Degendered care and the biomedicalization of masculinity after myocardial infarction
A qualitative analysis exploring Swedish healthcare professionals’ perspectives
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 19472630 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jesper Andreasson (0000-0003-1631-6475, Linnaeus University, corresponding author), Thomas Johansson (0000-0003-1798-570X), Carina Danemalm Jägervall (Alstom (Sweden)), Anna Strömberg (0009-0002-6719-4535, Linköping University) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Pages | 13634593261422512-13634593261422512 |
| Publication date | 2026-02-18 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Health An Interdisciplinary Journal for the Social Study of Health Illness and Medicine (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1363-4593 • E-ISSN: 1461-7196 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/13634593261422512 |
| PMID | 41705317 |
| OpenAlex | W7130308787 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 44 |
This study investigates the interplay between biomedical practices and sociocultural constructs of gender and masculinity in shaping healthcare professionals’ (HCPs) understandings of myocardial infarction (MI) and MI patients. Theoretically, the study departed from the ongoing reframing of healthcare in Sweden and internationally, whereby the medical gaze is transformed into biomedicalization. The findings show that the dominance of biomedical perspectives serves to create certain norms regarding how bodies and illness are to be treated, bringing a strong focus to person-centered care, and to patients’ own moral responsibility to adhere to medical advice. The expansion of individualized perspectives – the construction of “biological citizens” – however, also entails a risk of creating a false sense of universality, whereby social and cultural aspects of illness are made invisible. Even though some HCPs describe MI as a “male disease,” patients are largely constructed as gender-neutral. The dominance of biomedicalization serves to obscure opportunities to think through the connections between risk factors, gender/masculinity, and MI. Accordingly, the healthcare system and HCPs working in MI care may fail to account for how diverse gender scripts and cultural dynamics might contribute to form patients’ experiences, care seeking behavior and adherence with medical advice in rehabilitation
Cognitive reframing · Dominance (genetics) · Focus group · Health care · Masculinity · Qualitative research · Sociocultural evolution · Sociology of health and illness · Acute Myocardial Infarction Research · Gender Roles and Identity Studies · Sex and Gender in Healthcare
Global, regional, and national comparative risk assessment of 84 behavioural, environmental and occupational, and metabolic risks or clusters of risks, 1990–2016
ESC Guidelines on cardiovascular disease prevention in clinical practice
Thematic Analysis
Foucault and medicine
The Politics of Life Itself
Reflecting on reflexive thematic analysis
Repositioning biological citizenship
Husbands' Hearts and Women's Health
Recovery From Heart Attack, Biomedicalization, and the Production of a Contingent Health Citizenship
Using thematic analysis in psychology
The promises and limitations of gender-transformative health programming with men
Intersectionality and risk for ischemic heart disease in Sweden
I'm No Superman
Informing health? Negotiating the logics of choice and care in everyday practices of 'healthy living
Women's health, men's health, and gender and health
Masculinity as plasticity
De-Gendering Practice/Practicing De-Gendering
Men, Masculinities and Heart Disease
Class-based masculinity, cardiovascular health and rehabilitation
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |