Martin Vinther Bavngaard, Anne Lund, Erik Børve Rasmussen
{"title":"Domestication as Stabilisation: Exploring the Incorporation of Social Technology by Older Adults and Their Relatives.","authors":"Martin Vinther Bavngaard, Anne Lund, Erik Børve Rasmussen","doi":"10.1111/1467-9566.70131","DOIUrl":"10.1111/1467-9566.70131","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>As health and care policies in Western societies emphasise ageing at home, loneliness among home-dwelling older adults emerges as a health-related area of intervention and technological innovation. One such intervention is Komp, a social technology designed for families to socially include an older family member struggling to use digital technology. This study couples the concepts of domestication and script to unpack the negotiations of Norwegian older adults and their relatives during Komp's introduction into their sociotechnical constellations. Utilising a multimethod longitudinal design, our inquiry produced 46 interviews, 22 photos and accompanying participant observations. From this empirical foundation, a reflexive thematic analysis was undertaken to develop our understanding of domestication trajectories. Our analysis foregrounds stability, volatility and breakdown as dynamic states involving different degrees of harmony in the negotiated meaning and use of Komp among a constellation of actors. Beyond a novel rendition of domestication as states of (in)stability, this study encourages an understanding of the effects of technological interventions as always in production, sustained by users' continuous negotiations involving the technology's scripted design, other technologies and-importantly-themselves.</p>","PeriodicalId":21685,"journal":{"name":"Sociology of health & illness","volume":"48 1","pages":"e70131"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12672974/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145662076","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Sophie Lewis, Marika Franklin, Giselle Newton, Katherine Kenny, Frances Boyle, Andrea Smith
{"title":"Buying Time: Incurable Prognosis, Temporal Uncertainty and the Costs of Metastatic Breast Cancer.","authors":"Sophie Lewis, Marika Franklin, Giselle Newton, Katherine Kenny, Frances Boyle, Andrea Smith","doi":"10.1111/1467-9566.70134","DOIUrl":"10.1111/1467-9566.70134","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Understandings of living well with incurable, life-limiting disease are limited. This article examines how living with a 'contracted future', albeit of uncertain duration, affects how one spends time (wisely) in the present and plans future time. Mobilising the concept of timescapes and interviews with women with metastatic breast cancer, we examined how an incurable prognosis shaped how women experienced time, what meanings they ascribed to time and at what cost. Thematic analysis derived five themes: 'quality time'-the imperative to spend time well; 'out-of-sync timing'-experiencing temporal disconnect with others; 'making time'-motivation to extend their time through treatments; 'time mis/calculations'-planning amid uncertain certainty; and 'the tempo of living beyond prognosis'-responding to initial contraction and subsequent expansion of temporal horizons. Our analyses reveal how pressures to live well, die well and be remembered well complicated women's experiences of how to be in the present and future, incurring substantial social and economic costs. We illuminate how the quest for improved quality of life and extended longevity can result in emotional and financial precarity, experienced most profoundly by those with limited economic resources, revealing the economic and social factors that shape how time is spent well by those with metastatic disease.</p>","PeriodicalId":21685,"journal":{"name":"Sociology of health & illness","volume":"48 1","pages":"e70134"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12690006/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145715720","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Anything but Endo: Diagnostic Buck-Passing in Endometriosis Diagnosis.","authors":"Rita Dexter, Megan Kitts, Heather Welty, Melanie Jeske","doi":"10.1111/1467-9566.70142","DOIUrl":"10.1111/1467-9566.70142","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>People living with endometriosis, a disease in which tissue similar to the lining of the uterus grows elsewhere in the body, often experience prolonged diagnostic journeys because of symptom variability, normalisation of period pain and other symptoms, and lack of awareness of the condition. In this article, we analyse the endometriosis diagnostic journey through the lens of epistemic injustice. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 52 people living with endometriosis in the United States, we introduce the concept of diagnostic buck-passing to characterise the phenomenon wherein individuals who seek treatment for their symptoms end up stuck in a cycle of seeing different providers across ranging specialities, which ultimately delays their diagnosis. We describe diagnostic buck-passing and the conditions that give rise to its emergence, grounding our conceptualisation in endometriosis diagnosis. Utilising concepts of undone science and wilful ignorance, we demonstrate how endometriosis diagnosis becomes a site of hermeneutical injustice due to a long history of underinvestment in women's health research and resultant knowledge gaps in clinical care.</p>","PeriodicalId":21685,"journal":{"name":"Sociology of health & illness","volume":"48 1","pages":"e70142"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12813254/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145998917","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Angharad E Beckett, Neve McLean, Anna Miller, Rachel Heaton, Daria Borisova
{"title":"Nothing About Us Without Us in the First 1000 Days: Developing Inclusive Early Years Support With Disabled Families.","authors":"Angharad E Beckett, Neve McLean, Anna Miller, Rachel Heaton, Daria Borisova","doi":"10.1111/1467-9566.70118","DOIUrl":"10.1111/1467-9566.70118","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This article reports on co-design workshops with 11 disabled families ('co-designers') as part of developing a 'universal' (for all families) early years programme in health and social care. The programme aims to enhance caregiver and infant well-being. Given well-documented limitations of existing support for disabled families, ensuring disability inclusion from the outset was essential. The term 'disabled families' refers to 2 configurations: families where a parent is disabled and families of disabled children. Intensive workshops employed barrier mapping and solution generation activities. Thematic analysis revealed four domains where co-designers identified exclusionary practices and proposed inclusive alternatives: physical and environmental accessibility, programme design flexibility, content inclusivity and professional practice and empowerment. Co-designers demonstrated how institutional ableism operates through inaccessible venues, rigid attendance policies, normative developmental milestones and dismissal of parental expertise. Solutions moved beyond surface accommodations towards fundamental transformation. Co-designers proposed accessible venues with sensory considerations, flexible attendance, strength-based content, comprehensive facilitator training validating experiential knowledge and enabled peer support. This study demonstrates that meaningful inclusion requires dismantling rather than retrofitting exclusionary systems. Co-designers' insights provide both structural critique of institutional ableism and practical design principles for inclusive provision, showing how participatory approaches can generate alternative possibilities for equitable family support.</p>","PeriodicalId":21685,"journal":{"name":"Sociology of health & illness","volume":"48 1","pages":"e70118"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12702093/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145757598","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Forms of Capital in Navigating Health and Welfare Services for Disabled Children: Parental Resources and Institutional Demands.","authors":"Sigurd Eid Jacobsen","doi":"10.1111/1467-9566.70143","DOIUrl":"10.1111/1467-9566.70143","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This article examines how differences in forms of capital shape families' experience of navigating complex health and welfare institutions within a system formally committed to equality and universal provision. Using Bourdieu's theory of capital, this study explores how parents of disabled children in Norway mobilise various resources to access, coordinate and manage health and welfare services. Based on qualitative interviews with 21 families, the analysis shows how these forms of capital function as both enabling and constraining mechanisms. Cultural capital supports alignment with bureaucratic expectations. Social capital provides access to practical support and insider knowledge. Economic capital offers flexibility and helps fill gaps where services fall short. Crucially, the ability to activate these resources depends on families' mental and physical stamina. This article shows how the navigation of health and welfare services is shaped by the interaction between institutional structures and families' capacity to mobilise resources, producing socially patterned differences in how the process unfolds.</p>","PeriodicalId":21685,"journal":{"name":"Sociology of health & illness","volume":"48 1","pages":"e70143"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12812792/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145999048","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"What Can Alcohol Reduction 'Do' for/in Midlife Women's Hopes? A Qualitative Study in Australia.","authors":"Paul R Ward, Kristen Foley, Belinda Lunnay","doi":"10.1111/1467-9566.70114","DOIUrl":"10.1111/1467-9566.70114","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The proportion of midlife Australian women (45-64 years) whose alcohol consumption is defined as 'long-term risky drinking' increased between 2001 and 2019, with serious health, economic and social impacts. Although overall population consumption trends towards a decline, consumption for this population remains stable, suggesting that current alcohol reduction policies and strategies are ineffective for this population. In this paper, we employ sociological theory on hope to argue for developing alcohol policies that are structured to enable women's hopes for a future that includes alcohol reduction. Drawing on humanistic and positive sociology that is concerned with future-focused enquiries, we undertook semi-structured interviews with 26 midlife women, exploring 'if' they could reduce their drinking, then what hopes might be enabled through alcohol reduction. Women talked about imagined alcohol-reduced futures as enabling hopes for control, responsibility, stability and health in their lives, to support them to care for others and be 'normal'. Quixotic hopes around excitement, freedom and having a 'good life' were expressed to a lesser extent than expected. Our study and findings are analysed in relation to sociological and (post-structural) feminist theories of oppression and political transformation, with implications for alcohol policy scaffolded by engagement with Freire's pedagogy of hope.</p>","PeriodicalId":21685,"journal":{"name":"Sociology of health & illness","volume":"47 8","pages":"e70114"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145401821","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"'I'm the One With the Degree:' Challenges to Medical Autonomy in Correctional Healthcare in the United States.","authors":"Allison Gorga","doi":"10.1111/1467-9566.70103","DOIUrl":"10.1111/1467-9566.70103","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Correctional healthcare workers face numerous challenges delivering healthcare to incarcerated patients. This study aims to understand the ways these healthcare workers struggle to assert their medical and clinical independence from custody staff. This study employed a qualitative design, using in-depth interviews with 46 correctional healthcare workers across the United States in 2022. Results indicate that the delivery of correctional healthcare is a product of negotiated order in detention facilities. Participants and custody staff coproduce an informal hierarchy that promotes deference to officers, whereas policies and institutional factors further blur the lines between punishment and care. Healthcare workers also described their strategies for overcoming these issues. Policy implications for improving medical autonomy in correctional healthcare are also discussed.</p>","PeriodicalId":21685,"journal":{"name":"Sociology of health & illness","volume":"47 8","pages":"e70103"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145275694","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Stefan Timmermans, Will Schupmann, Rebecca Kaufman, Aviad Raz
{"title":"Coping With the Spectre of Cardiac Mortality: The Role of Genetic Testing.","authors":"Stefan Timmermans, Will Schupmann, Rebecca Kaufman, Aviad Raz","doi":"10.1111/1467-9566.70107","DOIUrl":"10.1111/1467-9566.70107","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>A diagnosis of cardiovascular disease increases death awareness by raising the possibility of sudden death. Engaging sociological literature on patient experiences with terror management theory, we examine how patients diagnosed with cardiac disease turn to online communities to interpret the possibility of cardiac death. Drawing on 33 semi-structured interviews with individuals diagnosed with a cardiac condition and who have undergone genetic testing as part of its diagnosis or treatment, we find that respondents turn to biomedicine in the hope that medical interventions will prevent or postpone death. Respondents were motivated by anxiety to opt in genetic testing even if the results were unlikely to change diagnosis, treatment or prognosis. Genetic testing reinforced a biomedical world view where medical care can optimise the quality of life through prevention, including for their relatives. Their biological kin, however, refused to undergo genetic testing in absence of a cardiac diagnosis.</p>","PeriodicalId":21685,"journal":{"name":"Sociology of health & illness","volume":"47 8","pages":"e70107"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145293621","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Postfeminist Healthism: Understanding the Gendering of Healthism Using Menstrual Tracking Apps as an Example.","authors":"Sarah Riley, Adrienne Evans, Martine Robson","doi":"10.1111/1467-9566.70116","DOIUrl":"10.1111/1467-9566.70116","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>'Postfeminist healthism' offers an essential framework for understanding how healthism is gendered. In this article, we describe and advance the concept of postfeminist sensibility and its synergistic alignments with healthism. We then consider how postfeminist healthism operates as a subjectifying force for the millions of girls, women, and other feminine-identified people globally-even when it harms their mental or physical health. We use menstrual tracking apps (MTAs) as an indicative example to both demonstrate how a postfeminist healthism acts at the intersections of bodies, subjectivity, and health, and to show the value of a postfeminist healthism in understanding MTAs. Overall, we show the importance of understanding the distinct ways in which healthism is gendered through postfeminism.</p>","PeriodicalId":21685,"journal":{"name":"Sociology of health & illness","volume":"47 8","pages":"e70116"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12620541/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145534667","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Felicity Slocombe, Elizabeth Peel, Alison Pilnick, Saul Albert
{"title":"Providing Hope or Assigning Blame? Healthism in Print Media Portrayals of Dementia Risk and Responsibility.","authors":"Felicity Slocombe, Elizabeth Peel, Alison Pilnick, Saul Albert","doi":"10.1111/1467-9566.70115","DOIUrl":"10.1111/1467-9566.70115","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Media representations often imply that dementia is preventable through lifestyle choices, potentially blaming individuals for their condition. Crawford's ideology of healthism outlines this form of responsibilisation. Our thematic discourse analysis of focus group discussions demonstrates how different stakeholder groups interpret print media messages differently, with prevention messaging that promotes health behaviours among the general population, simultaneously felt as stigmatising those already affected by dementia. Participant discussions almost exclusively focused on individual-level risk factors (e.g., diet and genetics) rather than population-level modifiable risks (e.g., air pollution and education), reflecting current print media and policy framings. It is worth noting that while participants saw their own/their loved one's dementia as unpreventable, they viewed other cases, especially vascular dementia, as preventable through health choices. Our analysis shows how healthist ideals especially stigmatise specific dementia diagnoses, highlighting where healthist messaging may be particularly harmful. We recommend that media outlets and policymakers emphasise population-level interventions alongside individual actions, and avoid language implying personal responsibility for developing dementia. Our analysis demonstrates how Crawford's healthism is relevant for understanding media representations of dementia, as well as highlighting some much-needed changes.</p>","PeriodicalId":21685,"journal":{"name":"Sociology of health & illness","volume":"47 8","pages":"e70115"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12603681/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145489142","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}