Contesting lifestyle risk and gendering coronary candidacy

Lay epidemiology of heart disease in Finland in the 1970s

Dados Bibliográficos

ID2249244
AutoresMikko Jauho (0000-0002-6999-6788, Department of Economic and Political Studies University of Helsinki Finland, autor correspondente)
Ano2017
Volume39
Fascículo7
Páginas1005-1018
Data de publicação2017-09-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoSociology of Health & Illness (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0141-9889 • E-ISSN: 1467-9566
EditoraWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/1467-9566.12542
PMID28236330
OpenAlexW2591100204
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas8
Referências citadas41

This study addresses two issues currently under critical discussion in the epidemiology of cardiovascular diseases (CVD), the relative neglect of women and the individualised nature of key risk factors. It focuses on the North Karelia project (NKP), a community programme aimed at coronary heart disease (CHD) prevention in a predominantly rural Finnish region in the early 1970s, that is, during a period when the epidemiological understanding of CVD still was relatively new and actively promoted. Adopting the notions of lay epidemiology and coronary candidacy, culturally mediated explanatory models lay people use to assess who is likely to develop heart disease and why, the study shows that locals targeted by the project critically engaged with both of these bias. Based on the rich materials resulting from project activities the study shows, first, how many locals subsumed the individualised and lifestyle-based approach to CHD prevention promoted by NKP under a more general framework emphasising the health effects of ongoing structural changes in the area, and second, how women constructed themselves as viable coronary candidates. The case supports the position in the current discussions on lay expertise that wants to integrate lay experiences more firmly into epidemiological studies and public health

Candidacy · Coronary heart disease · Disease · Neglect · Pathology · Political science · Public health · Epidemiology · Health Promotion and Cardiovascular Prevention · Historical and modern epidemiology studies · Medicine · Nursing · Obesity and Health Practices