Leonard Syme
Biographic Data
| ID | 279455 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Leonard Syme |
| GIVEN NAMES | Leonard |
| FAMILY NAME | Syme |
| SIGNATURE | SYME L |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of California, Berkeley |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-2373-0666 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 40 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 775 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 40 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1957 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2020 |
| H-INDEX | 12 |
“My Hope Is . . . ”: A Hope-Based Typology of Homeless Youth
Many youth experiencing homelessness (YEH) are surprisingly hopeful. We propose a typology of the hopes for the future (HFTF) of YEH, based on a qualitative study employing grounded theory. YEH fell into four categories: (a) nonmainstream HFTF youth who wished to escape the mainstream, (b) mainstream HFTF youth who wished to integrate into the mainstream, (c) marijuana-economy HFTF youth who aspired to escape homelessness by entering the marijuan…
A recursive partitioning approach to investigating correlates of self-rated health: The Cardia Study
Self-rated health (SRH) is an independent predictor of mortality; studies have investigated correlates of SRH to explain this predictive capability. However, the interplay of a broad array of factors that influence health status may not be adequately captured with parametric multivariate regression. This study investigated associations between several health determinants and SRH using recursive partitioning methods. This non-parametric analytic a…
Engaging youth in communities: A framework for promoting adolescent and community health
Health researchers and practitioners increasingly recognise the important role communities play in shaping individual health. Health researchers recognise the role of community factors as causes or determinants of health problems; use community-based methods for understanding complex health issues; and design community-level health solutions . In this commentary, we propose a fourth way to think about the role of communities in individual health …
The association between a living wage and subjective social status and self-rated health: A quasi-experimental study in the Dominican Republic
Vacation, Collective Restoration, and Mental Health in a Population
Vacations enable people to help one another, spend time together in pleasant contexts, and renew relational resources. Reasoning that these shared activities spread social and psychological benefits through social networks, we hypothesized that increase in the number of vacationing workers engenders nonlinear decline in psychological distress at the population level. We applied time-series methods to aggregate data on monthly dispensation of anti…
The Role of Individual and Neighborhood Factors: HIV Acquisition Risk Among High-Risk Populations in San Francisco
Social Isolation: A Predictor of Mortality Comparable to Traditional Clinical Risk Factors
Objectives. We explored the relationship between social isolation and mortality in a nationally representative US sample and compared the predictive power of social isolation with that of traditional clinical risk factors. Methods. We used data on 16 849 adults from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey and the National Death Index. Predictor variables were 4 social isolation factors and a composite index. Comparison predicto…
Education: A Missed Opportunity for Public Health Intervention
Educational attainment is a well-established social determinant of health. It affects health through many mechanisms such as neural development, biological aging, health literacy and health behaviors, sense of control and empowerment, and life chances. Education—from preschool to beyond college—is also one of the social determinants of health for which there are clear policy pathways for intervention. We reviewed evidence from studies of early ch…
Integration of Social Epidemiology and Community-Engaged Interventions to Improve Health Equity
The past quarter century has seen an explosion of concern about widening health inequities in the United States and worldwide. These inequities are central to the research mission in 2 arenas of public health: social epidemiology and community-engaged interventions. Yet only modest success has been achieved in eliminating health inequities. We advocate dialogue and reciprocal learning between researchers with these 2 perspectives to enhance emerg…
Do experiences of racial discrimination predict cardiovascular disease among African American men? The moderating role of internalized negative racial group attitudes
Objective and subjective social class gradients for substance use among Mexican adolescents
Community-level social capital and recurrence of acute coronary syndrome
Promoting Prenatal and Early Childhood Health: Evaluation of a Statewide Materials-Based Intervention for Parents
Objectives. There is a critical need for effective, large-scale health communication programs to support parents of children aged 0–5 years. We evaluated the effectiveness of the Kit for New Parents, a multimedia health and parenting resource now distributed annually to 500000 parents in California. Methods. In this quasi-experimental study, 462 mothers in the intervention group and 1011 mothers in the comparison group, recruited from prenatal an…
The Social Environment and Health: A Discussion of the Epidemiologic Literature
The environment can be thought of in terms of physical and social dimensions. The social environment includes the groups to which we belong, the neighborhoods in which we live, the organization of our workplaces, and the policies we create to order our lives. There have been recent reports in the literature that the social environment is associated with disease and mortality risks, independent of individual risk factors. These findings suggest th…
Community Participation in Health Promotion: Evaluation of the California Wellness Guide
With the rapid rise in health care costs, it has become imperative that departments of health services find effective and affordable ways to prevent disease and promote health. During the past 20 years, most of the major educational interventions in the US designed to prevent disease by changing behavior have not been as successful as expected. At the same time, there is increasing evidence that community participation, a central feature of the ‘…
Socioeconomic status, neighborhood social conditions, and neural tube defects
OBJECTIVES: This study evaluated the contributions of lower socioeconomic status (SES) and neighborhood socioeconomic characteristics to neural tube defect etiology. The influence of additional factors, including periconceptional multivitamin use and race/ethnicity, was also explored. METHODS: Data derived from a case-control study of California pregnancies from 1989 to 1991. Mothers of 538 (87.8% of eligible) case infants/fetuses with neural tub…
On paradigms, community participation, and the future of public health
On paradigms, community participation, and the future of public health. M Schwab, and S L SymeCopyRight https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.87.12.2049 Published Online: October 07, 2011
Psychosocial work environment and sickness absence among British civil servants: The Whitehall II study
OBJECTIVES. This study sought to examine the association between the psychosocial work environment and subsequent rates of sickness absence. METHODS. The analyses were based on a cohort of male and female British civil servants (n=9072). Rates of short spells ( 7 days) of sickness absence were calculated for different aspects of the psychosocial work environment, as measured by self-reports and personnel managers' ratings (external assessments). …
Sickness absence as a measure of health status and functioning: From the UK Whitehall II study
STUDY OBJECTIVE--To investigate the relationship between self reported health status and sickness absence. DESIGN--Analysis of questionnaire and sickness absence data from the first phase of the Whitehall II study--a longitudinal study set up to investigate the degree and causes of the social gradient in morbidity and mortality. SETTING--London offices of 20 civil service departments. PARTICIPANTS--Altogether 6895 male and 3413 female civil serva…
Socioeconomic status and health: The challenge of the gradient
SES is consistently associated with health outcomes, yet little is known about the psychosocial and behavioral mechanisms that might explain this association. Researchers usually control for SES rather than examine it. When it is studied, only effects of lower, poverty-level SES are generally examined. However, there is evidence of a graded association with health at all levels of SES, an observation that requires new thought about domains throug…
Explaining socioeconomic differences in sickness absence: The Whitehall II Study.
OBJECTIVE--To describe and explain the socioeconomic gradient in sickness absence. DESIGN--Analysis of questionnaire and sickness absence data collected from the first phase of the Whitehall II study. Grade of employment was used as a measure of socioeconomic status. SETTING--20 civil service departments in London. SUBJECTS--6900 male and 3414 female civil servants aged 35-55 years. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES--Rates of short spells ( 7 days) of sickne…
The Wellness Guide: Towards a new model for community participation in health promotion
This paper describes how community participation came to play a central role in developing the Wellness Guide Project, a major new health promotion initiative of the State of California. The Guide itself was to be a simple document that would give information on how to stay well and where to find help on health-related topics. It was to be sensitive to the needs of people of all ethnic and social backgrounds, and suitable for distribution to all …
Job strain and prevalence of hypertension in a biracial population of urban bus drivers
OBJECTIVES. In this study we tested the association between occupational stress--as measured by job demands, decision latitude, and job strain--and hypertension in a population of 1396 Black and White bus drivers. METHODS. Height, weight, blood pressure, and medical history were assessed by physical exam. Drivers completed a questionnaire assessing their work schedules, personal habits, and self-perceptions about job demands and decision latitude…
Social networks, life events, and health of the poor, frail elderly: A longitudinal study of the buffering versus the direct effect
1Assistant Professor School of Social Work University of Southern California Los Angeles, California 2Professor School of Social Welfare University of California 3Professor School of Public Health University of California Berkeley, California
Smoking, social support, and hassles in an urban African-American community
BACKGROUND. Despite public health efforts, the prevalence of smoking among African Americans remains high. The determinants of smoking behavior in this population must be elucidated so that interventions can be better targeted and more effective. METHODS. As part of a prospective community intervention trial to reduce cancer mortality, we conducted a random household survey of 1137 African-American adults in San Francisco and Oakland between Nove…
Socioeconomic status and health: The challenge of the gradient
SES is consistently associated with health outcomes, yet little is known about the psychosocial and behavioral mechanisms that might explain this association. Researchers usually control for SES rather than examine it. When it is studied, only effects of lower, poverty-level SES are generally examined. However, there is evidence of a graded association with health at all levels of SES, an observation that requires new thought about domains throug…
Do experiences of racial discrimination predict cardiovascular disease among African American men? The moderating role of internalized negative racial group attitudes
Sickness absence as a measure of health status and functioning: From the UK Whitehall II study
STUDY OBJECTIVE--To investigate the relationship between self reported health status and sickness absence. DESIGN--Analysis of questionnaire and sickness absence data from the first phase of the Whitehall II study--a longitudinal study set up to investigate the degree and causes of the social gradient in morbidity and mortality. SETTING--London offices of 20 civil service departments. PARTICIPANTS--Altogether 6895 male and 3413 female civil serva…
Psychosocial work environment and sickness absence among British civil servants: The Whitehall II study
OBJECTIVES. This study sought to examine the association between the psychosocial work environment and subsequent rates of sickness absence. METHODS. The analyses were based on a cohort of male and female British civil servants (n=9072). Rates of short spells ( 7 days) of sickness absence were calculated for different aspects of the psychosocial work environment, as measured by self-reports and personnel managers' ratings (external assessments). …
Social Isolation: A Predictor of Mortality Comparable to Traditional Clinical Risk Factors
Objectives. We explored the relationship between social isolation and mortality in a nationally representative US sample and compared the predictive power of social isolation with that of traditional clinical risk factors. Methods. We used data on 16 849 adults from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey and the National Death Index. Predictor variables were 4 social isolation factors and a composite index. Comparison predicto…
Education: A Missed Opportunity for Public Health Intervention
Educational attainment is a well-established social determinant of health. It affects health through many mechanisms such as neural development, biological aging, health literacy and health behaviors, sense of control and empowerment, and life chances. Education—from preschool to beyond college—is also one of the social determinants of health for which there are clear policy pathways for intervention. We reviewed evidence from studies of early ch…
Job strain and prevalence of hypertension in a biracial population of urban bus drivers
OBJECTIVES. In this study we tested the association between occupational stress--as measured by job demands, decision latitude, and job strain--and hypertension in a population of 1396 Black and White bus drivers. METHODS. Height, weight, blood pressure, and medical history were assessed by physical exam. Drivers completed a questionnaire assessing their work schedules, personal habits, and self-perceptions about job demands and decision latitude…
Objective and subjective social class gradients for substance use among Mexican adolescents
Community-level social capital and recurrence of acute coronary syndrome
Smoking, social support, and hassles in an urban African-American community
BACKGROUND. Despite public health efforts, the prevalence of smoking among African Americans remains high. The determinants of smoking behavior in this population must be elucidated so that interventions can be better targeted and more effective. METHODS. As part of a prospective community intervention trial to reduce cancer mortality, we conducted a random household survey of 1137 African-American adults in San Francisco and Oakland between Nove…
Integration of Social Epidemiology and Community-Engaged Interventions to Improve Health Equity
The past quarter century has seen an explosion of concern about widening health inequities in the United States and worldwide. These inequities are central to the research mission in 2 arenas of public health: social epidemiology and community-engaged interventions. Yet only modest success has been achieved in eliminating health inequities. We advocate dialogue and reciprocal learning between researchers with these 2 perspectives to enhance emerg…
Social class and racial differences in blood pressure
Social class and racial differences in blood pressure. S L Syme, T W Oakes, G D Friedman, R Feldman, A B Siegelaub, and M CollenCopyRight https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.64.6.619 Published Online: October 07, 2011
Socioeconomic status, neighborhood social conditions, and neural tube defects
OBJECTIVES: This study evaluated the contributions of lower socioeconomic status (SES) and neighborhood socioeconomic characteristics to neural tube defect etiology. The influence of additional factors, including periconceptional multivitamin use and race/ethnicity, was also explored. METHODS: Data derived from a case-control study of California pregnancies from 1989 to 1991. Mothers of 538 (87.8% of eligible) case infants/fetuses with neural tub…
Social Support and Health
Behavioral factors associated with the etiology of physical disease: A social epidemiological approach
Behavioral factors associated with the etiology of physical disease: a social epidemiological approach. S L SymeCopyRight https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.64.11.1043 Published Online: October 07, 2011
Engaging youth in communities: A framework for promoting adolescent and community health
Health researchers and practitioners increasingly recognise the important role communities play in shaping individual health. Health researchers recognise the role of community factors as causes or determinants of health problems; use community-based methods for understanding complex health issues; and design community-level health solutions . In this commentary, we propose a fourth way to think about the role of communities in individual health …
On paradigms, community participation, and the future of public health
On paradigms, community participation, and the future of public health. M Schwab, and S L SymeCopyRight https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.87.12.2049 Published Online: October 07, 2011
The association between a living wage and subjective social status and self-rated health: A quasi-experimental study in the Dominican Republic
The effects of policies and programs on reduction of mental hospitalization
Social Factors in Newly Discovered Elevated Blood Pressure
Thomas W. Oakes, S. Leonard Syme, Robert Feldman, Gary D. Friedman, A. B. Siegelaub, Morris F. Collen, Social Factors in Newly Discovered Elevated Blood Pressure, Journal of Health and Social Behavior, Vol. 14, No. 3 (Sep., 1973), pp. 198-204
Promoting Prenatal and Early Childhood Health: Evaluation of a Statewide Materials-Based Intervention for Parents
Objectives. There is a critical need for effective, large-scale health communication programs to support parents of children aged 0–5 years. We evaluated the effectiveness of the Kit for New Parents, a multimedia health and parenting resource now distributed annually to 500000 parents in California. Methods. In this quasi-experimental study, 462 mothers in the intervention group and 1011 mothers in the comparison group, recruited from prenatal an…
Sociocultural Factors and Coronary Heart Disease
Personality Characteristics and the Alcoholic. A Critique of Current Studies
Sociology: With Application to Nursing and Health Education
Thirty Years of Research in Human Fertility--Retrospect and Prospect
Sociocultural Factors and Coronary Heart Disease
Cultural Mobility and the Occurrence of Coronary Heart Disease
Social Factors in Newly Discovered Elevated Blood Pressure
Thomas W. Oakes, S. Leonard Syme, Robert Feldman, Gary D. Friedman, A. B. Siegelaub, Morris F. Collen, Social Factors in Newly Discovered Elevated Blood Pressure, Journal of Health and Social Behavior, Vol. 14, No. 3 (Sep., 1973), pp. 198-204
Behavioral factors associated with the etiology of physical disease: A social epidemiological approach
Behavioral factors associated with the etiology of physical disease: a social epidemiological approach. S L SymeCopyRight https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.64.11.1043 Published Online: October 07, 2011
Social class and racial differences in blood pressure
Social class and racial differences in blood pressure. S L Syme, T W Oakes, G D Friedman, R Feldman, A B Siegelaub, and M CollenCopyRight https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.64.6.619 Published Online: October 07, 2011
Acculturation and Coronary Heart Disease in Japanese-Americans
Among men of Japanese ancestry, there is a gradient in the occurrence of coronary heart disease (CHD). It is lowest in Japan, intermediate in Hawaii, and highest in California. This gradient appears not to be completely explained by differences in dietary intake, serum cholesterol, blood pressure or smoking. To test the hypothesis that social and cultural differences may account for the CHD differences between Japan and the United States, 3809 Ja…
Social Class, Susceptibility and Sickness
The effects of policies and programs on reduction of mental hospitalization
Social Networks, Host Resistance, and Mortality: A Nine-Year Follow-Up Study of Alameda County Residents
The relationship between social and community ties and mortality was assessed using the 1965 Human Population Laboratory survey of a random sample of 6928 adults in Alameda County, California and a subsequent nine-year mortality follow-up. The findings show that people who lacked social and community ties were more likely to die in the follow-up period than those with more extensive contacts. The age-adjusted relative risks for those most isolate…
Social Support and Health
Social networks and coronary artery disease: A comparison of the structure and function of social relations as predictors of disease
This study provides the first direct comparison of the relative importance of structural versus functional aspects of social network ties as they relate to susceptibility to coronary artery disease. Data from 119 men and 40 women undergoing coronary angiography provide an opportunity to compare these associations in relation to a direct and continuous measure of atherosclerosis while controlling for age, sex, income, hypertension, serum cholester…
Social Connections and Mortality From All Causes and From Cardiovascular Disease: Prospective Evidence From Eastern Finland
The association between an a priori measure of social connections and five-year mortality from all causes, cardiovascular diseases (International Classification of Diseases, Eighth Revision (ICD-8) codes 390-458), and ischemic heart disease (ICD-8 codes 410-414) was studied in 13,301 men and women from eastern Finland who were first interviewed in 1972 or 1977. For men, there was a graded association between extent of social connections and morta…
Social networks, life events, and health of the poor, frail elderly: A longitudinal study of the buffering versus the direct effect
1Assistant Professor School of Social Work University of Southern California Los Angeles, California 2Professor School of Social Welfare University of California 3Professor School of Public Health University of California Berkeley, California
Smoking, social support, and hassles in an urban African-American community
BACKGROUND. Despite public health efforts, the prevalence of smoking among African Americans remains high. The determinants of smoking behavior in this population must be elucidated so that interventions can be better targeted and more effective. METHODS. As part of a prospective community intervention trial to reduce cancer mortality, we conducted a random household survey of 1137 African-American adults in San Francisco and Oakland between Nove…
The Wellness Guide: Towards a new model for community participation in health promotion
This paper describes how community participation came to play a central role in developing the Wellness Guide Project, a major new health promotion initiative of the State of California. The Guide itself was to be a simple document that would give information on how to stay well and where to find help on health-related topics. It was to be sensitive to the needs of people of all ethnic and social backgrounds, and suitable for distribution to all …
Job strain and prevalence of hypertension in a biracial population of urban bus drivers
OBJECTIVES. In this study we tested the association between occupational stress--as measured by job demands, decision latitude, and job strain--and hypertension in a population of 1396 Black and White bus drivers. METHODS. Height, weight, blood pressure, and medical history were assessed by physical exam. Drivers completed a questionnaire assessing their work schedules, personal habits, and self-perceptions about job demands and decision latitude…
Explaining socioeconomic differences in sickness absence: The Whitehall II Study.
OBJECTIVE--To describe and explain the socioeconomic gradient in sickness absence. DESIGN--Analysis of questionnaire and sickness absence data collected from the first phase of the Whitehall II study. Grade of employment was used as a measure of socioeconomic status. SETTING--20 civil service departments in London. SUBJECTS--6900 male and 3414 female civil servants aged 35-55 years. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES--Rates of short spells ( 7 days) of sickne…
Socioeconomic status and health: The challenge of the gradient
SES is consistently associated with health outcomes, yet little is known about the psychosocial and behavioral mechanisms that might explain this association. Researchers usually control for SES rather than examine it. When it is studied, only effects of lower, poverty-level SES are generally examined. However, there is evidence of a graded association with health at all levels of SES, an observation that requires new thought about domains throug…
Sickness absence as a measure of health status and functioning: From the UK Whitehall II study
STUDY OBJECTIVE--To investigate the relationship between self reported health status and sickness absence. DESIGN--Analysis of questionnaire and sickness absence data from the first phase of the Whitehall II study--a longitudinal study set up to investigate the degree and causes of the social gradient in morbidity and mortality. SETTING--London offices of 20 civil service departments. PARTICIPANTS--Altogether 6895 male and 3413 female civil serva…
Psychosocial work environment and sickness absence among British civil servants: The Whitehall II study
OBJECTIVES. This study sought to examine the association between the psychosocial work environment and subsequent rates of sickness absence. METHODS. The analyses were based on a cohort of male and female British civil servants (n=9072). Rates of short spells ( 7 days) of sickness absence were calculated for different aspects of the psychosocial work environment, as measured by self-reports and personnel managers' ratings (external assessments). …
On paradigms, community participation, and the future of public health
On paradigms, community participation, and the future of public health. M Schwab, and S L SymeCopyRight https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.87.12.2049 Published Online: October 07, 2011
Community Participation in Health Promotion: Evaluation of the California Wellness Guide
With the rapid rise in health care costs, it has become imperative that departments of health services find effective and affordable ways to prevent disease and promote health. During the past 20 years, most of the major educational interventions in the US designed to prevent disease by changing behavior have not been as successful as expected. At the same time, there is increasing evidence that community participation, a central feature of the ‘…
Medicine (37 works) · Psychology (22 works) · Gerontology (21 works) · Demography (19 works) · Sociology (19 works) · Gerontology (18 works) · Environmental health (15 works) · Health disparities and outcomes (15 works) · Public health (15 works) · Political science (13 works)