Master of Public Health - MPH / Introduction: People with mental illness (PMI) are likely to die of chronic diseases, primarily cardiovascular, cerebrovascular and respiratory diseases at a younger age compared with the general population. The side-effects of psychotropic medications particularly weight gain and impaired glucose intolerance increase the risk of premature mortality in PMI. Behavioural risk factors for non-communicable diseases such as physical inactivity and unhealthy diet (diets high in fat and low in fruit and vegetables) are also thought to be consequences of negative symptoms of mental illness and emotional dysregulation.

This research is about examining the way in which racialized environmental violence contributes to exploitative social relations becoming embedded in the everyday world. I argue that the space of the everyday has been produced through cycles of social relations proceeding from and/or tied to racialized environmental violence. I continue the work of critical scholars in asserting that social and environmental violence is linked in the same ideological impulse which seeks to hide itself behind a variety of alienating processes. The slow way in which environmental violence works is particularly impactful in these processes because of its attritional lethality, contributing to premature death. I studied these processes by examining the histories surrounding the site of a construction day labor firm in Richmond, Virginia. My methodology includes archival research on newspapers, public documents, and secondary sources establishing that the patterned co-location of social and environmental violence does not occur by chance.

Thesis (Dr. P.H.)--University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, School of Public Health, 2007. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-10, Section: B, page: 6622. Adviser: Jan Risser. Includes bibliographical references.

The study Social Change and the Fragile Heart is an analysis of contemporary history in two neighboring Swedish cities, Linköping and Norrköping. The analysis has been made from a special perspective: the changes in deaths due to heart disease in the age group 50-74 years. The differences in mortality between the two cities is a measurable way to study how well a society functions and is governed. These cities in the county of Östergötland differ historically and socially. This has led to clear differences in socio-economic conditions and even variations in health and mortality that have been to Norrköping’s disadvantage. There is an exception, the 1970’s, when the rise in the numbers of deaths due to heart disease was broken in Norrköping, while the figures continued to increase in the neighboring city, especially among men. Uneasiness about the future and opportunities to make a living grew. This may have influenced health negatively, especially among middle-aged men who feared their jobs were threatened. In Norrköping the textile industry had definitely died in the beginning of the 1970’s. The closing of this industry meant at the same time that poor working conditions and low-paid work were phased out. The earlier rising trend in deaths due to heart diseases was broken, and instead a noticeable decline occurred that was especially clear among women. Deaths due to heart disease in ages 50–74 began to decline generally in the 1980’s and sank significantly in the following decade. The difference between the cities, however, grew from the relatively equal situation of the 1970’s. These are the years during which economic and political power shifted from Norrköping to Linköping. As the regional center and a relatively new university town, Linköping survived the recession of the 1990’s rather well. Simultaneously, Norrköping suffered from what might be called a “social exhaustion depression.” During the last decade of the 20th century long-term unemployment and illness affected far more people than in Linköping. The great transformation from an industrial to a post-industrial society left its mark on Norrköping in the form of increased differences between the cities in the case of premature deaths due to heart disease.