Applying Syndemics and Chronicity: Interpretations from Studies of Poverty, Depression, and Diabetes

Weaver, Lesley Jo; Mendenhall, Emily

doi:10.1080/01459740.2013.808637

Cited by 68 publications

(49 citation statements)

References 48 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…112 Depression also increases risk for morbidity and mortality in those with diabetes 113 and this is common among socially and economically disadvantaged populations. 49114 Therefore, there is substantial evidence that the interactions and outcomes of depression and diabetes are mediated by social contexts, 8115 and therefore are particularly devastating among low-income populations in HICs 116 and LMICs. 49 …”

Section: Syndemic Poverty Diabetes and Depression In Lmicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Non-communicable disease syndemics: poverty, depression, and diabetes among low-income populations

et al. 2017

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The co-occurrence of health burdens in transitioning populations, particularly in specific socioeconomic and cultural contexts, calls for conceptual frameworks to improve understanding of risk factors, so as to better design and implement prevention and intervention programmes to address comorbidities. The concept of a syndemic, developed by medical anthropologists, provides such a framework for preventing and treating comorbidities. The term syndemic refers to synergistic health problems that affect the health of a population within the context of persistent social and economic inequalities. Until now, syndemic theory has been applied to comorbid health problems in poor immigrant communities in high-income countries with limited translation, and in low-income or middle-income countries. In this Series paper, we examine the application of syndemic theory to comorbidities and multimorbidities in low-income and middle-income countries. We employ diabetes as an exemplar and discuss its comorbidity with HIV in Kenya, tuberculosis in India, and depression in South Africa. Using a model of syndemics that addresses transactional pathophysiology, socioeconomic conditions, health system structures, and cultural context, we illustrate the different syndemics across these countries and the potential benefit of syndemic care to patients. We conclude with recommendations for research and systems of care to address syndemics in low-income and middle-income country settings.

show abstract

Section: Syndemic Poverty Diabetes and Depression In Lmicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Non-communicable disease syndemics: poverty, depression, and diabetes among low-income populations

et al. 2017

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Many medical anthropologists, especially those who straddle dual roles as anthropologist and medical or public health practitioner, have made a similar call to Krieger's, arguing for the importance of recognizing that illness and suffering are embodied in relation to their environment (Farmer 2003;Weaver and Mendenhall 2013;Kleinman 1988). The argument they advance is that bodies absorb unhealthy environments, and in doing so, become unhealthy.…”

Section: Ontological Violencementioning

confidence: 99%

Counting bodies? On future engagements with science studies in medical anthropology

Yates‐Doerr

2017

Anthropology & Medicine

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Thirty years ago, Nancy Scheper-Hughes and Margaret Lock outlined a strategy for 'future work in medical anthropology' that focused on three bodies. Their article -a zeitgeist for the fieldsought to intervene into the Cartesian dualisms characterizing ethnomedical anthropology at the time. Taking a descriptive and diagnostic approach, they defined 'the mindful body' as a domain of future anthropological inquiry and mapped three analytic concepts that could be used to study it: the individual/ phenomenological body, the social body, and the body politic. Three decades later, this paper returns to the 'three bodies'. It analyses ethnographic fieldwork on chronic illness, using a rescriptive, practice-oriented approach to bodies developed by science studies scholars that was not part of the initial three bodies framework. It illustrates how embodiment was a technical achievement in some practices, while in others bodies did not figure as relevant. This leads to the suggestion that an anthropology of health need not be organized around numerable bodies. The paper concludes by suggesting that future work in medical anthropology might embrace translational competency, which does not have the goal of better definitions (better health, better bodies, etc.) but the goal of better engaging with exchanges between medical and non-medical practices. That health professionals are themselves moving away from bodies to embrace 'planetary health' makes a practice-focused orientation especially crucial for medical anthropology today.

show abstract

“…Indeed, social inequality plays a fundamental role in why and how depression and diabetes cluster among poor populations, although the social problems that contribute to such clustering may differ based on social context (Weaver and Mendenhall ). This is particularly important for low‐ and middle‐income country contexts where diabetes incidence is undergoing a socioeconomic reversal as it increases among middle‐income and working‐class populations and decreases among the affluent (Popkin et al ).…”

Section: Syndemics Of Social Inequality Depression and Diabetesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Syndemic Suffering in Soweto: Violence and Inequality at the Nexus of Health Transition in South Africa

Mendenhall

2014

Annals of Anthropol Pract

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article examines the roles of structural and interpersonal violence in individual experiences of health transition in South Africa, focusing on women's narratives of distress and diabetes as well as epidemiology. Over the past decade marked increases in noncommunicable diseases, including type 2 diabetes, have transitioned in South Africa to afflict those who concurrently face great mental health burdens and the world's largest HIV and AIDS and tuberculosis epidemics. First, this article considers how social and health problems cluster among impoverished populations through a discussion of syndemics theory. Drawing from the VIDDA Syndemic employed to describe the experience of Mexican immigrant women living with diabetes and depression in urban United States, this analysis demonstrates how violence plays a unique role as a perpetuator of suffering through structural, social, psychological, and even biological pathways. Second, data around stress and structural violence, gun violence, and gender‐based violence that emerged from a small study of urban South African women with type 2 diabetes are presented to discuss how violence functions as a cofactor of the syndemic of diabetes and depression in this context. This analysis emphasizes the role of historical and social contexts in how conditions such as depression and diabetes are distributed epidemiologically and experienced individually. Finally, this article argues that the utility of understanding the role of violence in health transition may be a fundamental source of intervention to mitigate the effects of the double burden of diseases on socially and economically marginalized populations in middle‐income countries such as South Africa.

show abstract

Applying Syndemics and Chronicity: Interpretations from Studies of Poverty, Depression, and Diabetes

Cited by 68 publications

References 48 publications

Non-communicable disease syndemics: poverty, depression, and diabetes among low-income populations

Non-communicable disease syndemics: poverty, depression, and diabetes among low-income populations

Counting bodies? On future engagements with science studies in medical anthropology

Syndemic Suffering in Soweto: Violence and Inequality at the Nexus of Health Transition in South Africa

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About