Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Aug 1;9(8):327-334.
doi: 10.15171/ijhpm.2019.101.

Medicalization Defined in Empirical Contexts - A Scoping Review

Wieteke van Dijk  1 , Marjan J Meinders  1 , Marit A C Tanke  1 , Gert P Westert  1 , Patrick P T Jeurissen  1
Affiliations

Medicalization Defined in Empirical Contexts - A Scoping Review

Wieteke van Dijk et al. Int J Health Policy Manag. .

Abstract

Background: Medicalization has been a topic of discussion and research for over four decades. It is a known concept to researchers from a broad range of disciplines. Medicalization appears to be a concept that speaks to all, suggesting a shared understanding of what it constitutes. However, conceptually, the definition of medicalization has evolved over time. It is unknown how the concept is applied in empirical research, therefore following research question was answered: How is medicalization defined in empirical research and how do the definitions differ from each other?

Methods: We performed a scoping review on the empirical research on medicalization. The 5 steps of a scoping review were followed: (1) Identifying the research question; (2) Identifying relevant studies; (3) Inclusion and exclusion criteria; (4) Charting the data; and (5) Collating, summarizing and reporting the results. The screening of 3027 papers resulted in the inclusion of 50 empirical studies in the review.

Results: The application of the concept of medicalization within empirical studies proved quite diverse. The used conceptual definitions could be divided into 10 categories, which differed from each other subtly though importantly. The ten categories could be placed in a framework, containing two axes. The one axe represents a continuum from value neutral definitions to value laden definitions. The other axe represents a continuum from a micro to a macro perspective on medicalization.

Conclusion: This review shows that empirical research on medicalization is quite heterogeneous in its definition of the concept. This reveals the richness and complexity of medicalization, once more, but also hinders the comparability of studies. Future empirical research should pay more attention to the choice made with regard to the definition of medialization and its applicability to the context of the study.

Keywords: Definitions in Epirical Use; Medicalization; Scoping Review.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 2
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Davis JE. Medicalization, Social Control, and the Relief of Suffering. In: Cockerham W, ed. The New Blackwell Company to Medical Sociology. Singapore: John Wiley & Sons Ltd; 2010:211-241.
    1. Busfield J. The concept of medicalisation reassessed. Sociol Health Illn. 2017;39(5):759–774. doi: 10.1111/1467-9566.12538. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Zola IK. Medicine as an institution of social control. Sociol Rev. 1972;20(4):487–504. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-954X.1972.tb00220.x. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Illich I. Limit to Medicine. Medical Nemesis: the Expropriation of Health. London - New York: Marion Boyars; 1995 [1976].
    1. Barker KK. A ship upon a stormy sea: the medicalization of pregnancy. Soc Sci Med. 1998;47(8):1067–1076. doi: 10.1016/s0277-9536(98)00155-5. - DOI - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources