Based on almost a decade of research in the Kathmandu Valley, Planning Families in Nepal offers a compelling account of Hindu Nepali women as they face conflicting global and local ideals regarding family planning. Promoting a two-child norm, global family planning programs have disseminated the slogan, ""A small family is a happy family,"" throughout the global South. Jan Brunson examines how two generations of Hindu Nepali women negotiate this global message of a two-child family and a more local need to produce a son. Brunson explains that while women did not prefer sons to daughters, they recognized that in the dominant patrilocal family system, their daughters would eventually marry and be lost to other households. As a result, despite recent increases in educational and career opportunities for daughters, mothers still hoped for a son who would bring a daughter-in-law into the family and care for his aging parents. Mothers worried about whether their modern, rebellious sons would fulfill their filial duties, but ultimately those sons demonstrated an enduring commitment to living with their aging parents. In the context of rapid social change related to national politics as well as globalization - a constant influx of new music, clothes, gadgets, and even governments - the sons viewed the multigenerational family as a refuge. Throughout Planning Families in Nepal, Brunson raises important questions about the notion of ""planning"" when applied to family formation, arguing that reproduction is better understood as a set of local and global ideals that involve actors with desires and actions with constraints, wrought with delays, stalling, and improvisation.

During the past twenty years there has been a dramatic increase in obesity in the United States. An estimated thirty percent of adults in the US are obese; in 1980, only fifteen percent were. The issue is gaining greater attention with the CDC and with the public health world in general. This book will offer practical information about the methodology of epidemiologic studies of obesity, suitable for graduate students and researchers in epidemiology, and public health practitioners with an interest in the issue.
The book will be structured in four main sections, with the majority of chapters authored by Dr. Hu, and some authored by specialists in specific areas. The first section will consider issues surrounding the definition of obesity, measurement techniques, and the designs of epidemiologic studies. The second section will address the consequences of obesity, looking at epidemiologic studies that focus on cardio-vascular disease, diabetes, and cancer The third section will look at determinants obesity, reviewing a wide range of risk factors for obesity including diet, physical activity and sedentary behaviors, sleep disorders, psychosocial factors, physical environment, biochemical and genetic predictors, and intrauterine exposures. In the final section, the author will discuss the analytical issues and challenges for epidemiologic studies of obesity.

This book describes the variety of direct and indirect population size estimation (PSE) methods available along with their strengths and weaknesses. Direct estimation methods, such as enumeration and mapping, involve contact with members of hard-to-reach groups. Indirect methods have practical appeal because they require no contact with members of hard-to-reach groups. One indirect method in particular, network scale-up (NSU), has several strengths over other PSE methods: It can be applied at a province/country level, it can estimate size of several hard-to-reach population in a single study, and it is implemented with members of the general population rather than members of hard-to-reach groups. The book discusses methods to collect, analyze, and adjust results and presents methods to triangulate and finalize PSEs.

Offering an example for transnational cooperation and successful reduction of a neglected tropical disease, this volume shows how Chinese scientists and local physicians controlled schistosomiasis in Zanzibar. Over a four-year study, local medical specialists and the population of Zanzibar were taught how to diagnose the parasitosis caused by flukes (trematode worms) of the genus Schistosoma. Furthermore, methods to eliminate the disease and prevent new infections were established. The developed control system will avoid repeated increase of human schistosomiasis, which is still prevalent in the tropics and subtropics. Rural populations and poor communities lacking access to clean drinking water and adequate sanitation are most affected. This book is a blueprint of activities urgently needed to combat schistosomiasis in countries with low medical impact. The strategies outlined are particularly relevant to parasitologists and professionals in public health, physicians, medical personnel and also governmental, healthcare and pharmaceutical institutions.

A detailed exploration of leadership problems that can develop during public health crises such as the anthrax attacks, SARS, and Mad Cow disease. An imminent threat to the public health, such as the swine flu outbreak, is no time for a muddled chain of command and contradictory decision making. Who's In Charge? Leadership during Epidemics, Bioterror Attacks, and Other Public Health Crises explores the crucial relationships between political leaders, public health officials, journalists, and others to see why leadership confusion develops. Who's In Charge? begins by looking at the overarching issues of leadership, public health administration, and the threats of bioterrorism. It then examines five recent emergencies-the 2001 anthrax attacks and 1993 cryptosporidium outbreak in the United States, the 2003 SARS outbreak in Toronto, the 2001 foot-and-mouth disease crisis, and the decade-long battle against Mad Cow Disease in the U.K. A perfect text for schools in public health, or as a reference for elected officials at every level of government, the book shows how each event developed step-by-step to pinpoint specific leadership issues. Engaging and absorbing, the work presents official reports, medical literature, first-person accounts from officials and journalists, and discussions of the role of law enforcement and the military during health care emergencies. First-person accounts from leaders involved in the actual crises, as well as leading experts, scientists, and others Primary documents including excerpts from official reports and the medical literature Chronologies of five recent public health emergencies A comprehensive index organized by disease and by individuals involved in emergency response

Deciding what to eat and how to eat it are two of the most basic acts of everyday life. Yet every choice also implies a value judgement: 'good' foods versus 'bad', 'proper' and 'improper' ways of eating, and 'healthy' and 'unhealthy' bodies. These food decisions are influenced by a range of social, political and economic bioauthorities, and mediated through the individual 'eating body'. This book is unique in the cultural politics of food in its exploration of a range of such bioauthorities and in its examination of the interplay between them and the individual eating body. No matter whether they are accepted or resisted, our eating practices and preferences are shaped by, and shape, these agencies. Abbots places the body, materiality and the non-human at the heart of her analysis, interrogating not only how the individual's embodied eating practices incorporate and reject the bioauthorities of food, but also how such authorities are created by the individual act of eating. Drawing on ethnographic case studies from across the globe, The Agency of Eating provides an important analysis of the power dynamics at play in the contemporary food system and the ways in which agency is expressed and bounded. This book will be of great benefit to any with an interest in food studies, anthropology, sociology and human geography.

Why has breastfeeding re-asserted itself over the last twenty years, and why are the government, the scientific and medical communities, and so many mothers so invested in the idea? In Is Breast Best? Joan B. Wolf challenges the widespread belief that breastfeeding is medically superior to bottle-feeding. Despite the fact that breastfeeding has become the ultimate expression of maternal dedication, Wolf writes, the conviction that breastfeeding provides babies unique health benefits and that formula feeding is a risky substitute is unsubstantiated by the evidence. In accessible prose, Wolf argues that a public obsession with health and what she calls "total motherhood" has made breastfeeding a cause celebre, and that public discussions of breastfeeding say more about infatuation with personal responsibility and perfect mothering in America than they do about the concrete benefits of the breast. Parsing the rhetoric of expert advice, including the recent National Breastfeeding Awareness Campaign, and rigorously questioning the scientific evidence, Is Breast Best? uncovers a path by which a mother can feel informed and confident about how best to feed her thriving infant-whether flourishing by breast or by bottle.

This book is partly based on research funded by Wereld Kanker Onderzoek Fonds based in the Netherlands and administered by the World Cancer Research Fund International grant program. Every year half a million of people worldwide are diagnosed with bladder cancer. With the recent zeitgeist of the self-empowered, intelligent patient who wishes to be well-informed, many cancer patients do not solely want to rely on decisions taken by medical practitioners, but actively participate in the journey from sickness to health or disease. While no books about the relationship between diet and bladder cancer currently exist, the poor quality of the existing information about the relationship between diet and health is shocking. Much of the information is exaggerated, not evidence-based, misleading and sometimes even incorrect. Dr. Maurice Zeegers, one of the world leading bladder cancer epidemiologists, and his co-authors set the record straight with this book on Diet and Fighting Bladder Cancer. Their aim is to provide purely evidence-based information about the relationship between diet and bladder cancer. The primary audience is bladder cancer patients who wish to be well-informed, although clinicians and healthcare workers may also find the book an interesting read. The book gives an honest reflection on what scientists know, but also what they don't yet know about how diet contributes to all stages of this important disease. Although science-based, the book is written in an easy-to-read format, illustrated with practical recipes.

Frank Cross provides a comprehensive treatment of the widely feared problem of environmentally induced cancer. The author takes a threefold approach to the problem, first examining the cancers themselves and what is known about their causes and then exploring both the government's regulation of these environmental pollutants and the legal remedies available to victims of such cancers. Throughout, new proposals for regulating carcinogens and compensating the victims of environmental cancer are discussed.

In Part I, Cross addresses the significant and unique problems presented by the disease of cancer, demonstrating that the limits of scientific knowledge, the absence of a demonstrable safe threshold of exposure and other special features of the disease create a unique cancer problem for government. The second section examines the various risk-management approaches from which a regulatory agency may choose. As Cross demonstrates, government must identify carcinogens, assess the risks they present, and choose control methods--a complex task made even more difficult by the conflicting claims of industry and environmental groups. He concludes this section by proposing future approaches for more effective regulation, including prioritization of the greatest hazards and adoption of a moderate, feasibility-based control program. The final chapters explore legal obstacles to victim compensation and argue for fundamental changes in existing common law doctrines to enhance the ability of victim/plaintiffs to recover adequate damages.

This book reviews the recent research into biological aspects of suicide behavior and outlines each of the varied, recent approaches to prevent suicide. Suicidal behavior, perhaps, is the most complex behavior that combines biological, social, and psychological factors. A new frontier and new opportunities are opening with the technologies of data acquisition and data analysis. Personalized models based on digital phenotype could provide promising strategies for preventing suicide.

This timely volume explores the multiple domains where Behavior Analysts can provide meaningful assessment and interventions. Selecting clinical areas in which behavior analysts already are active, chapters will describe unique features of the setting as well as the skills and competencies needed to practice in these areas. While providers of behavior analytic services have substantially increased in number, the field of behavior analysis itself has narrowed. Reimbursement policies and name recognition as a treatment specific to autism have raised concerns that other areas where it is helpful, such as behavioral gerontology or integrated behavioral health, will be de-emphasized. This volume aims to promote workforce development and support broad behavior analytic training, considering the Behavior Analyst Certification Board's 5th edition task list (effective in 2020).

This book presents the main theoretical and practical tools provided by behavior analysis to diagnose and treat substance use disorders. Based on the theoretical framework of radical behaviorism, first developed by B.F. Skinner, behavior analysis offers a distinctive biopsychosocial approach to substance use disorders by considering both the biogenetic and environmental influences on behaviors associated with substance use, enabling the development of more integrative and effective diagnostic, prevention, and treatment strategies at the individual and collective level. The volume is divided in three parts. Part one presents an introduction to core concepts in behavior analysis and related disciplines, such as behavioral pharmacology, and their specific applications in substance use disorders diagnostics and treatment. Part two shows how different types of behavioral-analytical clinical and social interventions can be applied in practice to treat substance use disorders, such as: Contingency Management Exposure Therapy Functional Analytical Psychotherapy (FAP) Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) Therapy by Contingencies of Reinforcement (TCR) Motivational Interviewing Finally, part three covers special topics, such as the interfaces between neurosciences and behavior analysis on drug use and dependence, effects of substance use in romantic relationships and their relationship with violence against women. Behavior Analysis and Substance Dependence will be a valuable tool for clinical and health psychologists, as well as other health professionals and social workers dealing with substance use disorders, by presenting, in one single volume, an overview of the tools offered by behavior analysis to deal with this serious health issue.

This Handbook brings together a groundbreaking collection of chapters that uses a gender lens to explore health, health care and health policy in both the Global South and North. Empirical evidence is drawn from a variety of different settings and points to the many ways in which the gendered dimensions of health have become reworked across the globe. This collection includes insightful contributions from 56 leading authorities from Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East, offering a wealth of knowledge, theoretical reflection, and empirical detail on the essential elements surrounding gender and health. Topics covered include theoretical approaches to understanding gender and health, migration, sexuality, ageing, masculinities, climate change and sexual and reproductive rights. Split into four thematic sections, this book strives to develop a clear road map towards achieving gender justice in health. The Handbook on Gender and Health will be an important resource for researchers, students, and instructors of health policy and family and gender studies. Contributors include: G. Alvarez Minte, E. Ansoleaga Moreno, L. Artazcoz, A.-E. Birn, R.A. Burgess, A. Coates, I. Cortes-Franch, S. Del Pino, K. Devries, X. Diaz Berr, L. Doyal, K. Elzein, V. Escriba-Aguir, B. Eveslage, C. Ewig, J. Gideon, J. Goncalves Martin, B. Gough, H. Grundlingh, M. Gutmann, R.R. Habib, M.C. Inhorn, D. Johnston, D.M. Kamuya, L. Knight, M. Koivusalo, R. Kumar, M. Leite, J. Lyra, E. MacPherson, A.M. Cardarelli, P. McDonough, B. Medrado, L.M. Morgan, S.F. Murray, J. Namakula, L. Nunez Carrasco, S. Payne, E. Richards, N. Richardson, M. Richter, S. Robertson, M. Robinson, J. Samuel, S. Sexton, J.A. Smith, S. Smith, D.L. Spitzer, S.N. Ssali, S. Theobald, R. Tolhurst, J. Vearey, P. Vero-Sanso, S. Witter, N. Younes, F. Zalwango