As the Amish population is growing, researcher and practitioner interest in the Amish health culture is also growing. This is largely due to demand from practitioners for population-specific cultural guidance. Once a small area of study, health-themed publications in Amish studies (n = 246) now account for approximately one-fourth of all peer-reviewed publications, and a sizeable percentage address the health culture, i.e. Amish beliefs, practices, attitudes, decision-making processes, financing, and values. In this article, we provide a first-ever exhaustive narrative review of the Amish health culture literature (addressing Amish health conditions elsewhere). Specifically, we address Amish use of modern medicine, complementary & alternative medicine, cultural norms for birthing and intercourse, support and care for the sick and aged, health knowledge, payment for services, barriers to service access, service provider effectiveness, health programming, and ethical conflicts. Our goal is to organize the literature, synthesize findings, identify orienting perspectives, and clarify research questions and directions. Following our synthesis, we reflect on the current state of Amish health culture research, drawing particular attention to strengths and limitations of the oft-used cultural competency paradigm, and recommending more rigorous social scientific theorization of the Amish health culture.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
---|---|
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8431948 | PMC |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.113466 | DOI Listing |
Alzheimers Dement
December 2024
Departments of Genetics and Genome Sciences, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, USA.
Introduction: Recently, the O-6-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase (MGMT) locus was proposed as influencing the risk of Alzheimer's disease (AD) in women who did not carry the apolipoprotein E ε4 allele. We examined an Amish founder population for any influence of genetic variation in and around the MGMT locus on the risk for dementia.
Methods: Genetic association was performed for single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) surrounding the MGMT locus.
J Community Health
December 2024
Division of Genetics, Metabolism, and Genomic Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
The Amish are a rapidly growing Christian ethnoreligious group located in the U.S. and Canada.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Affect Disord
March 2025
Intramural Research Program, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA. Electronic address:
Background: Bipolar disorder (BD) presents with a wide range of symptoms that vary among relatives, casting doubt on categorical illness models. To address this uncertainty, we investigated the heritability and genetic relationships between categorical and dimensional models of BD in a family sample.
Methods: This retrospective study included participants (n = 397 Females, n = 329 Males, mean age 47 yr) in the Amish-Mennonite Bipolar Genetics (AMBiGen) study from North and South America that were assigned categorical mood disorder diagnoses ("narrow" or "broad") by structured psychiatric interview and completed the Mood Disorder Questionnaire (MDQ), which assesses lifetime history of manic symptoms and associated impairment.
Purpose: To evaluate ocular treatment adherence and its impact on clinical outcomes in patients with cystinosis in southwestern Ontario, where the disease incidence is higher due to a founder effect in the Old Order Amish population.
Methods: This was a retrospective case series of patients with ocular cystinosis seen at Victoria Hospital and the Ivey Eye Institute at St Joseph's Health Care in London, Ontario, Canada, from 2008 to 2023. The authors investigated the demographics, ocular manifestations, and visual outcomes and characteristics in pediatric patients with ocular cystinosis.
Hum Brain Mapp
December 2024
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Texas, Health Science Center Houston, Houston, Texas, USA.
National and international biobanking efforts led to the collection of large and inclusive imaging genetics datasets that enable examination of the contribution of genetic and environmental factors to human brains in illness and health. High-resolution neuroimaging (~10 voxels) and genetic (10 single nucleotide polymorphic [SNP] variants) data are available in statistically powerful (N = 10) epidemiological and disorder-focused samples. Performing imaging genetics analyses at full resolution afforded in these datasets is a formidable computational task even under the assumption of unrelatedness among the subjects.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!