Health Education Research, Vol. 17, No. 3, 373-374,
June 2002
© 2002 Oxford University Press
BOOK REVIEW |
Newly published books
AIDS in the Modern World, I. Edward Alcamo, Blackwell Science, Oxford, 2001, ISBN 0-632044748 (pb). Aids in the Modern World focuses on the biological basis of AIDS and HIV. The book has a simple approach to the topic and enables students to focus on the main points of HIV disease and its impact on society. The text is in an easy to read, well-organized format, yet provides detailed information. It is an appropriate text for undergraduate non-science and allied heath students. Complementing any standard textbook in courses focusing on health, human disease or in any course where the instructor wants to address both the biological and social aspects of HIV/AIDS.It is written by one of the most distinguished authors in the field of microbiology and AIDS research.
- Designed to supplement any core text in the teaching of AIDS.
- Contains detailed medical facts and medical content, which is explained in a simplified manner.
- Includes a full chapter on AIDS and society.
- Ethical issues are integrated throughout, e.g. are needle exchange programs a good idea?
The Merseyside Guidelines for Health Impact Assessment, 2nd edn, A. Scott-Samuel, M. Birley, K. Ardern and the International Health Impact Assessment Consortium, IMPACT–Department of Public Health, University of Liverpool, UK, 2001, 22 pp, ISBN 1-874038-56-2. Available online as a PDF file at: http://www.ihia.org.uk/document/merseyguide3.pdf
Rationing: Constructed Realities and Professional Practices, David Hughes and Donald Light (eds), Blackwell, Oxford, 2002, 199 pp, ISBN 0-631-22857-9-8 (pb). Under the Sociology of Health and Illness Monograph series, this volume examines health care rationing in action using recent case studies from the UK, Europe and North America. Drawing on data from a variety of hospitals and community settings, the contributors demonstrate how prioritization and access to care depend on organizational arrangements and professional practices, which are invisible to the service user.
Communication and Health in a Multi-Ethnic Society, Mark Robinson, Policy Press, Bristol 2002, 206 pp, ISBN 1-86134-341-8. Communication and cultural diversity have become key focus areas as health services engage with health improvement and equity goals. This book, by a Research Fellow at the School of Healthcare Studies at the University of Leeds in the UK, focuses on health communication interventions concerning health service users who may lack fluency in English. It highlights that meeting the needs of all service users, including disadvantaged groups, depends on both structures and processes of communication. The following areas are covered:
- Issues surrounding ethnic and cultural diversity, racism and communication.
- Barriers to effective communication.
- Interventions aimed at enhancing health care communication.
- Priorities for service development, practice and research by focusing on evidence.
A Healthy Judgement? Health and Health Care in the Netherlands in International Perspective, P. W. Achterberg, P. G. N. Kramers and E. A. Van der Wilk, National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), Bilthoven, The Netherlands, 2002, 35 pp, RIVM report 271558 005. This short publication, produced by three members of the Department for Public Health Forecasting of RIVM, analyses international comparative reports on Dutch health and health care, trends in Dutch life expectancy in a European context, and trends and causes of mortality around birth in the Netherlands. Their analyses demonstrate:
- Reasons for the stagnating decline in perinatal mortality in the Netherlands.
- The need for deeper conceptual approaches to link health to its determinants and policy implications.
- The need for good comparable data on health determinants and health care.
- The importance of lifestyles and of prevention to improve health status in the EU.
- The report concludes with recommendations for Dutch policy makers.
Drug Misuse and Motherhood, Hilary Klee, Marcia Jackson and Suzan Lewis, Routledge, London, 2002, 305 pp, ISBN 0-415-27194-0 (hb), ISBN-0-415-27195-9 (pb). Professionals in health and social services agencies have become concerned about the growing use of illicit drugs among women and, particularly, the reluctance of such women to seek help from them. It is officially recognized that drug-using women do not disclose their usage to midwifery and antenatal services.
This book gives drug-using mothers a voice, and by means of longitudinal research and in-depth interviews provides an insight into their views on family life, pregnancy, motherhood, service delivery and development. It also balances this with the viewpoints of professionals. From their analysis they discuss appropriate policy implications.
Drugs in Focus, European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA), Lisbon. EMCDDA have recently launched a new series of bimonthly policy briefings—Drugs in Focus. These 4-page briefings are aimed at policy makers to inform the policy-making process in the drugs area. Each edition includes a brief introduction to the theme, key policy issues, graphs/tables, policy considerations, web information and further reading. The first two editions focus on `Key Role of Substitution in Drug Treatment' and `Drug Users and the Law in the EU'. Other topics in 2002 include injecting drug use and risk behavior and recreational drug use. Copies can be downloaded in the 12 languages (all official EU languages and Norwegian) from the EMCDDA website: http://www.emcdda.org/infopoint/publications/focus.shtml. If any readers wish to formally review any of the above publications, please contact the Book Reviews Editor (contact details at the end of this section).
CiteULike 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us What's this?
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||