If you're starting with a general topic or concept and want to get an idea of how it has been or is being discussed in philosophy or science and technology studies, these reference sources are good places to start. In all of these sources, pay attention to the bibliographies! You can pick out a couple of articles that seem related to your topic and then see who they cite, and who cites those articles, if they're older ones.
Encyclopedias, textbooks, dictionaries and handbooks are also great places to start, and they can help you understand the terminology in the scientific literature if it's unfamiliar to you. Here are some that may be useful.
Here are some more subject specific resources that can also be used for background. Those with links are ebooks, and those with call numbers are physical books. You will have to go to the library physically to read or borrow the physical books.
Encyclopedia of Immigrant Health by
There is increasing interest in the scientific literature on immigrant health and its impact on disease transmission, disease prevention, health promotion, well-being on an individual and population level, health policy, and the cost of managing all these issues on an individual, institutional, national, and global level. The need for accurate and up-to-date information is particularly acute due to the increasing numbers of immigrants and refugees worldwide as the result of natural disasters, political turmoil, the growing numbers of immigrants to magnet countries, and the increasing costs of associated health care that are being felt by governments around the world. Format and Scope: The first portion of the encyclopedia contains chapters that are approximately 25 to 40 manuscript pages in length. Each overview chapter includes a list of references and suggested readings for cross referencing within the encyclopedia. The opening chapters are: Immigration in the Global Context, Immigration Processes and Health in the U.S.: A Brief History, Alternative and Complementary Medicine, Culture-Specific Diagnoses, Health Determinants, Occupational and Environmental Health, Methodological Issues in Immigrant Health Research, Ethical Issues in Research with Immigrants and Refugees, Ethical Issues in the Clinical Context. The second portion of the book consists of alphabetical entries that relate to the health of immigrants. Entries are interdisciplinary and are drawn from the following fields of study: anthropology, demographics, history, law, linguistics, medicine, population studies, psychology, religion, and sociology. Each entry is followed by a listing of suggested readings and suggested resources, and also links to related terms within the whole book. Outstanding Features The book adopts a biopsychosocial-historical approach to the topics covered in the chapters and the entries. Each entry includes suggested readings and suggested resources. The chapters and entries are written graduate level that is accessible to all academics, researchers, and professionals from diverse backgrounds. We consider the audience for the entries to be well educated, but a non expert in this area. The primary focus of the book is on the immigrant populations in and immigration to magnet countries. References are made to worldwide trends and issues arising globally. In addition to the comprehensive subject coverage the text also offers diverse perspectives. The editors themselves reflect the multidisciplinary nature of the topics, with expertise in psychiatry, law, epidemiology, anthropology, and social work. Authors similarly reflect diverse disciplines.
Handbook of Health and Well-Being: Challenges, Strategies and Future Trends by 
Health Insurance by
Health insurance is the machinery that makes the financing of the US health system run. But what's going on under the hood? Health Insurance helps readers learn the underlying assumptions, facts, and variables that drive decision-making and choices on the payer side. Picking up where introductory economics courses often leave off, the book presents the foundational economic principles of health insurance to clarify insurance-related policy and management issues. Author Michael A. Morrisey clearly explains complex concepts such as adverse selection, moral hazard, managed care, and employer-sponsored health insurance. Also addressed are risk adjustment, demand, health savings accounts, selective contracting, the diversity of health insurance markets, and the functioning of Medicare and Medicaid. The book is distinguished by its in-depth discussion of research in health insurance, both cutting edge and classic. This third edition has been substantially revised to reflect the rapid evolution of the healthcare field stemming from the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Throughout, data used are the most recent available. New elements include: An all-new chapter on the ACA Deep revisions to chapters on insurance coverage; insurance market structure, conduct and performance; and the individual market New sections on the ACA's risk adjustment and transitional adjustment mechanisms, the Oregon Medicaid experiment, wellness programs, interstate competition, and private health insurance exchanges Fresh data on health savings accounts and consumer-directed, high-deductible plans Inclusion of tax law changes in the ACA and in the 2018 tax reforms An explanation of modified adjusted gross income, a new approach to defining eligibility Though health insurance has been a major player in the American healthcare system for decades, it's hardly static. This new edition of Health Insurance keeps pace with the changes while also offering a thorough foundation on the basics.
The Oxford Handbook of Stigma, Discrimination, and Health by
Stigma leads to poorer health. Edited by Brenda Major, John F. Dovidio, and Bruce G. Link, The Oxford Handbook of Stigma, Discrimination, and Health provides compelling evidence from various disciplines in support of this thesis and explains how and why health disparities exist and persist.Stigmatization involves distinguishing people by a socially conferred "mark," seeing them as deviant, and devaluing and socially excluding them. The core insight of this book is that the social processes of stigma reliably translate into the biology of disease and death. Contributors elucidate thisinsight by showing exactly how stigma negatively affects health and creates health disparities through multiple mechanisms operating at different levels of influence.Understanding the causes and consequences of health disparities requires a multi-level analysis that considers structural forces, psychological processes, and biological mechanisms. This volume's unique multidisciplinary approach brings together social and health psychologists, sociologists, publichealth scholars, and medical ethicists to comprehensively assess stigma's impact on health. It goes beyond the common practice of studying one stigmatized group at a time to examine the stigma-health link across multiple stigmatized groups. This broad, multidisciplinary framework not onlyilluminates the significant effects stigma has when aggregated across the health of many groups but also increases understanding of which stigma processes are general across groups and which are particular to specific groups.Here, a compendium of leading international experts point readers toward potential policy responses and possibilities for intervention as well as to the large gaps in understanding that remain. This book is the definitive source of scholarship on stigma and physical health for established andemerging scholars, practitioners, and students in psychology, sociology, public health, medicine, law, political science, geography, and the allied disciplines.
Routledge International Handbook of Delinquency and Health by
The Routledge International Handbook of Delinquency and Health presents state-of-the-art research and theorizing on the intersections between health, delinquency, and the juvenile justice system. Organized into three parts--Theoretical and Empirical Foundations; Behavioral, Mental, and Physical Health Conditions; and Prevention, Policy, and Health Promotion Systems--it is the largest and most comprehensive work of its kind, featuring contributions from scholars from multiple nations and global regions. A growing number of researchers, practitioners, and policymakers from criminology and criminal justice, social work, medicine, psychiatry and psychology, and other health science disciplines engage with marginalized adolescent populations who are at elevated risk for violence and delinquency, alcohol and other drug use, health and mental health problems, and other difficulties directly related to public safety and well-being. These risk factors often lead to short-term (e.g., detention, juvenile residential treatment facilities) and long-term (e.g., prison, parole) contact with the criminal justice system. As these fields increasingly overlap, the distinctions between them are blurred. Sound decision-making in the juvenile justice system depends on adequate research and policy at the intersection of delinquency and health.　 This volume represents an agenda-setting scholarly resource for the expansion of research and policy-making across the international delinquency and health continuum, and will be an essential resource for all who study or work in the field.
Break the Cycle of Environmental Health Disparities by
With ten Paediatric Environmental Health Specialty Units (PEHSUs) around the United States, and a few more in other countries, the prenatal field has grown significantly over time. The PEHSUs have each developed and cultivated their own specialties, styles, collaborations, partnerships and special outreach programs such as the Southeast PEHSU's Break the Cycle program. "Break the Cycle" is an annual mentor/mentee that has been around since 2005. It brings the efforts among students of all disciplines focused on increasing the understanding disparities in environmental conditions and resulting health outcomes. "Break the Cycle" has grown in influence and geography, with an increasing number of student researchers participating each year. As a testament to its deep reach and inspiration, some of these students have changed their academic focus and professional goals following their participation in Break the Cycle, bringing to the field of children's environmental health the numbers, passion and commitment necessary to address complex issues. This compilation presents important prenatal exposure research accomplished through this PEHSU mentorship program. The compilation demonstrates the enormous breadth and interactions between social, chemical and biological issues exemplified by the need to understand how, for example, the built environment might affect birth weight, how air pollution might affect behaviour or how growth and development of males is affected by exposure to brominated flame retardants. These are the kinds of questions that stretch our minds and give us an appreciation of science, health, society and equity. In due course, the experiences of students and mentors in Break the Cycle builds a cadre of enlightened and motivated participants in the effort to promote/pursue the best environments for the children of today, tomorrow and generations to come.
Babylost by
The U.S. infant mortality rate is among the highest in the industrialized world, and Black babies are far more likely than white babies to die in their first year of life. Maternal mortality rates are also very high. Though the infant mortality rate overall has improved over the past century with public health interventions, racial disparities have not. Racism, poverty, lack of access to health care, and other causes of death have been identified, but not yet adequately addressed. The tragedy is twofold: it is undoubtedly tragic that babies die in their first year of life, and it is both tragic and unacceptable that most of these deaths are preventable. Despite the urgency of the problem, there has been little public discussion of infant loss. The question this book takes up is not why babies die; we already have many answers to this question. It is, rather, who cares that babies, mostly but not only Black and Native American babies, are dying before their first birthdays? More importantly, what are we willing to do about it? This book tracks social and cultural dimensions of infant death through 58 alphabetical entries, from Absence to ZIP Code. It centers women's loss and grief, while also drawing attention to dimensions of infant death not often examined. It is simultaneously a sociological study of infant death, an archive of loss and grief, and a clarion call for social change.
