Culture, Health and Illness, Fifth edition

by Cecil G. Helman, Cecil Helman

Overview

Culture, Health and Illness is the leading international textbook on the role of cultural and social factors in health, illness, and medical care. Since first published in 1984, it has been used in more than forty countries, in universities, medical schools, and nursing colleges. This new edition meets the ever-growing need for a clear starting point in understanding the clinical significance of cultural and social factors. Addressing the complex interactions between health, illness, and culture, this unique text sets out anthropological theory in a highly readable, jargon-free style and integrates it with the practice of health care using real-life examples and case histories.

Features:
* Addresses current concerns about the multicultural context of health care
* Well supported by empirical examples and case studies from more than ninety countries
* New coverage of poverty and inequality of health care, genetics, telemedicine, migration medicine, HIV/AIDS, obesity and malnutrition, and developments in medical technology
* Features a free companion website that includes extensive additional material and printable clinical questionnaires: www.culturehealthandillness.com
* In color for the first time

In today's world of increasing cultural, religious, and ethnic diversity of populations, Culture, Health and Illness, Fifth Edition, is essential reading for students of medicine, nursing, psychiatry, public health, health education, international health, and medical anthropology, all across the globe.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780340914502
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	01/26/2007
Series:	A Hodder Arnold Publication Series
Edition description:	REV
Pages:	512
Product dimensions:	7.69(w) x 10.38(h) x (d)

About the Author

Cecil G Helman, Professor of Medical Anthropology, Brunel University; Senior Lecturer, Dept of Primary Care and Population Sciences, UCL, London, UK

Table of Contents

Preface to the 5th Edition
1. Introduction: the scope of medical anthropology
2. The body: cultural definitions of anatomy and physiology
3. Diet and Nutrition
4. Caring and curing: the sectors of health care
5. Doctor-patient interactions
6. Gender and reproduction
7. Pain and culture
8. Culture and pharmacology: drugs, alcohol and tobacco
9. Ritual and the management of misfortune
10. Cross-cultural psychiatry
11. Cultural aspects of stress and suffering
12. Migration, globalization and health
13. Telemedicine and the Internet
14. New bodies, new selves: genetics and biotechnology
15. Cultural factors in epidemiology
16. The AIDS pandemic
17. Tropical diseases: malaria and leprosy
18. Medical anthropology and global health
19. New research methods in medical anthropology
Appendix: Journals and websites
Author index
Subject index

Editorial Reviews

Praise for earlier edition: 'When with humility we are ready to use this excellent book, we will better apply our science toward improving the quality of life throughout the globe'

Journal of the American Medical Association

Praise for earlier edition: 'This book can be thoroughly recommended for its fresh perspective on medical transactions'

The Lancet

Praise for earlier edition: 'It is clearly written and structured, a valuable source for current references, and easily accessible to the interested general reader or student of the field'

Social Sciences in Health

From the Publisher

Comprehensive enough to be considered a survey of medical anthropology, this book is well written, well organized, and engaging to read. The author dots the text with stories of struggles with health and illness. These vignettes illustrate a broad cultural spectrum of experiences and beliefs. This newest edition is a welcome update to the field of medical anthropology. Medical education programs will welcome this new edition for what it adds to our understanding of the role culture plays in health, healing, and compliance. Also, students and professionals in the allied health fields as well as the behavioral health fields will benefit from and enjoy the material presented by the author. This version includes several timely additions. Journal and Internet links at the end of each chapter provide additional references for the interested reader. The author has also added material on the role culture and belief play in the fight against AIDS, in how childhood and old age are constructed and construed, in how medical technological advances are embraced, in our Western understanding of nutrition and illness (specifically cancer), and in the impact of globalization on health and illness. Not surprisingly, as the field of medical anthropology has developed, research methods geared to this field of study have also evolved. The last chapter, newly written for the fourth edition, is a thumbnail sketch of qualitative research methods. In the last six years much has changed for health professionals who strive to be culturally competent and best serve culturally diverse populations. I anticipate the fifth edition will include material on Western researchers' fascination with mapping the human genome,on the outcome of South African President Thabo Mbeki's beliefs about HIV, AIDS and AZT, on the globalization of China's tradition of alternative medicines, and on the decay of health services in the former states of the Soviet Union.

Kelly Hubbell

An overview of medical anthropology for health professionals. Discusses how different social, cultural, and ethnic groups explain the causes of ill health and the types of treatment they believe in. Covers diet and nutrition, cross-cultural psychiatry, pain and culture, and gender and reproduction. An appendix gives clinical questionnaires for each chapter. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews