Significant scientific advances have been made in understanding psychological aspects of women's health, and knowledge gained will be of relevance not only to women's health but to the promotion of health and illness prevention and treatment for all individuals. The current cutting-edge research detailed in this volume is intended to stimulate new thinking and research in women's health from biopsychosocial perspectives. Drawing on research from internationally respected experts, topics covered include ageing, stress, heart disease, cancer, drugs, weight regulation and body image, pain, menstruation, sexuality and infertility, and AIDS.

This expansive survey spotlights pervasive issues affecting girls’ and women’s sexual and reproductive health across the lifecourse. Research from diverse countries around the world analyzes the complex relationships among biological, psychological, sociocultural, and economic issues—particularly in terms of inequities—as they shape women’s lives. Major challenges and possibilities for intervention are examined in their national context and with their global implications, including child marriage/motherhood, reproductive care and access, fertility, childbearing, contraception, abortion, HIV/STIs, gender-based violence, sexual pleasure, and menopause. In these forceful dispatches, a consistent human rights perspective emphasizes women’s control, autonomy, and agency in all stages of their lives. A sampling of topics covered: Girl child marriage: a persistent global women’s health and human rights violation Investigating challenges and resilience among women living with obstetric fistula in Kenya A qualitative exploration of mainstream and social media reflections on abortion A continuum of severity of sexual intimate partner violence among black women in the United States Economic empowerment to improve sexual and reproductive health among women and girls Summarizing an interdisciplinary field on research and practical levels, Global Perspectives on Women's Sexual and Reproductive Health Across the Lifecourse will be an invaluable text for undergraduate and graduate courses in a wide range of fields, including public health, global health, women’s studies, sociology, anthropology, gender studies, and human rights.

Advances in Nursing Science (ANS) is a top-rated research and practice journal unlike any other in the field. This collection of articles from ANS provides notable perspectives in one handy source. With challenging perspectives from top scholars, this five-volume series is authorative, yet readable, without the hard science approach found in other journals and will interest students, faculty, and researchers. Volumes are available individually, or as a set.

This book provides a three-part investigation into identity construction. Theory, voice and praxis are all represented as the book follows the rationale, stories and narrative methodology of the study of a group of women. The final part of the book presents a new model of identity construction framed in women's health identity.

Around the world, policymakers and civil society are debating how economic and trade policies shape public health. This edited collection adds a new dimension to this debate. It synthesizes research from a variety of disciplines to analyse how the liberalization of international trade affects reproductive health and rights. Case studies from Mexico, Sri Lanka, China, Vietnam, Bangladesh, and Egypt illuminate how trade-related changes in women’s employment influence their reproductive needs and capacities. The book demonstrates how global and national trade policies affect the quality, quantity, and cost of reproductive health services. Contributors also explore the implications of the World Trade Organization and the various trade agreements under its purview for reproductive health services and rights. Ultimately, this collection addresses the key policy issues for advocates of both reproductive health and rights and economic justice, and shows how trade agreements weighted against the poor in the South have very specific gendered consequences. This book is aimed at an inter-disciplinary audience of economists, public health professionals, demographers, sociologists, anthropologists, and women’s studies specialists. It will also be of interest to policymakers and representatives of civil society organizations working on health, economic justice, and employment issues.

Users have become an integral part of technology studies. The essays in this volume look at the creative capacity of users to shape technology in all phases, from design to implementation. Using a variety of theoretical approaches, including a feminist focus on users and use (in place of the traditional emphasis on men and machines), concepts from semiotics, and the cultural studies view of consumption as a cultural activity, these essays examine what users do with technology and, in turn, what technology does to users. The contributors consider how users consume, modify, domesticate, design, reconfigure, and resist technological development—and how users are defined and transformed by technology. The essays in part I show that resistance to and non-use of a technology can be a crucial factor in the eventual modification and improvement of that technology; examples considered include the introduction of the telephone into rural America and the influence of non-users of the Internet. The essays in part II look at advocacy groups and the many kinds of users they represent, particularly in the context of health care and clinical testing. The essays in part III examine the role of users in different phases of the design, testing, and selling of technology. Included here is an enlightening account of one company's design process for men's and women's shavers, which resulted in a "Ladyshave" for users assumed to be technophobes. Taken together, the essays in How Users Matter show that any understanding of users must take into consideration the multiplicity of roles they play—and that the conventional distinction between users and producers is largely artificial.

Traditionally, the public health viewpoint on disability was geared toward primary prevention of disabling conditions or events. More recently, with the movement for disability rights and the emergence of disability studies, the challenge to the field has been to promote positive health outcomes in this underserved community. Such a change in public health culture must start at the educational level, yet training programs have generally been slow in integrating this perspective—with its potential for enriching the field—into their curricula. Public Health Perspectives on Disability meets this challenge with an educational framework for rethinking disability in public health study and practice, and for attaining the competencies that should accompany this knowledge. This reference balances history and epidemiology, scientific advances, advocacy and policy issues, real-world insights, and progressive recommendations, suiting it especially to disability-focused courses, or to add disability-related content to existing public health programs. Each chapter applies awareness and understanding of disabled persons’ experience to one of the core curriculum areas, including: Health services administration, Environmental health science and occupational health, Health law and ethics, The school as physical setting, Maternal, child, and family health, Disasters and disability. In Public Health Perspectives on Disability, faculty, researchers, administrators, and students in graduate schools of public health throughout the U.S. will find a worthy classroom text and a robust source of welcome—and much needed—change.

The book is an evidence-based source of information on women’s health issues for health professionals already practicing lifestyle medicine, as well as an entry level textbook for those new to the field of lifestyle medicine. The collective expertise of each of the editors along with content provided by leaders within the American College of Lifestyle Medicine fills a much-needed void within the specialty of Lifestyle Medicine and is for providers of women’s health globally.

This timely book introduces social aspects of the study of sexual health and their application to public health practice. The book addresses five key themes: Conceptual and theoretical aspects of sexual health, Sexual health outcomes of Risk and Vulnerability, Improving sexual health status and Measuring and assessing sexual health status. The authors consider each of these themes within their cultural and historical context and illustrate topics with international examples and case studies. Key features of the book include: A spotlight on populations rather than individuals, and a focus on the prevention of ill health and promotion of well being. A global perspective; the book makes the distinction between developing and developed countries, but recognises that inequalities are to be found within as well as between countries. A view of sexual behaviour as socially learned rather than biologically given and so as amenable to change and intervention to improve sexual health status. An emphasis on ways in which risk and vulnerability are products, not only of individual behaviours, but of the social context in which they are practiced. Written by authors with a wide range of experience, this book will be a valuable resource for public health practitioners and those studying and working in the area of sexual health. Understanding Public Health is an innovative series published by Open University Press in collaboration with the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. Series Editors: Ros Plowman and Nicki Thorogood Contributors: Sevgi O Aral, Chris Bonell, Helen Burchett, Joanna Busza, Martine Collumbien, Simon Forrest, Rebecca French, Claudia Garcia-Moreno, Anna Glasier, Jami Leichliter, Kirstin Mitchell, Will Nutland, Thomas Peterman, Elisabeth Pisani, Kaye Wellings, Meg Wiggins and Maria Zuurmond.