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Anthropological foundations of public health; the case of COVID 19

OBJECTIVES: The complex societal spread of COVID-19 in the U.S. indicates a need to recognize sociocultural forces to best understand and respond to the pandemic. This essay describes four principles of anthropology and sister disciplines that underlie the theory and practice of public health. METHO...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Hahn, Robert A., Schoch-Spana, Monica
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7937742/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33732605
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pmedr.2021.101331
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author Hahn, Robert A.
Schoch-Spana, Monica
author_facet Hahn, Robert A.
Schoch-Spana, Monica
author_sort Hahn, Robert A.
collection PubMed
description OBJECTIVES: The complex societal spread of COVID-19 in the U.S. indicates a need to recognize sociocultural forces to best understand and respond to the pandemic. This essay describes four principles of anthropology and sister disciplines that underlie the theory and practice of public health. METHODS: Research following anthropological and related approaches is reviewed to provide examples of the four principles from COVID-19 in the U.S. RESULTS: 1. What counts as sickness, disease, injury, pathology, is fundamentally a matter of historically situated social ideas and values. 2. The ways in which societies are organized is a fundamental source of pathologies and their distributions within societies. 3. Conversely, health conditions can substantially alter the organization of societies. 4. Public health responses are social processes that affect intervention outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: Anthropological approaches are recommended to address several facets of public health practice: problem analysis, intervention design, evaluation, and the public health enterprise itself.
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spelling pubmed-79377422021-03-16 Anthropological foundations of public health; the case of COVID 19 Hahn, Robert A. Schoch-Spana, Monica Prev Med Rep Review Article OBJECTIVES: The complex societal spread of COVID-19 in the U.S. indicates a need to recognize sociocultural forces to best understand and respond to the pandemic. This essay describes four principles of anthropology and sister disciplines that underlie the theory and practice of public health. METHODS: Research following anthropological and related approaches is reviewed to provide examples of the four principles from COVID-19 in the U.S. RESULTS: 1. What counts as sickness, disease, injury, pathology, is fundamentally a matter of historically situated social ideas and values. 2. The ways in which societies are organized is a fundamental source of pathologies and their distributions within societies. 3. Conversely, health conditions can substantially alter the organization of societies. 4. Public health responses are social processes that affect intervention outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: Anthropological approaches are recommended to address several facets of public health practice: problem analysis, intervention design, evaluation, and the public health enterprise itself. 2021-02-23 /pmc/articles/PMC7937742/ /pubmed/33732605 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pmedr.2021.101331 Text en © 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
spellingShingle Review Article
Hahn, Robert A.
Schoch-Spana, Monica
Anthropological foundations of public health; the case of COVID 19
title Anthropological foundations of public health; the case of COVID 19
title_full Anthropological foundations of public health; the case of COVID 19
title_fullStr Anthropological foundations of public health; the case of COVID 19
title_full_unstemmed Anthropological foundations of public health; the case of COVID 19
title_short Anthropological foundations of public health; the case of COVID 19
title_sort anthropological foundations of public health; the case of covid 19
topic Review Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7937742/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33732605
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pmedr.2021.101331
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