ArticleGlobal health action2014
Medicalization of global health 1: has the global health agenda become too medicalized?
Article in Global health action, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 36 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
36 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Defining global health: findings from a systematic review and thematic analysis of the literature.BMJ global health · 2021Pooled it
- The ASHA (Hope) Project: Testing an Integrated Depression Treatment and Economic Strengthening Intervention in Rural Bangladesh: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Trial
- Psychiatrists' opinions about non-medicalization of cannabis use disorder in Iran.Discover mental health · 2025Article
- A 'He Awa Whiria' approach: integrating Māori knowledge and cultural values into audiological research and hearing health services.Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand · 2025Article
- Medicalisation, depoliticisation and reproductive stratification: lessons from Canada's Muskoka Initiative.Feminist theory · 2025Article
- [Experiences and subjective transformations: suffering and coercion in the use of psychotropic drugs in psychiatric treatment in Chile].Salud colectiva · 2024Article
- The effect of an innovative payment method on inpatient volume and bed resources and their regional distribution: the case of a central province in China.International journal for equity in health · 2024Article
- Health system facilitators and barriers to the integration of mental health services into primary care in the Democratic Republic of the Congo: a multimethod study.BMC primary care · 2024Article
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- Unity of Disease and Unity of Cure: An Evidence-based Perspective.Integrative medicine (Encinitas, Calif.) · 2023Review
- Medical Dominance in Global Health Institutions as an Obstacle to Equity and Effectiveness Comment on "Power Dynamics Among Health Professionals in Nigeria: A Case Study of the Global Fund Policy Process".International journal of health policy and management · 2023Article
- Social Vulnerability, Frailty, and Their Association With Mortality in Older Adults Living in Rural Tanzania.The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences · 2022Article
- Infective Endocarditis in the Elderly: Challenges and Strategies.Journal of cardiovascular development and disease · 2022Review
- Translating Planetary Health Principles Into Sustainable Primary Care Services.Frontiers in public health · 2022Article
- The cost-effectiveness of sexual and reproductive health and rights interventions in low- and middle-income countries: a scoping review.Sexual and reproductive health matters · 2021Article
- CyberGenomics: Application of Behavioral Genetics in Cybersecurity.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Review
- Gaps in hypertension care and control: a population-based study in low-income urban Medellin, Colombia.Tropical medicine & international health : TM & IH · 2021Article
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- Reconceptualizing Psychosis: The Hearing Voices Movement and Social Approaches to Health.Health and human rights · 2020Article
- Four Ironies of Self-quantification: Wearable Technologies and the Quantified Self.Science and engineering ethics · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
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Abstract
Medicalization analyses have roots in sociology and have critical usefulness for understanding contemporary health issues including the 'post-2015 global health agenda'. Medicalization is more complex than just 'disease mongering'--it is a process and not only an outcome; has both positive and negative elements; can be partial rather than complete; and is often sought or challenged by patients or others in the health field. It is understood to be expanding rather than contracting, plays out at the level of interaction or of definitions and agenda-setting, and is said to be largely harmful and costly to individuals and societies. Medicalization of global health issues would overemphasise the role of health care to health; define and frame issues in relation to disease, treatment strategies, and individual behaviour; promote the role of medical professionals and models of care; find support in industry or other advocates of technologies and pharmaceuticals; and discount social contexts, causes, and solutions. In subsequent articles, three case studies are explored, which critically examine predominant issues on the global health agenda: global mental health, non-communicable disease, and universal health coverage. A medicalization lens helps uncover areas where the global health agenda and its framing of problems are shifted toward medical and technical solutions, neglecting necessary social, community, or political action.
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Registered trials
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.