Saffran Lise
Correspondence to Lise Saffran, University of Missouri Master of Public Health Program, 805 Lewis Hall, Columbia, MO 65203, USA;
Med Humanit. 2014 Dec;40(2):105-10. doi: 10.1136/medhum-2014-010502. Epub 2014 May 5.
Humanities in health has until now been primarily understood to mean humanities in medicine and has generally failed to include public health. I will argue in this paper that the common justifications for the former--including increased empathy among practitioners--are at least as applicable, if not more, to the latter. Growing emphasis on the social determinants of health and cultural competency in public health require public health students and professionals to develop a nuanced understanding of the influence of social context on health behaviour and to empathise with people in difficult circumstances. Literary fiction has been demonstrated to have an impact on skills related to empathy and social intelligence. Further, translating epidemiological evidence into public policy is a core task of public health and there is a growing body of research to indicate that statistical evidence is more persuasive when combined with narrative evidence. In this article I explore similarities and differences between proposed humanities in public health and programmes in humanities in medicine and highlight research gaps and possible implications of a more expansive view of humanities in health.
迄今为止，健康领域的人文学科主要被理解为医学领域的人文学科，通常未将公共卫生涵盖在内。在本文中，我将论证，前者的常见理由——包括增强从业者的同理心——至少同样适用于后者，甚至更适用于后者。公共卫生领域对健康的社会决定因素和文化能力的日益重视，要求公共卫生专业的学生和从业人员深入理解社会环境对健康行为的影响，并对处于困境中的人们产生同理心。文学小说已被证明对与同理心和社会智力相关的技能有影响。此外，将流行病学证据转化为公共政策是公共卫生的一项核心任务，越来越多的研究表明，统计证据与叙事证据相结合时更具说服力。在本文中，我探讨了公共卫生领域拟议的人文学科与医学领域人文学科项目之间的异同，并强调了研究差距以及对健康领域人文学科更广泛观点可能产生的影响。
