"You don't need a prescription to go gluten-free": The scientific self-diagnosis of celiac disease

We explore the social process of celiac disease diagnosis using fieldwork in the United States with two celiac support groups, interviews, and a virtual ethnography of an online discussion board. Distinguishing between medical diagnosis, self-diagnosis, and scientific self-diagnosis, we examine patients' varied paths to diagnosis and their attempts to legitimize symptoms as celiac disease. Web-based direct-access testing (DAT) permits patients to bypass physician requisition for testing in their diagnostic quest. While such laboratories do not diagnose disease per se, they provide the consumer with the scientific information necessary to self-diagnose. This scientific self-diagnosis grants individuals greater legitimacy for their claims of an illness identity than self-diagnosis alone, but less legitimacy than medical diagnosis. We examine the implications of scientific self-diagnosis for the social construction of diagnosis and professional and lay ways of knowing.USA Celiac disease Medical diagnosis Self-diagnosis Scientific self-diagnosis Direct-access testing

Food & Society : Principles and Paradoxes

By: Amy E. Guptil (College at Brockport faculty member), Denise A. Copelton (College at Brockport faculty member), and Betsy Lucal. This timely and engaging text offers students a social perspective on food, food practices, and the modern food system. It engages readers’ curiosity by highlighting several paradoxes: how food is both mundane and sacred, reveals both distinction and conformity, and, in the contemporary global era, comes from everywhere but nowhere in particular. With a social constructionist framework, the book provides an empirically rich, multi-faceted, and coherent introduction to this fascinating field. Each chapter begins with a vivid case study, proceeds through a rich discussion of research insights, and ends with discussion questions and suggested resources. Chapter topics include food’s role in socialization, identity, work, health and social change, as well as food marketing and the changing global food system. In synthesizing insights from diverse fields of social inquiry, the book addresses issues of culture, structure, and social inequality throughout. Written in a lively style, this book will be both accessible and revealing to beginning and intermediate students alike.https://digitalcommons.brockport.edu/bookshelf/1302/thumbnail.jp

Readings in Deviant Behavior

Edited by: Alex Thio, Thomas C. Calhoun, and former College at Brockport faculty member Addrain Conyers. Includes chapter by College at Brockport faculty member Denise A. Copelton: Eating for two : how pregnant women neutralize nutritional deviance.This collection of diverse readings represents the full range of deviance sociology, dealing with many different theories as well as data collected via different research methodologies. Designed for use as either a main text or a supplement, Readings in Deviant Behavior includes selections with high student-appeal. All of the readings have been carefully edited for clarity and conciseness to ensure that they are enjoyable and useful in helping students learn. The sixth edition features many new articles that reflect current trends.https://digitalcommons.brockport.edu/bookshelf/1179/thumbnail.jp