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Transforming Patient Compliance Research in an Era of Biomedicalization

Bibliographic Data

ID2316656
AuthorsKaren Lutfey Spencer (0000-0003-2975-8125, University of Colorado-Denver, Denver, CO, USA, corresponding author)
Year2018
Volume59
Issue2
Pages169-169
Publication date2018-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Health and Social Behavior (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-1465 • E-ISSN: 2150-6000
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0022146518770374
PMID29443620
OpenAlexW4248337228
LanguageEN
Citations received19
References cited51

The term patient noncompliance emerged in the 1970s as a tool for analyzing why people do not follow medical directives. Despite its early popularity, the term has languished in sociology while flourishing in biomedical arenas. It seems flaccid in a contemporary healthcare context as it overestimates physician authority and is tone-deaf to biomedicalization. I draw from sociological and anthropological traditions, as well as qualitative interviews with terminally ill patients ( N = 26) and their caregivers ( N = 16), to consider facets of a biomedicalized health experience and implications for an updated vision of compliance. First, pathways to care have proliferated under biomedicalization. With increased pathways comes increased need for understanding how treatment plans are socially constituted and assessed. Finally, increased complexity demands a more diverse vocabulary for understanding health related decisions. This paper is a call to sociologists to take the lead in transforming and updating this consequential concept

Compliance (psychology) · Context (archaeology) · Flourishing · Health care · Political science · Popularity · Public relations · Qualitative research · Social science · Sociology · Tone (literature) · Vocabulary · Biomedical Ethics and Regulation · Body Image and Dysmorphia Studies · Ethics in medical practice · Law · Medicine · Mental Health and Psychiatry · Nursing · Pharmaceutical industry and healthcare · Psychology · Social Psychology

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Unique citing works17
Citations per year2,38
Citation span2018 - 2026 (9)
Citation velocitycurrent
Highly citedNo
Citation typesNeutral: 17
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