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In summary, techniques from cognitive anthropology
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Using physicians’ shared norms to categorize actual illness
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of predictors for both medically unnecessary and necessary
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Acknowledgments
The National Institute on Aging/National Institutes of Health supported
both the original project, “Psychological Distress and the Aged’s Use of
Services” (R01 AG05181, Emil Berkanovic, P.I.) and the secondary analy-
ses “Decisions About HMO Use for Symptoms of Late Life Illness” (R29
AG10887, Margo-Lea Hurwicz, P.I.). A preliminary version of this paper
was presented in March 1992 at the annual meeting of the Society for
Applied Anthropology in Memphis, TN.
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The authors would like to thank the editor and five anonymous reviewers
for their helpful advice, and Ms. Valerie W. Duffy for her technical assistance.
Address correspondence to Dr. Margo-Lea Hurwicz, Department of An-
thropology, University of Missouri–St. Louis, 8001 Natural Bridge Road,
St. Louis, MO 63121-4499. E-mail: hurwicz@umsl.edu
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Received February 23, 1999
Accepted August 3, 2001
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