Biography:

Feldman is Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at The College at Brockport, State University of New York, and former President of the Society for Medical Anthropology. He is the author/editor of seven books, including AIDS, Culture, and Africa (2008) and AIDS, Culture, and Gay Men (2010). He has conducted HIV/AIDS social and epidemiologic research in the United States, Hungary, Zambia, Rwanda, Uganda, and Senegal.

Abstract:

What are the social and biological factors that have increased the spread of HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa? Today, 69 percent of all persons with HIV/AIDS live in sub-Saharan Africa. Factors that will be discussed include the lack of male circumcision, the prevalence of married men having a mistress, possible differences in HIV subtype, dry sex, untreated sexually transmitted infections, multipartnering without a condom, virgin curing, ritual sexual cleansing, growing homophobia, the low status of women, AIDS stigma, and other possible factors. The U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and Europe’s Global Program for AIDS. Malaria and Tuberculosis have both had an enormous impact in changing AIDS in Africa from a nearly universally lethal disease 13 years ago into a mostly chronic disease today.

Biography:

Cleto Corposanto is Full Professor of Sociology at Magna Graecia University of Catanzaro, Italy. Previously he was Associate Professor at University of Trento. Chair of Sociology BA and MA, he is the scientific Director of Crisp-Research Centre on Health Systems and Welfare Policies and. He chairs moreover the Italian Academic group of sociologists of Health and medicine. His research interests are methods and e-methods in social research, sociology of health and illness, sociology of food and nutrition, social capital and health.

Abstract:

Theoretical reflections and empirical investigations in medical sociology and anthropology have had a great boost from the famous triad due to Twaddle. The 3-dimensions model Disease, Illness, Sickness is very useful in many situations in which researchers want to analyse the lack of well-being of all the possible points of view. Using Twaddle’s definitions, “Disease is a health problem that consists of a malfunction that results in an actual or potential reduction in physical capacities and/or a reduced life expectancy, Illness is a subjectively interpreted undesirable state of health. It consists of subjective feeling states (e.g. pain, weakness), perceptions of the adequacy of their bodily functioning, and/or feeling of competence” (Twaddle 1994:8); and “whenever a person is defined as having a disease or illness by others, we can talk about sickness, the social level as ‘unwell’. Irrespective of the reality on the basis for the claim, to be defined as sick is to have certain rights and obligations not shared by others” (Twaddle 1978:18). Nevertheless the Triad seems to be inadequate analysing the global harm of some particular categories of diseases (i.e. alimentary intolerances). Analysing life and illness histories of patients with celiac disease, what emerge in our research is the awareness of a social harm very important (and in many situations much stronger than biological damage), due to the lack of relational and social capital. For this reason we think that, in some research situations, it can be useful the integration of the originally Triad of Twaddle (already reviewed by Maturo (2007) through the P-model that introduces the Sickscape) with a new dimension that lead to a new Esa-model in which we can introduce the new concept of Sonetness (a kind of loss of social networks). Esa-model seems to be suitable for copying from a theoretical point of view the whole range of health problems, including alimentary intolerances that are in great growth all over the world.

Biography:

Abstract:

Biography:

Shona completed her PhD in 2004 is Deputy Director of the MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit and co-leads the Informing Healthy Public Policy programme. Her research focuses on examining macro level determinants of health such as mass media, political and corporate influences that shape emerging public and policy debates. She has published more than 50 papers in reputed journals and is co-convenor of the Scottish BSA Medical Sociology Group.

Abstract:

For the first time in history non-communicable diseases (NCDs) now pose a greater health burden than communicable infectious diseases and the media play a crucial role in framing public and policy debates about the causes of, and solutions to NCDs. While the literature suggests that media debates should be a key concern for those interested in understanding public health policy processes, as yet there has been only limited research in this area. This paper presents the findings from a scoping review, which asked: what are the gaps in current research on media representatives of industries that contribute to NCD risk and how might media representations shape public and political opinion? We searched Web of Science, Medline, Embase, and Google Scholar for three NCD debates, considering how alcohol, processed food and tobacco industries have been represented in the media. Our findings indicate that: (i) limited research that has been undertaken, 61 studies over the last 30 years, mainly dominated by tobacco studies; (ii) comparative research across industries/risk-factors is particularly lacking; and (iii) coverage tends to be dominated by two contrasting frames (market justice and social justice). We conclude that future research is needed that investigates how media debates on NCD risk and policy are related to have a more nuanced understanding of the complex ways in which media representations of unhealthy commodity industries are shaped by, and contribute to shaping, public, corporate and political discourses.