Professor Peri Ballantyne

OC 224, Ext. 7813  periballantyne@trentu.ca

I am a health sociologist, and Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada. I have on-going affiliations with the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Toronto; the Institute for Work and Health, Toronto; and with the Department of Sociology, McMaster University, Hamilton. I currently teach sociology research methods, the sociology of health and illness, and the sociology of medicine to undergraduate students at Trent University.  I have previously taught courses on aging and the life course, on health professions and the Pharmacy profession, and on Canadian health and social policy.

My research interests include the social determinants of health, aging and the life course, the sociology of drugs, lay experience of illness, and sociological theory.  In qualitative research, I have used primarily in-depth interviewing and focus group methods to examine how social context influences the meaning of human phenomenon such as health, illness, dis/ability, work and non-work, and poverty.  I also conduct survey research.

In a newly funded project entitled “Perceptions and Realities of Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI): Diagnosis and Treatment for Older Individuals”, I am working with Professors Stephen Katz (Sociology) and Kevin Peters (Psychology). This project includes three distinctive components: a) a theoretical and historical examination of the memory sciences and the development of the MCI as a disease category – to be led by Katz; an analysis of the psychological and clinical testing and development of memory-drug hypotheses and products – to be led by Peters; and a sociological investigation through focus groups and interviews to discover the meanings, experiences, attitudes and consequences of mild cognitive impairment and dementia and their treatment in everyday contexts – which I will lead. We are currently preparing for recruitment of focus group participants for the third component of the project, and data collection will proceed throughout 2012.  

In a recently completed qualitative research project, our group examined the relationship between perceptions of health and health-care decision-making and use by Cantonese-, Mandarin- and Portuguese-speaking elderly persons from an urban Canadian city. We placed a particular focus on participants’ views of the appropriateness of medicinal drugs in their everyday health practices; and of their selection of or rejection of drugs for gaining or maintaining health, or for treating illness. In this work, we were interested in the structural constraints of language, culture, entrenched and evolving practices of everyday living, - and of health system organization and access - on lay-perceptions of health and on health care practices. We are also learning how life-course migration and immigration influences definitions of health and expectations for health care as described by the ‘global’ aged citizen.

In another project involving the Research Action Alliance on the Consequences of Work Injury (RAACWI, 2006-2012), I led the development of an in-depth health and health care utilization survey of Ontario injured workers. Our aim was to document what happens to the physical and mental health of injured workers who sustain a permanent impairment; and to describe injured workers’ health care needs and use of health care services.  In the survey, we included detailed questions on the availability, source(s) and costs of health care (such as out-of-pocket, public insured, private insured, and provision through the WCB), so as to document the extent to which workplace injury is associated with heightened need for health care services of various kinds, and with impeded access to such services. We have three articles in development from this survey, examining mental health outcomes, poverty, and health outcomes associated with income inequalities among Ontario injured workers with permanent impairments. See www.consequencesofworkinjury.ca for details on our comprehensive program of research.

Recent publications include: 

Ballantyne, P., Mirza, RM, Austin  Z,  Boon  HS, Fisher, JA.  (2011). Becoming old as a “pharmaceutical person’: Negotiation of health and medicines by Canadian immigrant and non-immigrant older adults. Canadian Journal on Aging 30(2): 169-184.

DiRisio, M., Ballantyne, P., Read, S. Bendayan, R. (2011).  “HIV isn’t me…”: HIV+ adolescents’ positive identity configurations, negotiations,  and anticipated careers. AIDS Care: Psychological and Socio-medical Aspects of AIDS/HIV 23(6) June:  694-699.

 

Ballantyne, Peri J. (2011). Assessing pharmacists’ impacts in primary health care: are we asking the right questions? Southern Med Review 4 (1): 17-21.

 

Al-Sukhni, M and Ballantyne PJ. (2007). Pharmaceutical-related strategies for health care reform in Canada: Federal party principles, priorities and actions 2004-2006. Canadian Pharmacists Journal 140(1): 38-45. 

               

Ballantyne PJ, Clarke, PJ, Marshman JA, Victor JC and Fisher JE. (2005).Use of Prescribed and Non-prescribed Medicines by the Elderly: Implications for Who Chooses, Who Pays and Who Monitors the Risks of Medicines. International J Pharmacy Practice 13: 133-140.

 

Campbell M., Ballantyne PJ.  (2004) Who advocates for patients when health care systems fail? Access to essential medicines in South Africa (and the US). Research in the Sociology of Health Care, 22: 239-260.