This book is about the science and ethics of clinical research and healthcare. We provide an overview of each chapter in its three sections. The first section reviews foundational knowledge about clinical research. The second section provides background and critique on key components and issues in clinical research, ranging from how research questions are formulated, to how to find and synthesize the research that is produced. The third section comprises four case studies of widely used evaluations and treatments. These case examples are exercises in critical thinking, applying the questions and methods outlined in other sections of the book. Each chapter suggests strategies to help clinical research be more useful for clinicians and more relevant for patients.

Module 5 provides an overview of ways in which cultures describe health and well-being. Measurement of well-being is problematic, requiring both objectivity and sensitivity to cultural conceptualizations. Attempts to describe universals of well-being include Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Historically, humans participated in rituals that enhanced well-being. Indigenous cultures often conceptualize well-being holistically, emphasizing connections to social, natural, and spiritual levels of existence. This module defines terms of reference for healthcare systems, including traditional medicine and complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), along with conventional medicine, describing the predominant Euro-American system.

This chapter addresses an inevitable question: How are later books of the Republic, and specifically Book 4, related to Book 1? It contends that justice as conceived in Book 1 is “external,” concerned with how one entity regards and treats another, and so is at odds with the novel definition of justice in Book 4, according to which it is “internal,” a matter of what happens within a single entity, whether a city or a soul. It is argued that in Book 4, Socrates, having been tasked with persuading Glaucon and Adeimantus that there is profit in being just, identifies a reward for being just, namely, the harmonious internal state of city and soul. Although he briefly calls this healthy and therefore desirable condition “justice,” he more frequently and aptly identifies it as “moderation.” This chapter makes the case that it is the account of justice found in Book 1 that more closely reflects Socrates’ (or Plato’s) understanding of it.

The chapter examines principles and values of communication and societal relationships from an Islamic perspective. It highlights the significance of communication in Islam, including language, communication theory, and the principles of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). The chapter explores different levels of Islamic communication, cultural influences, and communication within Muslim families across age groups. It addresses the challenges Muslims face in a globalized world and the impact of communication technologies on Islamic culture. The chapter offers health practitioners and educators an insight into effective Islamic-based communication in therapeutic relationships for individuals with regards to addressing mental and physical health issues. This chapter also briefly discusses the contemporary challenges of globalization and communication as it relates to Islamic principles.

The increased visibility of the Muslim population suggests the need for health care professionals to gain a better understanding of how the Islamic faith influences health-related perceptions and health care-seeking behaviors. From an Islamic perspective, health is viewed as one of the greatest blessings that God (Allah) has bestowed on humankind. In Islam, illness has three possible meanings: a natural occurrence, punishment of sin, or a test of the believer’s patience and gratitude. Muslims believe that cure comes solely from Allah, even if this is practically in the form of a health professional. Ill health is part of the trials and tribulations of Muslims and a test from Allah. Understanding Muslim patients’ beliefs and health practices, customs, and religious beliefs would be prime factors in the delivery of sensitive and culturally appropriate care to enhance positive health outcomes.

Salat or prayer in Islam is a holistic act, creating parity between physical and mental health. Prayer in Islam is a collective term for a cycle of movements and acts, including Rak’ah performed by the Ummah or global community of Muslims, at the same times each day, in exactly the same order, in the same language, which is Arabic. Rak’ah unites movement and prayer. If the individual is unwell, confined to bed, or physically impaired, then the expectation is for the individual to perform Rak’ah in a way that causes least harm. The physical movements flex and extend numerous muscles and joints throughout the body, creating a gentle and consistent form of exercise. The act of praying focuses the mind, creating a form of mindfulness because the individual concentrates on Allah to the exclusion of everything else. Regularly undertaking salat exerts spiritual, physical, and cognitive benefits for Muslims. Even though evidence-based research highlights positive benefits, public health interventions in the West frequently fail to use the evidence to enhance physical and mental well-being in Muslim populations.

Sleep is vital to our existence; it underpins a myriad of brain and bodily functions, and supports optimal functioning across a variety of different domains including cognitive functioning, emotional regulation, tissue repair and growth, and our immune system, among others. It is not surprising, therefore, that when sleep disturbance is experienced it can lead to impairments in performance and functioning. In addition, when sleep and circadian disruption are experienced regularly, such as in the context of insomnia, individuals can be at increased risk of developing a range of physical and mental health disorders including cardiovascular disease, depression, and anxiety. Such findings reinforce the need to address sleep disturbance and also highlight that it is not only sleep duration that is important but also timing and regularity of sleep–wake patterns.

The concluding chapter reflects on the everyday lives of sex workers, police officers and public health officials in China under Xi Jinping, and considers policy implications of the book’s findings.

This chapter is about the influence of transnational actors on China’s sex worker health policies. While the policing of prostitution in China is a story of domestic law and politics, the public health approach to regulating sex work in China starts in the international global health community. It then makes its way into central government health institutions in Beijing, and trickles down into the lives of local state health workers and the sex workers in their community. These transnational roots matter: they have shaped both the content of sex work health policies and the public health officials who manage their administration. Indeed, the approach that China’s health policies and officials endorse for gauging the prevalence of HIV/AIDS and reducing its occurrence among sex workers, and the language these authorities use, reflect best practices in the global public health community. Yet the obstacles that Chinese health agents encounter result in practices that fall short of these ideals and harm sex workers. That often grim reality is the subject of the next chapter. What I highlight in this chapter is how the global public health community working in China to support the creation of HIV/AIDS policies seems disengaged from what actually happens on the ground.

This chapter introduces the regulation of prostitution in China as a case study of law in everyday life. It presents China’s three tiers of sex workers, the state’s interests in the sex industry, and patterns of prostitution policy implementation. It shows how the study of prostitution and its regulation in China expands our understanding of state–society relations, and of sex work and its regulation across space and time.