Public Health and Social Change

A special issue of Social Sciences (ISSN 2076-0760).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 1 August 2025 | Viewed by 1748

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Faculty in Behavioral and Community Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15261, USA
Interests: community-engaged evaluation and research, especially using qualitative and mixed methods, and health equity for populations by income, gender, race ethnicity, sexuality, rurality and disability

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Guest Editor
Faculty in Behavioral and Community Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15261, USA
Interests: the role of geographic mobility in people’s access to care, the environments in which they live and work, and their health care utilization; the impact of other social determinants of health, including gender inequity, on people’s health outcomes; the innovative use of participatory and qualitative and mixed methods research methodologies to improve health research and practice

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue will focus on the ways to improve community health and address health inequities through a commitment to social justice. Social and structural determinants impact communities’ access to health care, the quality of health care, and health outcomes.  Determinants such as housing and education are themselves impacted by determinants of income and historical discrimination.  As worse health outcomes for structurally marginalized communities have been increasingly recognized, the importance of addressing disparities has become clearer.  We welcome contributions that aim for a deeper understanding of the connections between specific determinants and health outcomes, especially when coupled with intervention approaches and efforts to reduce health inequities.  Work that engages diverse perspectives and community partners is encouraged, and approaches using qualitative, mixed, and/or community engaged methods will be prioritized. Contributions that provide evidence for or suggest specific action and policy implications will be especially welcome, as will evaluations of community-engaged projects designed to address inequities. Special attention will be given to manuscripts that describe engaging marginalized communities to build equitable partnerships, define problems, set priorities, craft solutions, or showcase effective interventions.

Dr. Thistle I. Elias
Dr. Zoé Mistrale Hendrickson
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • health disparities
  • health equity
  • community engaged
  • social justice
  • qualitative
  • mixed methods
  • marginalized communities
  • vulnerable populations
  • social determinants of health
  • evaluation

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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10 pages, 220 KiB  
Perspective
Structural Competency and the Medical Learning Environment—An Overdue Paradigm Shift in Medical Education
by Iman F. Hassan, Rebecca Leeds, Ijeoma Nnodim Opara, Thuy D. Bui, Sharon E. Connor, Sejal Shah and Shwetha Iyer
Soc. Sci. 2025, 14(6), 356; https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci14060356 - 3 Jun 2025
Viewed by 1209
Abstract
Structural competency (SC) is a framework that assists clinicians in naming and analyzing the structural drivers that fundamentally contribute to morbidity and mortality. Undergraduate and graduate medical education is grounded in the experiential learning model where trainees learn through supervised, hands-on, real-world training [...] Read more.
Structural competency (SC) is a framework that assists clinicians in naming and analyzing the structural drivers that fundamentally contribute to morbidity and mortality. Undergraduate and graduate medical education is grounded in the experiential learning model where trainees learn through supervised, hands-on, real-world training and caring for patients within hospital and clinic settings. However, our present-day clinical settings fail to create a learning environment in which SC skills can be effectively taught and operationalized. The SC framework is designed to engender praxis, but to make this move upstream, healthcare institutions and medical education leaders need to do more to adapt their learning environment. We posit five elements and associated key actions that are essential to an SC learning environment: (1) the structural analysis of institutional policies and practices; (2) academic freedom and interdisciplinary discourse; (3) redefining medical education standards and metrics; (4) collective action to drive effect change; and (5) community integration and accountability. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Public Health and Social Change)
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