Sungwon Yoon

The illusion of righteousness: corporate social responsibility practices of the alcohol industry.

BackgroundCorporate social responsibility (CSR) has become an integral element of how the alcohol industry promotes itself. The existing analyses of CSR in the alcohol industry point to the misleading nature of these CSR practices. Yet, research has been relatively sparse on how the alcohol industry advances CSR in an attempt to facilitate underlying business interests, and in what ways the ongoing display of industry CSR impacts public health. This paper aims to investigate the alcohol industry’s recent CSR engagements and explain how CSR forms part of the industry’s wider political and corporate strategies.MethodsOur study used qualitative methods to collect and analyse data. We searched for materials pertaining to CSR activities from websites of three transnational alcohol corporations, social media platforms, media reports and other sources. Relevant documents were thematically analysed with an iterative approach.ResultsOur analysis identified three CSR tactics employed by the alcohol companies which are closely tied in with the industry’s underlying corporate intents. First, the alcohol manufacturers employ CSR as a means to frame issues, define problems and guide policy debates. In doing this, the alcohol companies are able to deflect and shift the blame from those who manufacture and promote alcoholic products to those who consume them. Second, the alcohol corporations promote CSR initiatives on voluntary regulation in order to delay and offset alcohol control legislation. Third, the alcohol corporations undertake philanthropic sponsorships as a means of indirect brand marketing as well as gaining preferential access to emerging alcohol markets.ConclusionsThe increasing penetration and involvement of the alcohol industry into CSR highlights the urgent needs for public health counter actions. Implementation of any alcohol control measures should include banning or restricting the publicity efforts of the industry’s CSR and informing the public of the alcohol industry’s notion of social responsibility. More significantly, an internationally binding instrument should be called for to enable countries to differentiate between genuine concerns and spurious altruism, and in doing so, resist the industry’s attempt to erode alcohol control.

The alcohol industry lobby and Hong Kong’s zero wine and beer tax policy

BackgroundWhereas taxation on alcohol is becoming an increasingly common practice in many countries as part of overall public health measures, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government is bucking the trend and lowered its duties on wine and beer by 50 percent in 2007. In 2008, Hong Kong removed all duties on alcohol except for spirits. The aim of this paper is to examine the case of Hong Kong with its history of changes in alcohol taxation to explore the factors that have driven such an unprecedented policy evolution.MethodsThe research is based on an analysis of primary documents. Searches of official government documents, alcohol-related industry materials and other media reports on alcohol taxation for the period from 2000 to 2008 were systematically carried out using key terms such as “alcohol tax” and “alcohol industry”. Relevant documents (97) were indexed by date and topic to undertake a chronological and thematic analysis using Nvivo8 software.ResultsOur analysis demonstrates that whereas the city’s changing financial circumstances and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government’s strong propensity towards economic liberalism had, in part, contributed to such dramatic transformation, the alcohol industry’s lobbying tactics and influence were clearly the main drivers of the policy decision. The alcohol industry’s lobbying tactics were two-fold. The first was to forge a coalition encompassing a range of catering and trade industries related to alcohol as well as industry-friendly lawmakers so that these like-minded actors could find common ground in pursuing changes to the taxation policy. The second was to deliberately promote a blend of ideas to garner support from the general public and to influence the perception of key policy makers.ConclusionsOur findings suggest that the success of aggressive industry lobbying coupled with the absence of robust public health advocacy was the main driving force behind the unparalleled abolition of wine and beer duties in Hong Kong. Strong public health alliance and advocacy movement are needed to counteract the industry’s continuing aggressive lobby and promotion of alcoholic beverages.

Comparing the meanings of living with advanced breast cancer between women resilient to distress and women with persistent distress: a qualitative study

Most women with advanced breast cancer (ABC) show little distress, but about one in ten show persistent distress over time. It remains unclear if meanings ascribed by patients to ABC differentiate these distress trajectories.

Workplace Health Promotion: Assessing the Cardiopulmonary Risks of the Construction Workforce in Hong Kong.

Objective Health needs of different employee subgroups within an industry can differ. We report the results of a workplace cardiopulmonary risk assessment targeting workers and support staff in the construction industry. Methods A free worksite-based cardiopulmonary risk assessment for 1,903 workers on infrastructural contracts across Hong Kong was initiated in May 2014. Cardiopulmonary risk screening was performed in 60-minute blocks for approximately 30 workers/block with individualized feedback and lifestyle counseling. Risk profiles stratified by occupational roles are differentiated using the χ2-test for categorical and Student’s t-test for continuous variables. Results Most construction workers and clerks/professionals were male (83.2% and 71.2%, respectively) and Chinese (78.7% and 90.9%, respectively). Construction workers were older (mean: 44.9 years, SD 11.5) and less well-educated (6.1% received tertiary education) than clerks/professionals (35.0 years, 10.7; 72.6% received tertiary education), but more likely to be hypertensive (22.6% vs. 15.4%, p<0.001), overweight/obese (71.7% vs. 56.6%, p<0.001), centrally obese (53.1% vs. 35.5%, p<0.001), and have undesirable levels of high-density lipoprotein (41.6% vs. 35.8%, p<0.05) and diabetic levels of non-fasting blood glucose (4.3% vs. 1.6%, p<0.05). Up to 12.6% of construction workers and 9.7% of office clerks/professions had three or more metabolic syndrome risk factors. While construction workers were more likely than clerks/professionals to be daily smokers, they reported better work-related physical activity and diet. Conclusions Simple worksite health risk screening can identify potentially high-cardiopulmonary-risk construction industry employee subgroups for onward confirmatory referral. Separate cardiopulmonary health promotion strategies that account for the varying lifestyle profiles of the two employee subgroups in the industry appear justified.

Communicative characteristics of interactions between surgeons and Chinese women with breast cancer in oncology consultation: a conversation analysis

While previous studies have analysed features of interaction in cancer consultations using observational coding frames, relatively little attention is being given to how actual interactions are sequentially organized and achieved by participants in the course of talk‐in‐interaction. Research into the interactional practices in consultations, which involves Chinese patients, is largely absent.

Ideas, Institutions, and Interests in the Global Governance of Epidemics in Asia

Recent policy debates provide mounting evidence that global governance of epidemics in Asia is evolving with the rise of new actors, agendas, and programs to address the transnational nature of public health emergencies. However, there have been relatively few studies that address the question of why certain public health approaches are preferred. Drawing on the case studies of severe acute respiratory syndrome and H5N1 avian influenza, this article sets out to answer 2 questions about global governance of epidemics in Asia: What set of ideas characterizes the form of global governance of epidemics in Asia? Why does it prevail while other alternatives fall by the wayside? The central argument in this article is that the global public health agenda and action by policy communities are not only shaped by empirical realities of public health but are also the result of the contending sets of interests and concerns.

The Role of Epistemic Communities in the Global Response to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome: Implications for Global Health Governance

The aim of this thesis was to understand the role of epistemic communities in the global response to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), through the theoretical lens of Social Constructivism, in order to explain the extent to which ideational factors and normative power constructed through them contributed to the shaping of Global Health Governance (GHG) surrounding infectious disease outbreaks. The methodology of this thesis combined key informants interviews with archival document‐based research. Archival research consisted of gathering and reviewing government documents, publications of intergovernmental organizations, media reports, press briefings, and policy papers. Discourse analysis was employed to systematically examine the wide range of data gathered. The thesis explored how different discourses have driven the changes in public health reasoning and practice, in the form of prioritisation of certain actions in the global response to SARS at various points in time. In order to show the ideational shifts over time, the SARS story was divided into three key phases in terms of the progress of the outbreak. This thesis finds that the global response to the SARS outbreak over three phases was shaped by contestation among various discourses, which framed the perceived priority issues and policy responses pursued. These ideas did not simply arise as governing norms, but ideational success occurred as a result of collective advancement by actors who were coalesced around particular policy ideas. The thesis provided an account of the interplay between policy ideas and key actors, in the form of epistemic communities, and how epistemic communities served as key sources of advice to policy making during the SARS outbreak. The thesis demonstrates that in many ways, the GHG of SARS mirrored, the GHG of other global health issues in terms of framing of issues and the actors in the formation of and justification for interests in global health. By illustrating the origins and significance of the multiplicity of ideas shaping collective action on SARS, this thesis underscores that governance response in terms of policy outcomes is the product of reconciling health with a plethora of competing priorities, and political economic goals via social construction of reality. The thesis considered the implications of the findings for conceptual understanding of GHG of infectious diseases, and for strengthening policies and practices to address the global infectious disease outbreaks.

Sovereign Dignity, Nationalism and the Health of a Nation: A Study of China's Response in Combat of Epidemics

Abstract This paper seeks to understand the role of nationalism in Chinas policy towards the combat of emerging infectious diseases. By locating nationalism as a factor which facilitates or impedes global governance and international collaboration, this paper explores how nationalism influences Chinas political decision‐making. Given her historical experience, China has in its national psyche an impulse never to become ‘the sick man of the East’ again. Today, Chinas willingness to co‐operate with international bodies emanates out of reputational concerns rather than technical‐medical considerations. This was clearly manifested in her handling of two epidemics in recent years: the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and HIV/AIDS episodes. This paper concludes that Chinas nationalism plays an inhibiting role in Chinas attempts to further incorporate herself into the architecture of global health governance in the long run.