Evidence map›Paper›PMID 12883057›Full record

ReviewJournal of epidemiology and community health2003

Psychosocial factors and public health: a suitable case for treatment?

J Macleod, G Davey Smith

Abstract readReview
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Review in Journal of epidemiology and community health, 2003. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 62 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
62citing papers in PubMed, 4 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

62 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
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  16. Socioeconomic Inequalities in Metabolic Syndrome by Age and Gender in a Spanish Working Population.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021
    Article
  17. Review
  18. Healthy Leadership and Workplace Health Promotion as a Pre-Requisite for Organizational Health.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021
    Article
  19. Article
  20. Article

2 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors.

J MacleodDepartment of Primary Care and General Practice, University of Birmingham, UK. j.a.macleod@bham.ac.uk
G Davey Smith

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Adverse psychosocial exposure or "misery" is associated with physical disease. This association may not be causal. Rather it may reflect issues of reverse causation, reporting bias, and confounding by aspects of the material environment typically associated with misery. A non-causal relation will not form the basis of effective public health interventions. This may be why psychosocial interventions have, so far, showed little effect on objective physical health outcomes. This paper reviews evidence for the "psychosocial hypothesis" and suggests strategies for clarifying these issues. It concludes that, although misery is clearly a bad thing as it erodes people's quality of life, there is little evidence that psychosocial factors cause physical disease. In the absence of better evidence, suggestions that psychosocial interventions are needed to improve population physical health, in both absolute and relative terms, seem premature.

Indexed as

Attitude to HealthQuality of LifeDiseaseHealth PolicyHealth StatusHumansMental HealthPovertyPsychology, SocialPsychotherapyPublic HealthSocial Class

Identifiers

PMID12883057
PMCPMC1732553

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.