https://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lancet/PIIS0140-6736(07)61238-0.pdf

No health without mental health.

Developmental potential in the first 5 years for children in developing countries

Chapter 1: An Introduction to McDonaldization McDonald's as an American and a Global Icon The Long Arm of McDonaldization The Dimensions of McDonaldization Critique of McDonaldization: The Irrationality of Rationality Illustrating the Dimensions of McDonaldization: The Case of Ikea The Advantages of McDonaldization What Isn't McDonaldized? A Look Ahead Chapter 2: The Past, Present, and Future of McDonaldization: From the Iron Cage to the Fast-Food Factory and Beyond Bureaucratization: Making Life More Rational The Holocaust: Mass-Produced Death Scientific Management: Finding the One Best Way The Assembly Line: Turning Workers Into Robots Levittown: Putting Up Houses? Boom, Boom, Boom? Shopping Centers: Malling America McDonald's: Creating the "Fast-Food Factory" McDonaldization and Contemporary Social Changes Chapter 3: Efficiency and Calculability Drive-Throughs and Finger Foods Streamlining the Process Simplifying the Product Putting Customers to Work Calculability: Big Macs and Little Chips Emphasizing Quantity Rather Than Quality of Products Reducing Production and Service to Numbers Chapter 4: Predictability and Control Predictability: It Never Rains on Those Little Houses on the Hillside Creating Predictable Settings Scripting Interaction With Customers Making Employee Behavior Predictable Creating Predictable Products and Processes Minimizing Danger and Unpleasantness Control: Human and Nonhuman Robots Controlling Employees Controlling Customers Controlling the Process and the Product The Ultimate Examples of Control: Birth and Death? Chapter 5: The Irrationality of Rationality: Traffic Jams on Those "Happy Trails" Inefficiency: Long Lines at the Checkout High Cost: Better Off at Home False Friendliness: "Hi, George" Disenchantment: Where's the Magic? Health and Environmental Hazards: A Day's Calories in One Fast Food Meal Homogenization: It's No Different in Paris Dehumanization: Getting Hosed at "Trough and Brew" Chapter 6: Dealing with McDonaldization: A Practical Guide Creating "Reasonable" Alternatives: Sometimes You Really Do Have to Break the Rules Fighting Back Collectively: Saving Hearts, Minds, Taste Buds, and the Piazza Di Spagna Coping Individually: "Skunk Works," Blindfolded Children, and Fantasy Worlds Some Concluding Thoughts Chapter 7: Globalization and the Possibility of the DeMcDonaldization of Society? Globalization and McDonaldization The DeMcDonaldization of Society The Internet and DeMcDonaldization Bibliography Notes Index

The McDonaldization of Society

Essential Medical Statistics

https://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lancet/PIIS0140-6736(07)60076-2.pdf

Child development: risk factors for adverse outcomes in developing countries

Background This paper discusses appropriate strategies for multivariate data analysis in epidemiological studies. Methods In studies where determinants of disease are sought, it is suggested that the complex hierarchical inter-relationships between these determinants are best managed through the use of conceptual frameworks. Failure to take these aspects into consideration is common in the epidemiological literature and leads to underestimation of the effects of distal determinants. Results An example of this analytical approach, which is not based purely on statistical associations, is given for assessing determinants of mortality due to diarrhoea in children. Conclusions Conceptual frameworks provide guidance for the use of multivariate techniques and aid the interpretation of their results in the light of social and biological knowledge.

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The role of conceptual frameworks in epidemiological analysis: a hierarchical approach.

Study objective: The concept of social capital has influenced mental health policies of nations and international organisations despite its limited evidence base. This papers aims to systematically review quantitative studies examining the association between social capital and mental illness. Design and setting: Twenty electronic databases and the reference sections of papers were searched to identify published studies. Authors of papers were contacted for unpublished work. Anonymised papers were reviewed by the authors of this paper. Papers with a validated mental illness outcome and an exposure variable agreed as measuring social capital were included. No limitations were put on date or language of publication. Main results: Twenty one studies met the inclusion criteria for the review. Fourteen measured social capital at the individual level and seven at an ecological level. The former offered evidence for an inverse relation between cognitive social capital and common mental disorders. There was moderate evidence for an inverse relation between cognitive social capital and child mental illness, and combined measures of social capital and common mental disorders. The seven ecological studies were diverse in methodology, populations investigated, and mental illness outcomes, making them difficult to summarise. Conclusions: Individual and ecological social capital may measure different aspects of the social environment. Current evidence is inadequate to inform the development of specific social capital interventions to combat mental illness.

https://jech.bmj.com/content/jech/59/8/619.full.pdf

Social capital and mental illness: a systematic review

Epidemiological studies often require measures of socio-economic position (SEP). The application of principal components analysis (PCA) to data on asset-ownership is one popular approach to household SEP measurement. Proponents suggest that the approach provides a rational method for weighting asset data in a single indicator, captures the most important aspect of SEP for health studies, and is based on data that are readily available and/or simple to collect. However, the use of PCA on asset data may not be the best approach to SEP measurement. There remains concern that this approach can obscure the meaning of the final index and is statistically inappropriate for use with discrete data. In addition, the choice of assets to include and the level of agreement between wealth indices and more conventional measures of SEP such as consumption expenditure remain unclear. We discuss these issues, illustrating our examples with data from the Malawi Integrated Household Survey 2004–5. Wealth indices were constructed using the assets on which data are collected within Demographic and Health Surveys. Indices were constructed using five weighting methods: PCA, PCA using dichotomised versions of categorical variables, equal weights, weights equal to the inverse of the proportion of households owning the item, and Multiple Correspondence Analysis. Agreement between indices was assessed. Indices were compared with per capita consumption expenditure, and the difference in agreement assessed when different methods were used to adjust consumption expenditure for household size and composition. All indices demonstrated similarly modest agreement with consumption expenditure. The indices constructed using dichotomised data showed strong agreement with each other, as did the indices constructed using categorical data. Agreement was lower between indices using data coded in different ways. The level of agreement between wealth indices and consumption expenditure did not differ when different consumption equivalence scales were applied. This study questions the appropriateness of wealth indices as proxies for consumption expenditure. The choice of data included had a greater influence on the wealth index than the method used to weight the data. Despite the limitations of PCA, alternative methods also all had disadvantages.

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Issues in the construction of wealth indices for the measurement of socio-economic position in low-income countries

https://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lancet/PIIS0140-6736(00)03159-7.pdf

Sharon Huttly

Papers

The role of conceptual frameworks in epidemiological analysis: a hierarchical approach.

Social capital and mental illness: a systematic review

Issues in the construction of wealth indices for the measurement of socio-economic position in low-income countries

Effect of community-based peer counsellors on exclusive breastfeeding practices in Dhaka, Bangladesh: a randomised controlled trial

Social capital and mental health: A comparative analysis of four low income countries