Social Science & Medicine最新文献

{"title":"Beyond fear of backlash: Effects of messages about structural drivers of COVID-19 disparities among large samples of Asian, Black, Hispanic, and White Americans","authors":"Neil A. Lewis Jr. ,&nbsp;Norman Porticella ,&nbsp;Jiawei Liu ,&nbsp;Teairah Taylor ,&nbsp;Jamila Michener ,&nbsp;Colleen L. Barry ,&nbsp;Rebekah H. Nagler ,&nbsp;Sarah Gollust ,&nbsp;Steven T. Moore ,&nbsp;Erika Franklin Fowler ,&nbsp;Jeff Niederdeppe","doi":"10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.118096","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.118096","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Although U.S. health disparities are well-documented, the very communities that bear the brunt of those disparities are, ironically, underrepresented in scientific efforts to understand and address them. In two experiments (total <em>N =</em> 9523), we explored the consequences of omitting those perspectives for efforts to understand and address disparities in the COVID-19 pandemic.</div><div>We found that, by prioritizing the perspectives of White Americans, studies of pandemic disparities likely missed important insights. Specifically, we purposively sampled the four largest racial and ethnic groups in the U.S. and found that people of color were consistently more concerned, and more willing to engage in both individual and collective efforts to address health disparities, than their White counterparts. In addition, messages highlighting structural drivers of health disparities further bolstered support for inequality mitigating policies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":49122,"journal":{"name":"Social Science & Medicine","volume":"377 ","pages":"Article 118096"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-04-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143900237","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":"Cancer framing and psychological characteristics in online cancer diaries: A mixed-methods study in China","authors":"Lisai Yu ,&nbsp;Yuhang Li ,&nbsp;Chenghui Wu","doi":"10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.118120","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.118120","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Drawing upon previous research, this paper creatively combines different methods to conduct text analysis of cancer diaries related to cancer treatment on Chinese social media Weibo, and explores the sentiment, adoption of cancer frames, and psychological aspects of language. Initially, sentiment analysis technology is employed to investigate the sentiment in cancer diaries. Subsequently, the cancer frames in the text data are encoded, and similarity analysis is conducted to depict the associations among different frames. Lastly, the psycholinguistic dictionary of Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) and Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA) are utilized to explore the multivariate associations among different sentiment orientations, frames, and psychological states. Our study aims to aid in understanding the concerns and communication of patient groups regarding the cancer treatment process, provide actionable insights for healthcare professionals and researchers to better understand patient experiences and improve cancer care communication.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":49122,"journal":{"name":"Social Science & Medicine","volume":"377 ","pages":"Article 118120"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-04-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143887364","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":"Gender, socioeconomic, and built environment differences in the association of participation in an incentivized walking program with physical and social activity: A prospective cohort study among older adults in Japan","authors":"Zhen Du ,&nbsp;Koryu Sato ,&nbsp;Kimihiro Hino ,&nbsp;Katsunori Kondo ,&nbsp;Naoki Kondo","doi":"10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.118093","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.118093","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Objectives</h3><div>Physical inactivity and social isolation are key obstacles to achieving healthy and active aging. This study evaluated the association between participation in a citywide economic incentive Yokohama Walking Point (YWP) program with walking time, the risk of being homebound, and social isolation. We also explored the heterogeneities in the association across gender, socioeconomic status (SES), and built environment (BE).</div></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><div>A prospective cohort study was conducted on 3,171 residents aged ≥65 years from the Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study. YWP participation status was confirmed in 2016, outcomes were measured in 2020, and covariates were obtained in 2013. Built environment variables were measured based on geographic information system. General linear regression and modified Poisson regression models were performed using doubly robust estimation with inverse probability of treatment weighting.</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>Participation in YWP was associated with an increase of 6.83 min per day of walking time, and a 21 % decreased risk of social isolation. The associations showed heterogeneity; participants with low income and those living near parks had lower risks of being homebound. Men, participants with low education levels, and those living in high population density areas exhibited lower risks of social isolation compared with their counterparts.</div></div><div><h3>Conclusions</h3><div>Participation in YWP was associated with improved physical and social activity. Gender, SES, and BE moderated these associations, highlighting their potential role in reducing social health disparity. These findings emphasized the need for integrated policy interventions incorporating program design and urban planning to create an age-friendly community fostering healthy and inclusive aging.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":49122,"journal":{"name":"Social Science & Medicine","volume":"377 ","pages":"Article 118093"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-04-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143900234","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":"“We know what to do for you, but we can't do it:” How actionability is coordinated and contested in genomics research","authors":"E. Carolina Mayes","doi":"10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.118088","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.118088","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Over the last few decades, an influential movement has emerged in genomics research advocating for the return of “actionable” findings to research participants. This movement argues that actionable findings constitute clinically significant information that can be used to inform preventive care, and that research projects may therefore have a responsibility to disclose such findings. Using a document analysis of institutional and expert guidance, this article traces how the notion of actionability became a predominant justification for the disclosure of research findings, and explores how this guidance has failed to account for local and structural coordination of actionability. The paper presents two case studies of US-based research projects, Geisinger Health System's MyCode Initiative and the National Institutes of Health's All of Us Research Program, to characterize how the disclosure of actionable findings has been implemented in research programs, and to reveal how a decontextualized approach to actionability threatens to undermine the promised clinical utility of genomic findings and exacerbate inequalities in healthcare access. As research projects increasingly adopt clinical actionability as a stand-in for clinical utility, exchanging evidence of improved health outcomes with opportunities for preventive interventions, coordination of the responsibilities and resources for realizing actionability is essential. This analysis indicates the possible consequences of contested actionability, and points to the need for further investigation of how actionable findings are implemented in practice.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":49122,"journal":{"name":"Social Science & Medicine","volume":"376 ","pages":"Article 118088"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-04-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143877560","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":"Inflammation and minority stress: A moderated mediation model of childhood adversity and mental health in young men who have sex with men","authors":"Laura H. Dosanjh ,&nbsp;Cynthia Franklin ,&nbsp;Yessenia Castro ,&nbsp;Bridget Goosby ,&nbsp;Fiona N. Conway ,&nbsp;Frances A. Champagne ,&nbsp;Luis A. Parra ,&nbsp;Jeremy T. Goldbach ,&nbsp;Michele D. Kipke","doi":"10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.118119","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.118119","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Rationale</h3><div>Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are linked to later anxiety and depression, and inflammation has been implicated as a mediating mechanism. Black and Latinx men who have sex with men (MSM) face higher prevalences of ACEs, anxiety, and depression compared to White, heterosexual peers. Understanding the links between ACEs and mental health is crucial to addressing these disparities.</div></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><div>This study used structural equation modeling to test moderated mediation models examining inflammation as a mediator of the relationship between ACEs and symptoms of anxiety/depression and minority stress as a moderator on the path between ACEs and inflammation. Data was from a community sample of Black and Latinx MSM (<em>n</em> = 246; mean age = 22.6).</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>ACEs were significantly associated with symptoms of anxiety (<em>B</em> = 0.414; <em>p</em> &lt; 0.001) and depression (<em>B</em> = 0.346; <em>p</em> &lt; 0.001), but inflammation did not show a significant mediating effect. Additionally, the interaction between ACEs and minority stress had no significant indirect effect on anxiety/depression.</div></div><div><h3>Conclusions</h3><div>These findings underscore the possibility that inflammation may not represent the global perturbations of stress processes after ACEs at younger ages, particularly among a relatively healthy sample of emerging adults.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":49122,"journal":{"name":"Social Science & Medicine","volume":"376 ","pages":"Article 118119"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-04-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143878597","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":"Pursuing a “normal” life of food: Families’ experiences of pediatric food allergy clinical trials","authors":"Jill A. Fisher","doi":"10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.118085","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.118085","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Although food allergies have been on the rise over the past twenty years, there are currently just two products approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (US FDA) for this condition, and one treats peanut allergy only. For families seeking medical intervention for their children's food allergies, many turn to clinical trials, which have proliferated in the last decade. Indeed, the entry of the pharmaceutical industry and the availability of clinical trials are rapidly reshaping the food allergy landscape. As a result, many families now perceive clinical trials as a way to “do something” other than merely avoiding the foods to which their children are allergic. Based on ethnographic research, including 124 semi-structured interviews with families and other key stakeholders, this article describes parents' and children's experiences in these clinical trials. It describes how the families that pursue clinical trials for their children's food allergies are typically affluent, and the “normal” life they hope to achieve for their children reflects idealized and privileged notions of normalcy. Analyzing my findings through the lens of stratified biomedicalization, I argue that affluent parents willingly accept a form of biomedicalization of their children that involves exceptional, and sometimes traumatic, clinical trial experiences as they pursue the elusive normal life and future they envision for them.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":49122,"journal":{"name":"Social Science & Medicine","volume":"378 ","pages":"Article 118085"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-04-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143911755","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":"“No peace in my heart”: Exploring psychosocial problems experienced by women in relation to water insecurity and inadequate sanitation in an informal settlement, Kenya","authors":"Joan J. Kimutai ,&nbsp;Crick Lund ,&nbsp;Wilkister N. Moturi ,&nbsp;Seble Shewangizaw ,&nbsp;Charlotte Hanlon","doi":"10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.118118","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.118118","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><div>Social determinants of mental health are recognized as significant contributors to the disproportionate burden of depression and anxiety experienced by women worldwide.</div><div>This study aimed to explore psychosocial problems experienced by women in relation to water insecurity and inadequate sanitation in an informal settlement in Kenya.</div></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><div>We conducted a qualitative study employing a phenomenological approach. The study setting was Kaptembwo, an informal settlement in Kenya. Data collection was conducted from March 28, 2023 to April 24, 2023. Twenty-one in-depth interviews were carried out in Swahili with women of reproductive age (18–49 years) selected through purposive sampling and snowballing. Women were approached as they accessed the common water point and sanitation facility at their households and invited to participate. Marrianne Hennik's thematic analysis approach was used to examine patterns, themes, and meanings of data.</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>The key themes that emerged were stresses and social tension; bodily concerns and relational impacts; emotional consequences; and coping strategies. Unreliable and inadequate water and sanitation brought myriad stresses, led to stigma, and threatened social harmony as women struggled to maintain the health and dignity of their families. Women experienced infections and expressed bodily concerns including backpain, urinary problems and vaginal discharge, that fueled discord within their intimate relationships. Emotional consequences included stress, anxiety, shame, discomfort, frustration, embarrassment, and depression. Coping strategies reported by women included attempts to restore social relationships or seek social solutions to gender-based violence, with limited uptake of formal psychosocial care. Women's accounts supported conceptualization of psychosocial problems as a syndemic arising from interconnections between infections, gender disadvantage and environment.</div></div><div><h3>Conclusion</h3><div>Future research should focus on longitudinal and ethnographic observational studies to track evolving experiences of women and investigate the hypothesis that psychosocial problems in women in this informal settlement are the best conceptualized as a syndemic.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":49122,"journal":{"name":"Social Science & Medicine","volume":"376 ","pages":"Article 118118"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-04-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143877559","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":"Gender inequality in immigrants’ mental health: The legal status gradient","authors":"A. Nicole Kreisberg","doi":"10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.118111","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.118111","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Depression is a leading cause of global disease burden, and women report higher rates of depression than men. Among immigrants, gender disparities are more pronounced. But despite variation among immigrants by their legal status—which shapes correlates of mental health disorders—little is known about how and why legal status relates to gender inequalities in immigrants’ depression. Using longitudinal data from the New Immigrant Survey, I find evidence that female immigrants have persistently higher likelihoods of a common depressive symptom, dysphoric mood, than male immigrants. Legal status is related to this disparity: there is a legal status gradient in dysphoria for immigrant women, but not for immigrant men. Accounting for processes of selection, some of the relationship between legal status and dysphoria for women is explained by healthcare resources and expectations for security. The results are consistent when predicting major depressive disorder, and the findings have implications for gender and population health.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":49122,"journal":{"name":"Social Science & Medicine","volume":"377 ","pages":"Article 118111"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-04-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143887366","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":"Can care ethics help healthcare systems address their environmental harms? Findings from focus groups with members of the UK public","authors":"Gabrielle Samuel ,&nbsp;Miranda MacFarlane ,&nbsp;Sarah Briggs","doi":"10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.118113","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.118113","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Bioethics scholars have become increasingly interested in moral questions associated with healthcare's environmental harms. Much of this scholarship has remained in the theoretical space, where ethical reasoning is underpinned by certain obligations and the implementation of top-down principles. Drawing on twelve focus groups with members of the UK public, this paper aims to bring a sociological ethics of care approach to these discussions. In fulfilling this aim, we highlight how moral decision-making occurs in the context of interrelationships with others, and not simply according to top-down principles. We show how, in line with an ethics of care approach, participants prioritised caring needs based on those in close relational proximity, meaning that emphasis was placed primarily on themselves and their loved ones, followed by other humans and the NHS, and finally the environment. At the same time, we contribute to the ethics of care scholarship by showing how such relation-based hierarchical caring was affected by various socio-cultural and political factors–what we have called ‘<em>contextual caring’</em>. We note four factors: access to healthcare, capability of care work, increasing understanding of the relationship between humans and the environment, and societal norms of environmental citizenship. We stress the importance of considering these socio-cultural and political factors in any examination of how relation-based hierarchical care occurs in practice. We reflect on the implications of our focus group findings for policy measures towards addressing the UK NHS's environmental harms.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":49122,"journal":{"name":"Social Science & Medicine","volume":"376 ","pages":"Article 118113"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-04-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143878599","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":"Associations of war exposures, post-migration living difficulties and social support with (complex) PTSD: a cohort study of Ukrainian refugees resettled in Denmark","authors":"Karen-Inge Karstoft ,&nbsp;Ludvig Daae Bjørndal ,&nbsp;Anne Agathe Pedersen ,&nbsp;Nataliia Korchakova ,&nbsp;Séamus A. Power ,&nbsp;Thomas A. Morton ,&nbsp;Vibeke J. Koushede ,&nbsp;Marie H. Thøgersen ,&nbsp;Brian J. Hall","doi":"10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.118080","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.118080","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><div>The war in Ukraine has forced millions of Ukrainians to flee their country, many after exposure to actions of war. Previous research found that both war exposures (WE) and post-migration living difficulties (PMLD) are associated with risk of PTSD. In the current study, we test associations between WE, PMLD and PTSD/Complex PTSD (CPTSD). Further, we test if the associations are moderated by social support.</div></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><div>In a representative prospective cohort study of adult Ukrainians arriving in Denmark in the first year after Russia's full-scale invasion (N = 4,229), we test associations between WE, PMLD, and (C)PTSD using multinomial logistic regression analysis. Interaction terms were added to assess if associations were moderated by SS.</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>Prevalence of PTSD and CPTSD was 12.1 % and 12.2 %, respectively. We found statistically significant associations between family-related PMLD, health-related PMLD, and general PMLD and CPTSD (AORs from 1.25 to 1.56), and between health-related PMLD and family-related PMLD and PTSD (AORs from 1.18 to 1.35). WE were associated with PTSD (AOR (CI): 1.15 (1.07–1.25)), but not CPTSD (AOR (CI): 1.05 (0.97–1.13)). Social support was associated with CPTSD (AOR (CI): 0.69 (0.60–0.78)) but not PTSD (AOR (CI):0.94(0.83–1.07)). Interaction terms were significant only for PTSD, where social support attenuated the negative association between PMLD and PTSD.</div></div><div><h3>Conclusion</h3><div>PMLDs are important risk factors for post-trauma psychopathology in war refugees. Social support mitigates the negative association between PMLDs for PTSD, while low social support is an independent risk factor for CPTSD. Attention should be paid to refugees’ daily life challenges and social support networks.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":49122,"journal":{"name":"Social Science & Medicine","volume":"376 ","pages":"Article 118080"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-04-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143870820","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}