In a major contribution to the study of diabetes, this book is the first to analyze the disease through a syndemic framework, offering a model study of chronic disease disparity among the poor in high income countries.

This book explains the growing field of syndemic theory and research, a framework for the analysis and prevention of disease interactions that addresses underlying social and environmental causes. This perspective complements single-issue prevention strategies, which can be effective for discrete problems, but often are mismatched to the goal of protecting the public's health in its widest sense. "Merrill Singer has astutely described why health problems should not be seen in isolation, but rather in the context of other diseases and the social and economic inequities that fuel them. An important read for public health and social scientists." —Michael H. Merson, director, Duke Global Health Institute "Not only does this book provide a persuasive theoretical biosocial model of syndemics, but it also illustrates the model with a wide variety of fascinating historical and contemporary examples." —Peter J. Brown, professor of Anthropology and Global Health and director, Center for Health, Culture, and Society, Emory University "The concept of syndemics is Singer's most important contribution to critical medical anthropology as it interfaces with an ecosocial approach to epidemiology." —Mark Nichter, Regents Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Arizona "Merrill Singer offers the public the most comprehensive work ever written on this key area of research and policy making." —Francisco I. Bastos, chairman of the graduate studies on epidemiology, Fundacao Oswaldo Cruz "Exquisitely describes how this new approach is a critical tool that brings together veterinary, medical, and social sciences to solve emerging infectious and non-infectious diseases of today's world." —Bonnie Buntain, MS, DVM, diplomate, American College of Veterinary Preventive Medicine "For too long the great integrative perspectives on modern biomedicine and public health disease ecology and social medicine-have remained more or less separate. In this innovative and provocative book, Merrill Singer develops a valuable synthesis that will reshape the way we think about health and disease." —Warwick H. Anderson, MD, PhD, professorial research fellow, Department of History and Centre for Values, Ethics, and the Law in Medicine, University of Sidney

Research in the field of Developmental Origins of Health and Disease has had a fundamental impact on our understanding of how environmental experiences and contexts influence the development of health and disease over the entire lifecourse. Covering a wide range of geographic regions, this volume includes an overview of the field, key concepts, and cutting-edge examples of interdisciplinary collaboration. The first reference text covering the interdisciplinary work of DOHaD, a broad list of contents maps the history of DOHaD, showcases examples of biosocial collaboration in action, offers a conceptual toolkit for interdisciplinary research, and maps future directions for the field. The definitive volume on biosocial collaborations in DOHaD, this will be indispensable for scholars working at the intersections of public health, lifecourse epidemiology and the social science of DOHaD. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

The editors of the third edition of the seminal textbook Understanding and Applying Medical Anthropology bring it completely up to date for both instructors and students. The collection of 49 readings (17 of them new to this edition) offers extensive background description and exposes students to the breadth of theoretical, methodological, and practical perspectives and issues in the field of medical anthropology. The text provides specific examples and case studies of research as it is applied to a range of health settings: from cross-cultural clinical encounters to cultural analysis of new biomedical technologies and the implementation of programs in global health settings. The new edition features: • a major revision that eliminates many older readings in favor of more fresh, relevant selections; • a new section on structural violence that looks at the impact of poverty and other forms of social marginalization on health; • an updated and expanded section on “Conceptual Tools,” including new research and ideas that are currently driving the field of medical anthropology forward (such as epigenetics and syndemics); • new chapters on climate change, Ebola, PTSD among Iraq/Afghanistan veterans, eating disorders, and autism, among others; • recent articles from Margaret Mead Award winners Sera Young, Seth Holmes, and Erin Finley, along with new articles by such established medical anthropologists as Paul Farmer and Merrill Singer.

Central to this volume, and critical to its unique creative significance and contribution, is the conceptual unification of syndemics and stigma. Syndemics theory is increasingly recognized in social science and medicine as a crucial framework for examining and addressing pathways of interaction between biological and social aspects of chronic and acute suffering in populations. While much research to date addresses known syndemics such as those involving HIV, diabetes, and mental illness, this book explores new directions just beginning to emerge in syndemics research – revealing what syndemics theory can illuminate about, for example the health consequences of socially pathologized pregnancy or infertility, when stigmatization of reproductive options or experiences affect women’s health. In other chapters, newly identified syndemics affecting incarcerated or detained individuals are highlighted, demonstrating the physical, psychological, structural, and political-economic effects of stigmatizing legal frameworks on human health, through a syndemic lens. Elsewhere in the volume, scholars examine the stigma of poverty and how it affects both nutritional and oral health. The common thread across all chapters is linkages of social stigmatization, structural conditions, and how these societal forces drive biological and disease interactions affecting human health, in areas not previously explored through these lenses.

Unmasked is the story of what happened in Okoboji, a small Iowan tourist town, when a collective turn from the coronavirus to the economy occurred in the COVID summer of 2020. State political failures, local negotiations among political and public health leaders, and community (dis)belief about the virus resulted in Okoboji being declared a hotspot just before the Independence Day weekend, when an influx of half a million people visit the town. The story is both personal and political. Author Emily Mendenhall, an anthropologist at Georgetown University, grew up in Okoboji, and her family still lives there. As the events unfolded, Mendenhall was in Okoboji, where she spoke formally with over 100 people and observed a community that rejected public health guidance, revealing deep-seated mistrust in outsiders and strong commitments to local thinking. Unmasked is a fascinating and heartbreaking account of where people put their trust, and how isolationist popular beliefs can be in America's small communities. This book is the recipient of the 2022 Norman L. and Roselea J. Goldberg Prize from Vanderbilt University Press for the best book in the area of art or medicine.

Diabetes has become a worldwide health problem, the global estimated prevalence approaches ten percent and the burden of this disease in terms of morbidity and mortality is unprecedented. The advances acquired through the knowledge of the mechanisms of the disease and the variety of therapeutic approaches contrast with the inability of private and public health systems in underdeveloped and even developed countries to achieve the goals of treatment. This paradox has been described in many sources: the surge of scientific advances contrast with an unprecedented amount of human suffering. Thus, a patient centered and an evidence based approach with the capacity to produce measurable clinical and economic outcomes is required. The purpose of this textbook is multiple: to offer a comprehensive resource covering all aspects of outpatient management; to address diabetes as a health problem from an epidemiological, economic and clinical perspective; to discuss the role of social determinants of health on the worldwide increase in diabetes; to highlight the challenges and obstacles in providing adequate care; and to outline a multidisciplinary approach to management in which medical visits retain their importance as part of a team comprising the patient, his or her family and a multidisciplinary group of health professionals who are able to move beyond the traditional approach of diabetes as a disease and greatly improve outcomes.