Social science & medicine
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Social science & medicine · Oct 2013
ReviewGoing beyond the surface: gendered intra-household bargaining as a social determinant of child health and nutrition in low and middle income countries.
A growing body of research highlights the importance of gendered social determinants of child health, such as maternal education and women's status, for mediating child survival. This narrative review of evidence from diverse low and middle-income contexts (covering the period 1970-May 2012) examines the significance of intra-household bargaining power and process as gendered dimensions of child health and nutrition. The findings focus on two main elements of bargaining: the role of women's decision-making power and access to and control over resources; and the importance of household headship, structure and composition. ⋯ Given the complex mechanisms through which intra-household bargaining shapes child health and nutrition it is critical that efforts to address gender in health and nutrition programming are thoroughly documented and widely shared to promote further learning and action. There is scope to develop links between gender equity initiatives in areas of adult and adolescent health, and child health and nutrition programming. Child health and nutrition interventions will be more effective, equitable and sustainable if they are designed based on gender-sensitive information and continually evaluated from a gender perspective.
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Social science & medicine · Oct 2013
ReviewA systematic review of studies examining the relationship between reported racism and health and wellbeing for children and young people.
Racial discrimination is increasingly recognised as a determinant of racial and ethnic health inequalities, with growing evidence of strong associations between racial discrimination and adult health outcomes. There is a growing body of literature that considers the effects of racial discrimination on child and youth health. The aim of this paper is to provide a systematic review of studies that examine relationships between reported racial discrimination and child and youth health. ⋯ The field is currently limited by a lack of longitudinal studies, limited psychometrically validated exposure instruments and poor conceptualisation and definition of racial discrimination. There is also a need to investigate the complex and varying pathways by which reported racial discrimination affect child and youth health. Ensuring study quality in this field will allow future research to reveal the complex role that racial discrimination plays as a determinant of child and youth health.
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Social science & medicine · Oct 2013
Social exclusion, deprivation and child health: a spatial analysis of ambulatory care sensitive conditions in children aged 0-4 years in Victoria, Australia.
Recent Australian policy initiatives regarding primary health care focus on planning services around community needs and delivering these at the local area. As in many other countries, there has also been a growing concern over social inequities in health outcomes. The aims of the analysis presented here were firstly to describe small area variations in hospital admissions for ambulatory care sensitive conditions (ACSC) among children aged 0-4 years between 2003 and 2009 in the state of Victoria, Australia, and secondly to explore the relationship of ACSC hospitalisations with socio-economic disadvantage using a comparative analysis of the Child Social Exclusion (CSE) index and the Composite Score of Deprivation (CSD). ⋯ The results show there is significant variation in the geographical distribution of the relationship between ACSCs and socio-economic disadvantage, with both indexes capturing important social gradients in child health conditions. However, measures of access, such as geographical accessibility and workforce supply, detect additional small area variation in child health outcomes. This research has important implications for future primary health care policy and planning of services, as these findings confirm that not all areas are the same in terms of health outcomes, and there may be benefit in tailoring mechanisms for identifying areas of need depending on the outcome intended to be affected.
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Social science & medicine · Oct 2013
Neighborhood context and racial/ethnic differences in young children's obesity: structural barriers to interventions.
Numerous studies in the last ten years have investigated racial/ethnic disparities in obesity for young children. Increasing attention is paid to the influence of neighborhood environments - social and physical-on a variety of young children's health outcomes. This work identifies resource-based and community-based mechanisms that impede on the maintenance of healthy weights for young children in socioeconomically depressed areas, and shows consistently higher rates of obesity in more deprived areas. ⋯ However, living in neighborhoods with higher levels of poverty, lower levels of education, and a higher proportion of black residents is associated with increased child obesity risk after considering a host of relevant individual level factors. In addition, living in neighborhoods with a higher proportion of foreign-born residents is associated with reduced child obesity risk. Although well-intentioned childhood obesity intervention programs aimed at changing individual-level behaviors are important, our results highlight the importance of considering neighborhood structural factors for child obesity prevention.