This book is a follow up to Social Capital and Health (2008), edited by Kawachi, Subramanian & Kim. Global Perspectives on Social Capital and Health provides a timely update on emerging topics in a fast-growing field, and features contributions from an outstanding international team of scholars, selected from a diverse range of disciplinary backgrounds including: social epidemiology, medical geography, social psychology, social welfare and gerontology, pediatrics, political science, economics, and medical sociology. The book is organized in three parts: Part 1. Emerging directions in social capital research. This section highlights novel directions in social capital research. These include: a) novel settings for conducting research on social capital (workplaces, schools), b) new approaches for causal inference in social capital (instrumental variable analysis, twin fixed effects designs); c) cutting-edge directions for social capital research, including studies of the origins of community social capital, the use of social network analysis to investigate social capital, and novel methods for investigating the link between social capital and crime. Part 2. Social capital and health policy. The three chapters in this section highlight implications of social capital for interventions and health policy. Part 3. Social capital and health in global perspective The four chapters in this section look at research on social capital and health from a global perspective. The authors summarize the empirical studies on social capital and health conducted in each country/region, or each population group; discuss how the concept of social capital "translates" across different cultures; and identify challenges and future directions for research.

Globalization is breaking down economic, political, cultural, demographic, and social barriers across the world at an astonishing pace. The topic of globalization can arouse passionate debate in many circles including academic journals, the popular media, and even on the streets. This new world order is marked by new actors, new rules of governance, new forms of communication, and the global movement of populations. Health is an exquisitely sensitive mirror of social conditions, and the authors of this book argue that the assessment of health is an important criterion for evaluating and monitoring the progress of globalization.
This book provides an analysis of the most serious global threats to health, the tools that can be used to evaluate them, and the international agencies established to respond to them. Medical threats such as infectious diseases, obesity, tobacco use, and global climate change are discussed, but the authors also expand their scope to include socio-political health impacts such as economic inequality. The complex role of organizations such as the World Health Organization, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank is also analyzed, as is the increasing interconnectedness of health and non-health actors. Is this blurring of boundaries really beneficial to the public's health, or have these actors abandoned health issues for power politics? By drawing together an international group of health experts, Globalization and Health provides a comprehensive account of the successes and failures, as well as the challenges and opportunities of globalization for public health.

AN ESSENTIAL NEW RESOURCE ON A FUNDAMENTAL DETERMINANT OF HEALTH Sleep, along with the sleep-related behaviors that impact sleep quality, have emerged as significant determinants of health and well-being across populations. An emerging body of research has confirmed that sleep is strongly socially patterned, following trends along lines of socioeconomic status, race, immigration status, age, work, and geography. The Social Epidemiology of Sleep serves as both an introduction to sleep epidemiology and a synthesis of the most important and exciting research to date, including: * An introduction to sleep epidemiology, including methods of assessment and their validity, the descriptive epidemiology of sleep patterns and disorders, associations with health, and basic biology * What we know about the variation of sleep patterns and disorders across populations, including consideration of sleep across the lifespan and within special populations * Major social determinants of sleep (including socioeconomic status, immigration status, neighborhood contexts, and others) based on the accumulated research With editors from both population science and medicine, combined with contributions from psychology, sociology, demography, geography, social epidemiology, and medicine, this text codifies a new field at the intersection of how we sleep and the social and behavioral factors that influence it.

As interest in social capital has grown over the past decade-particularly in public health -so has the lack of consensus on exactly what it is and what makes it worth studying. Ichiro Kawachi, a widely respected leader in the field, and 21 contributors (including physicians, economists, and public health experts) discuss the theoretical origins of social capital, the strengths and limitations of current methodologies of measuring it, and salient examples of social capital concepts informing public health practice. Among the highlights: Measurement methods: survey, sociometric, ethnographic, experimental The relationship between social capital and physical health and health behaviors: smoking, substance abuse, physical activity, sexual activity Social capital and mental health: early findings Social capital and the aging community Social capital and disaster preparedness Social Capital and Health is certain to inspire a new generation of research on this topic, and will be of interest to researchers and advanced students in public health, health behavior, and social epidemiology.

As interest in social capital has grown over the past decade-particularly in public health -so has the lack of consensus on exactly what it is and what makes it worth studying. Ichiro Kawachi, a widely respected leader in the field, and 21 contributors (including physicians, economists, and public health experts) discuss the theoretical origins of social capital, the strengths and limitations of current methodologies of measuring it, and salient examples of social capital concepts informing public health practice. Among the highlights: Measurement methods: survey, sociometric, ethnographic, experimental The relationship between social capital and physical health and health behaviors: smoking, substance abuse, physical activity, sexual activity Social capital and mental health: early findings Social capital and the aging community Social capital and disaster preparedness Social Capital and Health is certain to inspire a new generation of research on this topic, and will be of interest to researchers and advanced students in public health, health behavior, and social epidemiology.

The health effects of psychosocial factors are a widely discussed and controversial topic. Do positive and negative emotions affect our risk of developing physical disease? Are depressive individuals more likely to have cancer than those with an optimistic outlook on life? And what is the role of IQ in staying healthy and recovering from disease? Importantly, can we improve our health and life expectancy by avoiding certain psychosocial risk factors and maximizing positive psychological well-being? These and other questions are the focus of psychosocial epidemiology, a discipline linking psychological, social and biological sciences. The Routledge International Handbook of Psychosocial Epidemiology is the first book to map this growing discipline. Including contributions from many of the leading researchers in the field, it is divided into five sections: Part I: Methodological challenges in studying psychosocial factors and health; Part II: Psychosocial factors in the etiology and prognosis of chronic diseases; Part III: Controversies in the psychosocial approach; Part IV: Interventions and policy implications Part V: Future research directions Taking advantage of a huge growth in research in recent years, the book provides the reader with the essentials to evaluate the diverse set of studies on psychosocial factors and health that are published today, and describes study designs in this field of research, progress in judging the validity of epidemiological evidence, as well as challenges in translating evidence into action. This is an important and timely book. Providing methodological rigour, critical analysis and the policy implications of this emerging field of study, The Routledge International Handbook of Psychosocial Epidemiology will be an invaluable resource for students and researchers within both behavioural and medical sciences, as well as policy makers and others working in health and social care.

THE GROUNDBREAKING, FORMATIVE WORK IN SPATIAL EPIDEMIOLOGY - NOW UPDATED FOR A NEW GENERATION OF RESEARCH AND PRACTICE IN PUBLIC HEALTH In 2003, Neighborhoods and Health codified the idea that a neighborhood's social and physical makeup can influence the health of people who live in it. More than a decade later, with the relationship between place and health firmly entrenched at the center of how we understand public health (and as its own scientific discipline, spatial epidemiology), this second edition of the landmark text offers another giant leap forward for the field. Offering both a synthesis of the essential research and a practical overview of the methods used to garner it, the second edition of Neighborhoods and Health is the essential guide to understanding this core component of contemporary population health - both the journey to date and what's next.

Social epidemiology is the study of how the social world influences -- and in many cases defines -- the fundamental determinants of health. This link was substantiated in the first edition of Social Epidemiology, and the generation of research that followed has fundamentally changed the way we understand epidemiology and public health. This much-awaited second edition elevates the field again, first by codifying the last decade of research, then by extending it to examine how public policies impact health. The new edition includes: * 11 fully updated chapters, including entries on the links between health and discrimination, income inequality, social networks, and emotion * Four all-new chapters on the role of policies in shaping health, including how to translate evidence into action with multi-level interventions * Updated references, detailing the best research over the last two decades The result is a bold, brilliant text that will serve the new world of epidemiology in which scientists both observe health and design interventions to improve it. Social Epidemiology again sets an intellectual agenda and provides an essential foundation for those interested in social determinants of health around the world.

Behavioral economics has potential to offer novel solutions to some of today's most pressing public health problems: How do we persuade people to eat healthy and lose weight? How can health professionals communicate health risks in a way that is heeded? How can food labeling be modified to inform healthy food choices? Behavioral Economics and Public Health is the first book to apply the groundbreaking insights of behavioral economics to the persisting problems of health behaviors and behavior change. In addition to providing a primer on the behavioral economics principles that are most relevant to public health, this book offers details on how these principles can be employed to mitigating the world's greatest health threats, including obesity, smoking, risky sexual behavior, and excessive drinking. With contributions from an international team of scholars from psychology, economics, marketing, public health, and medicine, this book is a trailblazing new approach to the most difficult and important problems of our time.

Fully revised and updated for the fourth edition, the award-winning Oxford Handbook of Public Health Practice remains the first resort for practitioners in the field. Structured into practical sections addressed towards professional competencies and translating evidence into policy, this Handbook provides concise summaries and covers real issues from across the globe, providing a world of experience at your fingertips. Easy-to-use, concise, and practical, this Handbook is divided into seven parts that focus on the vital areas of this broad discipline. Reflecting recent advances, the most promising developments in the practice of public health are presented, along with essential summaries of the core disciplines. Specific sections are devoted to the development of professional competencies including negotiation, communicating risk to the public, community action, and translating evidence into policy. Written by an international team of experts, and considering both social and scientific advances since the previous edition, this Handbook will assist students, trainees and practitioners around the world with its enriched information on the management of disasters, epidemics, health behaviour, acute and chronic disease prevention, community and government action, environmental heath, vulnerable populations, and more.

Social epidemiology is the study of how the social world influences -- and in many cases defines -- the fundamental determinants of health. This link was substantiated in the first edition of Social Epidemiology, and the generation of research that followed has fundamentally changed the way we understand epidemiology and public health. This much-awaited second edition elevates the field again, first by codifying the last decade of research, then by extending it to examine how public policies impact health. The new edition includes: * 11 fully updated chapters, including entries on the links between health and discrimination, income inequality, social networks, and emotion * Four all-new chapters on the role of policies in shaping health, including how to translate evidence into action with multi-level interventions * Updated references, detailing the best research over the last two decades The result is a bold, brilliant text that will serve the new world of epidemiology in which scientists both observe health and design interventions to improve it. Social Epidemiology again sets an intellectual agenda and provides an essential foundation for those interested in social determinants of health around the world.

AN ESSENTIAL NEW RESOURCE ON A FUNDAMENTAL DETERMINANT OF HEALTH Sleep, along with the sleep-related behaviors that impact sleep quality, have emerged as significant determinants of health and well-being across populations. An emerging body of research has confirmed that sleep is strongly socially patterned, following trends along lines of socioeconomic status, race, immigration status, age, work, and geography. The Social Epidemiology of Sleep serves as both an introduction to sleep epidemiology and a synthesis of the most important and exciting research to date, including: * An introduction to sleep epidemiology, including methods of assessment and their validity, the descriptive epidemiology of sleep patterns and disorders, associations with health, and basic biology * What we know about the variation of sleep patterns and disorders across populations, including consideration of sleep across the lifespan and within special populations * Major social determinants of sleep (including socioeconomic status, immigration status, neighborhood contexts, and others) based on the accumulated research With editors from both population science and medicine, combined with contributions from psychology, sociology, demography, geography, social epidemiology, and medicine, this text codifies a new field at the intersection of how we sleep and the social and behavioral factors that influence it.