Main description:

The health effects of psychosocial factors are a widely discussed and controversial topic. Do positive and negative emotions affect our risk of developing physical disease? Are depressive individuals more likely to have cancer than those with an optimistic outlook on life? And what is the role of IQ in staying healthy and recovering from disease? Importantly, can we improve our health and life expectancy by avoiding certain psychosocial risk factors and maximizing positive psychological well-being? These and other questions are the focus of psychosocial epidemiology, a discipline linking psychological, social and biological sciences.

The Routledge International Handbook of Psychosocial Epidemiology is the first book to map this growing discipline. Including contributions from many of the leading researchers in the field, it is divided into five sections:

Part I: Methodological challenges in studying psychosocial factors and health;

Part II: Psychosocial factors in the etiology and prognosis of chronic diseases;

Part III: Controversies in the psychosocial approach;

Part IV: Interventions and policy implications

Part V: Future research directions

Taking advantage of a huge growth in research in recent years, the book provides the reader with the essentials to evaluate the diverse set of studies on psychosocial factors and health that are published today, and describes study designs in this field of research, progress in judging the validity of epidemiological evidence, as well as challenges in translating evidence into action.

This is an important and timely book. Providing methodological rigour, critical analysis and the policy implications of this emerging field of study, The Routledge International Handbook of Psychosocial Epidemiology will be an invaluable resource for students and researchers within both behavioural and medical sciences, as well as policy makers and others working in health and social care.

Contents:

Foreword

Professor Lisa Bergman

Part I: Concepts and Methods in the Study of Psychosocial Factors and Health

Chapter 1 Psychosocial Epidemiology: Concepts and Methods

Mika Kivimaki, G. David Batty, Andrew Steptoe, Ichiro Kawachi

Chapter 2 Causal Inference in Psychosocial Epidemiology

M. Maria Glymour, Laura D. Kubzansky

Part II: Psychosocial Factors Linked to Health

Chapter 3 Social Networks

Yongjoo Kim, Ichiro Kawachi

Chapter 4 Workplace Stressors

Mika Kivimaki, Jane E. Ferrie, Ichiro Kawachi

Chapter 5 Religious Communities

Tyler J. VanderWeele

Chapter 6 Depression and Negative Emotions

Andrew Steptoe

Chapter 7 Positive Psychological Wellbeing

Julie K. Boehm, Eric S. Kim, Laura D. Kubzansky

Chapter 8 Personality, Intelligence and Genes

Michelle Luciano, Alexander Weiss, Catharine Gale, Ian J. Deary

Chapter 9 Gender Differences in the Health Effects of Psychosocial Factors

Anne McMunn et al

Part III: Psychosocial Factors in the Etiology and Prognosis of Specific Diseases and Disorders

Chapter 10 Type 2 Diabetes

Frans Pouwer, Briana Mezuk, Adam Tabak

Chapter 11 Cardiovascular Diseases

Mika Kivimaki

Chapter 12 Cancer

Katriina Heikkila, Markus Jokela

Chapter 13 Infectious Disease

Allison E. Aiello, Amanda M. Simanek, Rebecca C. Stebbins, Jennifer B. Dowd

Chapter 14 Suicide

G. David Batty, Mika Kivimaki, Steven Bell, Catherine Gale, Martin J. Shipley, Elise Whitley, David Gunnell

Chapter 15 Mood Disorders and Cognitive Impairment

Klaus P. Ebmeier, Charlotte Allen, Anya Topiwala, Eniko Zoldos

Chapter 16 Sleep Disorders

Torbjoern Akerstedt

Part IV: Interventions and Policy Implications

Chapter 17 Behavioral and Psychological Interventions for the Management of Cardiac Patients

Alan Rozanski

Chapter 18 Targeting Psychosocial Factors to Reduce Health Inequalities

Angela Donkin, Michael G. Marmot

Part V: Future Research Directions

Chapter 19 Current State of Psychosocial Epidemiology: Where Are We? What Are the Next Steps?

Mika Kivimaki, Andrew Steptoe, G. David Batty, Ichiro Kawachi