Global Public Health
Volume 9, Issue 5, 2014
http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rgph20/.Uq0DgeKy-F9#.U4onnCjDU1w

Locating global health in social medicine
Seth M. Holmesab*, Jeremy A. Greenec & Scott D. Stoningtonde
DOI: 10.1080/17441692.2014.897361
pages 475-480
Abstract
Global health’s goal to address health issues across great sociocultural and socioeconomic gradients worldwide requires a sophisticated approach to the social root causes of disease and the social context of interventions. This is especially true today as the focus of global health work is actively broadened from acute to chronic and from infectious to non-communicable diseases. To respond to these complex biosocial problems, we propose the recent expansion of interest in the field of global health should look to the older field of social medicine, a shared domain of social and medical sciences that offers critical analytic and methodological tools to elucidate who gets sick, why and what we can do about it. Social medicine is a rich and relatively untapped resource for understanding the hybrid biological and social basis of global health problems. Global health can learn much from social medicine to help practitioners understand the social behaviour, social structure, social networks, cultural difference and social context of ethical action central to the success or failure of global health’s important agendas. This understanding – of global health as global social medicine – can coalesce global health’s unclear identity into a coherent framework effective for addressing the world’s most pressing health issues.

Religious coping among women with obstetric fistula in Tanzania
Melissa H. Watta*, Sarah M. Wilsonab, Mercykutty Josephc, Gileard Masengac, Jessica C. MacFarlanea, Olola Onekoc & Kathleen J. Sikkemaab
DOI: 10.1080/17441692.2014.903988
pages 516-527
Abstract
Religion is an important aspect of Tanzanian culture, and is often used to cope with adversity and distress. This study aimed to examine religious coping among women with obstetric fistulae. Fifty-four women receiving fistula repair at a Tanzanian hospital completed a structured survey. The Brief RCOPE assessed positive and negative religious coping strategies. Analyses included associations between negative religious coping and key variables (demographics, religiosity, depression, social support and stigma). Forty-five women also completed individual in-depth interviews where religion was discussed. Although participants utilised positive religious coping strategies more frequently than negative strategies (p < .001), 76% reported at least one form of negative religious coping. In univariate analysis, negative religious coping was associated with stigma, depression and low social support. In multivariate analysis, only depression remained significant, explaining 42% of the variance in coping. Qualitative data confirmed reliance upon religion to deal with fistula-related distress, and suggested that negative forms of religious coping may be an expression of depressive symptoms. Results suggest that negative religious coping could reflect cognitive distortions and negative emotionality, characteristic of depression. Religious leaders should be engaged to recognise signs of depression and provide appropriate pastoral/spiritual counselling and general psychosocial support for this population.

Generating political priority for newborn survival in three low-income countries
Stephanie L. Smitha*, Jeremy Shiffmanb & Abigail Kazembec
Free access
DOI: 10.1080/17441692.2014.904918
pages 538-554
Abstract
Deaths to babies in their first 28 days of life now account for more than 40% of global under-5 child mortality. High neonatal mortality poses a significant barrier to achieving the child survival Millennium Development Goal. Surmounting the problem requires national-level political commitment, yet only a few nation-states have prioritised this issue. We compare Bolivia, Malawi and Nepal, three low-income countries with high neonatal mortality, with a view to understanding why countries prioritise or neglect the issue. The three have had markedly different trajectories since 2000: attention grew steadily in Nepal, stagnated then grew in Malawi and grew then stagnated in Bolivia. The comparison suggests three implications for proponents seeking to advance attention to neglected health issues in low-income countries: the value of (1) advancing solutions with demonstrated efficacy in low-resource settings, (2) building on existing and emerging national priorities and (3) developing a strong network of domestic and international allies. Such actions help policy communities to weather political storms and take advantage of policy windows.