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Mapping Healthy Ageing Start-ups
Published in Goh Cheng Soon, Gerard Bodeker, Kishan Kariippanon, Healthy Ageing in Asia, 2022
There is little doubt that the global health crises in the world, brought by the COVID-19 pandemic, were exacerbated by a significant increase in the global burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in the last three decades. The number of years lived with disability (YLD) has increased between 1990 and 2017 by 61.1% according to James et al. (2018) creating synergistic health problems that affect vulnerable populations under persistent socio-economic inequities. Mendenhall et al. (2017) argue in The Lancet that ‘syndemic’ is a term that captures the best approximation of health burdens of transitioning populations, particularly in low-to-middle-income countries (LMICs). A clear example of a syndemic is the interaction of people living with diabetes in the context of persistent poverty which may include added challenges such as ‘forced migration, unemployment, gender inequality, racism and a lack of social capital’ (Corburn and Hildebrand, 2015).
COVID-19
Published in J. Michael Ryan, COVID-19, 2020
The concept of “syndemic” has become increasingly popular during the COVID-19 era. The idea of a syndemic analysis implies examining not only the health consequences of disease interactions but also how they interact with the social, cultural, economic, political, and environmental factors that promote, and worsen, disease. As the chapters in this volume demonstrate, perhaps more than a “pandemic,” COVID-19 is better thought of as a “syndemic.” The tenuous differentiation between health and society has perhaps never been so fraught.
COVID-19
Published in J. Michael Ryan, COVID-19, 2020
The concept of “syndemic” has become increasingly popular during the COVID-19 era. The idea of a syndemic analysis implies examining not only the health consequences of disease interactions but also how they interact with the social, cultural, economic, political, and environmental factors that promote, and worsen, disease. As the chapters in this volume demonstrate, perhaps more than a “pandemic,” COVID-19 is better thought of as a “syndemic.” The tenuous differentiation between health and society has perhaps never been so fraught.
Geography of Disparity: Connecting COVID-19 Vulnerability and Social Determinants of Health in Colorado
Published in Behavioral Medicine, 2022
In addition to social vulnerability, COVID-19 highlights the overlap of health risks (for example, multiple chronic conditions) in communities, that may increase vulnerability to infection and severe outcomes. Conceptually, this layer of vulnerability context reflects a broader public health problem amidst the COVID pandemic, which some have described as a syndemic.14–16 A syndemic, in contrast to an epidemic focused on one disease, describes a public health phenomenon where multiple health and disease conditions cluster in a population alongside, and sustained by, a set of adverse social, economic and structural conditions.17,18 In such an environment, the interactions among these health, disease, and social conditions are not simply co-occurring, but are synergistic because their confluence enhances the health burden of place, affecting the most vulnerable communities.17 Interest in a syndemic approach to health disparities has grown considerably in the last decade.19 In the earliest conception, Singer sought to explain HIV/AIDS patterns in urban neighborhoods, where low-income and racial and ethnic minority populations were concentrated alongside a synergism of health and social inequities. From a syndemic lens, the HIV/AIDS health burden was part a wider web of overlapping disparities, including tuberculosis, drug injection use, and poverty, which in turn reinforced one another, linked to economic austerity, neighborhood disinvestment, and racism.17,20,21
A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Combination Behavioral Interventions Co-Targeting Psychosocial Syndemics and HIV-Related Health Behaviors for Sexual Minority Men
Published in The Journal of Sex Research, 2020
David W. Pantalone, Kimberly M. Nelson, Abigail W. Batchelder, Christopher Chiu, Hamish A. Gunn, Keith J. Horvath
For many SMM, especially those with syndemic exposure, successful health behavior change interventions may need to address those syndemic factors concurrently, and in the context of the health behavior change efforts. One example about the need to address syndemics to improve health behavior intervention uptake comes from the EXPLORE study, a major U.S. behavioral HIV prevention trial for HIV-negative SMM (Mimiaga et al., 2009). Of the 4,295 enrolled participants, two-fifths reported a history of CSA and that group was at increased risk of endorsing condomless anal sex (CAS) as well as seroconversion. Further, among participants reporting CSA, the intervention showed no effect in reducing HIV infection rates compared to modest reductions in HIV risk in the sample overall. In a follow-up to that work, O’Cleirigh et al. (2019) created and tested an HIV prevention intervention for HIV-negative SMM with histories of CSA. The intervention, called THRIVE, simultaneously targets post-trauma cognitions using a standard evidence-based psychological approach alongside gold standard sexual risk reduction techniques. Results indicate significant improvements in both mental health symptoms and sexual risk behavior over and above sexual risk reduction counseling alone.
A Longitudinal Analysis of the Substance Abuse, Violence, and HIV/AIDS (SAVA) Syndemic among Women in the Criminal Justice System
Published in Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, 2019
Abenaa Acheampong Jones, Travis Gerke, Catherine W. Striley, Vicki Osborne, Nicole Whitehead, Linda B. Cottler
Syndemics are defined as two or more inseparable epidemics working synergistically to produce excessive adverse health and social consequences (Singer 1996, 2006, 2009). The intersection of substance abuse (SA), violence (V), and HIV/AIDS (A), known as the SAVA syndemic, is an anthropologic term defined as the “concurrent, intertwined, and mutually reinforcing health and social problems of substance use, violence, and HIV/AIDS” (Meyer, Springer, and Altice 2011; Singer 1996). Studies have documented the link between substance use, risky sexual behaviors, and exposure to violence (Gilbert et al. 2015; Illangasekare et al. 2013; Meyer, Springer, and Altice 2011; Russell, Eaton, and Petersen-Williams 2013; Sullivan, Messer, and Quinlivan 2015).