Lifestyle Inequalities: Explaining Socioeconomic Differences in Preventive Practices of Clinically Overweight Women After Menopause

Abstract

Excess weight and menopause are two major factors increasing aging women's vulnerability to chronic diseases. However, social position and socioeconomic status have also been identified as major determinants influencing both health behaviors and the development of such diseases. This study focuses on the socioeconomic variations of behavioral risk factors of chronic diseases in aging women. By drawing on Bourdieu's sociocultural theory of practice, 40 semistructured interviews were conducted to investigate preventive health practices of clinically overweight, postmenopausal women from contrasting socioeconomic classes living in Canada. Findings emphasize class-based differences with respect to long-term health and preventive practices according to three major themes: priority to long-term time horizons, attention given to risk factors of diseases, and control over future health. Health care providers should strive to work in concert with all subgroups of women to better understand their values, worldviews, and needs to decrease health inequalities after menopause.

Morbi-Mortality of the Victims of Internal Conflict and Poor Population in the Risaralda Province, Colombia

“…This methodology has been widely used to investigate several natural, social, and artificial systems, including health issues such as vector spread diseases [33,34], the link between mobility and he the spread of diseases [35,36], the spread of epidemics [37], and lifestyles and health [38]. Studies linking mobility and epidemics are relevant for the aim of this study, since victims fleeing an armed conflict, mostly IDPs, could introduce diseases to populations in the arrival places, which would never have occurred if the conflict had not existed [25,26]. Furthermore, their low living standards and their associated lifestyles, such as a low nutritional intake, limited access to healthcare and services, exclusion from the public health system, and low sanitary conditions, lead to a particular morbidity profile [9,10,16,18].…”

“…The empirical results of similar studies in other contexts support the hypothesis we propose. Audet [26] showed the negative effects of habits or lifestyles on vulnerable populations, particularly on women, linked to obesity and chronic diseases. Brown [27] used the social networks analysis approach to associate socioeconomic and environmental variables with nutritional lifestyles in Los Angeles; they studied the restriction imposed on fast food and its implications on illnesses related to obesity, and found that unhealthy inexpensive food and poverty were structurally related.…”

Morbi-Mortality of the Victims of Internal Conflict and Poor Population in The Risaralda Province, Colombia

“…However, no current studies have linked their health outcomes with their lifestyles, as we propose in this study. More importantly, IDPs and refugees may become a group that delays the epidemiological transition and even a focus of diminished communicable diseases that could spread to the rest of the population, as shown in the Jordanian case [16], mostly due to the lack of access to public health policies, leading to good habits, lower education, and bad nutrition [17].…”

“…In particular, studies linking mobility and epidemics are relevant for the aim of this study. Victims fleeing an armed conflict, mostly IDPs, may introduce diseases to populations in the arrival places; however, if the conflict had not existed, then this would never have occurred[16][17]. Further, their low living standards and their associated lifestyles, such as low nutritional intake, limited access to healthcare and services, exclusion from the public health system, and low sanitary conditions, lead to a particular morbidity profile[29][30].We begin with the aggregate information of the complex network, namely all diagnoses in the province of Risaralda, for both populations under study.…”

Neither Medicine Nor Health Care Staff Members Are Violent By Nature: Obstetric Violence From an Interactionist Perspective

“…Thus, this notion transcends the restricted concept of threat or physical, sexual or psychological damage traditionally attributed to violence (Stanko, 2001). Furthermore, violence can be expressed through inequitable access to resources such as education, legal or political power, and health care (Audet, Dumas, Binette, & Dionne, 2017;Basnyat, 2017). Structural violence is "closely related to social injustice and the social machinery of oppression" (Farmer, 2004), as the ones in charge of perpetuating said inequities are not subjected to this type of violence (Farmer et al, 2006).…”