Civil society and perilous medicine in Africa: a systematic review.

Background: Conflict has not been a public health priority for governmental organisations, and evidence on civil society organisation (CSO) contributions to the issue is limited. The present study synthesised the available evidence on the role of CSOs in conflict and health in Africa.

Methods: We employed a systematic review using a systematic search of MEDLINE, PubMed, CINHAL, Web of Science and Scopus for English written articles between 1 January 2000 to 31 December 2023.

Leading the way: the contribution of Aboriginal community controlled health organisations to community health in Australia.

Background The Aboriginal community controlled health sector has been a leader in community health in Australia. We sought to understand the influence this sector has had on the non-Indigenous community health movement in Australia since the 1970s. Methods We interviewed 87 key informants on the history of community health in Australia, including policy makers, researchers, medical doctors, allied health, social workers, nurses and politicians.

Twenty-first century alienation and health: a research agenda.

Alienation has been used as a crucial concept to describe the negative psychosocial impacts that stem from the ways production and consumption are organised in Marxist and non-Marxist traditions. The psychosocial impacts it generates are mediated through stress pathways to increase non-communicable physical and mental illnesses. There has been little empirical research on the impact of alienation on health and ways in which the impact might be reduced.

Thinking politically about intersectoral action: Ideas, Interests and Institutions shaping political dimensions of governing during COVID-19.

Our paper examines the political considerations in the intersectoral action that was evident during the SAR-COV-2 virus (COVID-19) pandemic through case studies of political and institutional responses in 16 nations (Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Ethiopia, India, New Zealand, Nigeria, Peru, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, UK, and USA). Our qualitative case study approach involved an iterative process of data gathering and interpretation through the three Is (institutions, ideas and interests) lens, which we used to shape our understanding of political and intersectoral factors affecting pandemic responses. The institutional factors examined were: national economic and political context; influence of the global economic order; structural inequities; and public health structures and legislation, including intersectoral action.

Non-government advocacy for health equity: evidence from Australia.

The aim of this paper is to identify non-governmental organizations (NGOs) advocating for policy and practices to address rising health inequities in Australia. NGOs can play a critical role in shaping and influencing governance processes including public policy relating to the social and commercial determinants of health inequities. However, scholarship on who the NGOs are that are advocating to address health inequities in Australia and how they operate is sparse.

Caring During COVID-19: A Study of Intersectionality and Inequities in the Care Economy in 16 Countries.

Carers were disproportionately harmed in the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite facing an increased risk of contracting the virus, they continued in frontline roles in care services and acted as "shock absorbers" for their families and communities. In this article, we apply an intersectional lens to examine care work and the structural factors disadvantaging carers during COVID-19 through a comparative case study analysis of 16 low-, middle-, and high-income countries.

The management of cognitive labour in same-gender couples.

Objective: This study explored how cognitive labour as a form of unpaid, household labour is performed by people in same-gender couples.

Background: Excessive performance of unpaid labour has been associated with several health impacts. Cognitive labour (anticipating needs, identifying options for meeting needs, making decisions and monitoring progress) is an underexamined dimension of unpaid labour which has centered on the experiences of heterosexual couples.

Illustrating the impact of commercial determinants of health on the global COVID-19 pandemic: Thematic analysis of 16 country case studies.

Previous research on commercial determinants of health has primarily focused on their impact on non-communicable diseases. However, they also impact on infectious diseases and on the broader preconditions for health. We describe, through case studies in 16 countries, how commercial determinants of health were visible during the COVID-19 pandemic, and how they may have influenced national responses and health outcomes.

Through the wine glass: How biographical midlife transitions and women's affective interpretations interact with alcohol consumption.

Background: Women during midlife are consuming larger quantities of alcohol than any other age group of women and any other generation of midlife women previously. This is concerning given alcohol related-health risks coalesce with age-related health risks for women, in particular, breast cancer.

Methods: In-depth interviews with 50 Australian midlife women (aged 45-64) from different social classes explored women's personal accounts of midlife transitions and their descriptions of the role of alcohol in navigating these life experiences; both daily occurrences as well as significant moments in the life course.

Reviving health promotion in South Australia: The role of ideas, actors and institutional forces.

Globally health promotion has remained marginalized while biomedical health systems have maintained and even increased their dominance. During 2019-2021 we drew on the local and historical knowledge of actors from multiple sectors through semi-structured interviews and focus groups, to assess the implications of the withdrawal of the state from health promotion in a suburban region of South Australia. Institutional theory enabled in-depth analysis of the ideas, actors, and institutional forces at play in the institutional field, and how these elements come together to maintain the dominance of medicine.

Explaining health inequalities in Australia: the contribution of income, wealth and employment.

Background: Studies show widespread widening of socioeconomic and health inequalities. Comprehensive primary health care has a focus on equity and to enact this requires more data on drivers of the increase in inequities. Hence, we examined trends in the distribution of income, wealth, employment and health in Australia.

Can the world become a place where the planet and all people flourish after the pandemic?

Covid-19 has impeded achievement of the sustainable development goals and a radical rethink of the global economy is required to meet them argue

Conducting a rapid health promotion audit in suburban Adelaide, South Australia: Can it contribute to revitalising health promotion?

Issues Addressed: How health promotion is implemented varies and it is often not clear what activities are in place in a region. Understanding the extent of health promotion activities helps planning activities.

Methods: This research involved a rapid audit of the types of health promotion activities in a suburban region of South Australia.

Explaining covid-19 performance: what factors might predict national responses?

fran.baum@flinders.edu.

New Perspective on Why Women Live Longer Than Men: An Exploration of Power, Gender, Social Determinants, and Capitals.

Background: Women live longer than men, even though many of the recognised social determinants of health are worse for women than men. No existing explanations account fully for these differences in life expectancy, although they do highlight the complexity and interaction of biological, social and health service factors.

Methods: this paper is an exploratory explanation of gendered life expectancy difference (GLED) using a novel combination of epidemiological and sociological methods.

Why do some countries do better or worse in life expectancy relative to income? An analysis of Brazil, Ethiopia, and the United States of America.

Background: While in general a country's life expectancy increases with national income, some countries "punch above their weight", while some "punch below their weight" - achieving higher or lower life expectancy than would be predicted by their per capita income. Discovering which conditions or policies contribute to this outcome is critical to improving population health globally.

Methods: We conducted a mixed-method study which included: analysis of life expectancy relative to income for all countries; an expert opinion study; and scoping reviews of literature and data to examine factors that may impact on life expectancy relative to income in three countries: Ethiopia, Brazil, and the United States.

Gender Equality and the Global Gender Gap in Life Expectancy: An Exploratory Analysis of 152 Countries.

When looking at life expectancy (LE) by sex, women live longer than men in all countries. Biological factors alone do not explain gender differences in LE, and examining structural differences may help illuminate other explanatory factors. The aim of this research is to analyse the influence of gender inequality on the gender gap in LE globally.

How do advisory groups contribute to healthy public policy research?

Objectives: This paper reflects on experiences of Australian public health researchers and members of research policy advisory groups (PAGs) in working with PAGs. It considers their benefits and challenges for building researcher and policy actor collaboration and ensuring policy relevance of research.

Methods: Four research projects conducted between 2015 and 2020 were selected for analysis.

Global health activists' lessons on building social movements for Health for All.

Background: The People's Health Movement (PHM) was formed in 2000 and drew inspiration from the Alma Ata Declaration on Primary Health Care's 'Health for All' (1978). Since then PHM has been an active part of a global counter-hegemonic social movement. This study aimed to gain insights on social movement building, drawing on the successes and failures reported by activists over their experiences of working in the Health for All social movement to improve health, justice and equity.

Embodiment as a Paradigm for Understanding and Treating SE-AN: Locating the Self in Culture.

There has been a growing call for sociologically engaged research to better understand the complex processes underpinning Severe and Enduring Anorexia Nervosa (SE-AN). Based on a qualitative study with women in Adelaide, South Australia who were reluctant to seek help for their disordered eating practices, this paper draws on anthropological concepts of embodiment to examine how SE-AN is experienced as culturally grounded. We argue that experiences of SE-AN are culturally informed, and in turn, inform bodily perception and practice in the world.

Punching above their weight: a network to understand broader determinants of increasing life expectancy.

Background: Life expectancy initially improves rapidly with economic development but then tails off. Yet, at any level of economic development, some countries do better, and some worse, than expected - they either punch above or below their weight. Why this is the case has been previously researched but no full explanation of the complexity of this phenomenon is available.