 qualitative interviews with North Americans who have chronic illnesses and disabilities and on interview data reported in the research literature that illuminate ill and disabled workers' views and experience.

In all these data, issues concerning disclosure emerged as a recurring theme. Beginning analysis from the meanings of the workers contributes to a nuanced understanding of their situations that involves learning how individuals define their health as well as their meanings of the risks and dilemmas of disclosing illness and disability.

The practical implications of this analysis include: aiding employers to understand the employee's perspective and actions, providing considerations for making useful accommodations for illness and disability, and offering researchers and managers in international business a starting‐point for making comparisons with worksites across the globe.

The paper examines how workers with chronic illness and disabilities feel about disclosing their conditions, with a view, inter alia, to helping employers to compare their situation with other worksites worldwide.