A content analysis of the publications of Australian sociologists since 1960 addresses international debates over the ‘theoretical impoverishment’ of the sub-discipline of the sociology of health, illness and medicine. The results of the study offer a challenge to these concerns, pointing to a robust and constantly developing sub-field, well-integrated within the parent discipline, and characte...

Globally, traditional medicine has long been used to address relatively common illness, mental ill health and during childbirth and post-natal care. However, traditional medicine is primarily provided by the private sector and it is unclear how far expenditures on traditional medicine contribute to household impoverishment. A life history method was used to understand the health seeking experie...

Despite a high burden of surgical disease, access to surgical services in low- and middle-income countries is often limited. In line with the World Health Organization's current focus on universal health coverage and equitable access to care, we examined how policies to expand access to surgery in rural Ethiopia would impact health, impoverishment and equity. An extended cost-effectiveness anal...

Many communities in Mozambique fi nd themselves in the rural-urban interface, either Many communities in Mozambique fi nd themselves in the rural-urban interface, either by being small towns or rural areas in the vicinity of cities. There is growing evidence by being small towns or rural areas in the vicinity of cities. There is growing evidence that the households and individuals who manage to...

Despite the prevalence of poverty worldwide, little is known about how early socioeconomic adversity affects auditory brain function. Socioeconomically disadvantaged children are underexposed to linguistically and cognitively stimulating environments and overexposed to environmental toxins, including noise pollution. This kind of sensory impoverishment, we theorize, has extensive repercussions ...

The release of the new WHO guidelines on HIV and infant feeding, in a global context of widespread impoverishment, requires countries to re-examine their infant-feeding policies in relation to broader socioeconomic issues. This widening scope is necessitated by compelling new reports on the scale of global underdevelopment in developing countries. This paper explores these issues by addressing ...

In grasslands under restoration succession, the effect of nutrient impoverishment on the vegetation has been intensively studied. The invertebrate soil animal community has, however, rarely been studied under such conditions. We hypothesised that a plant community in nutrient-poor grasslands supports fewer macro-invertebrate individuals than richer grasslands. We also hypothesised that the comp...