Health & Ilness

• health

  - physical, social, and mental well-being

  - absence of a disease and weakness

  - good health vs. not healthy
• illnes

  - feeling that one is not well

  - health and illness is based on a social construction
• social construction

  - perceptions of health and illness is based on social construction:

  - it becomes a social reality

  EX: for some, they go to the doctor when they have a cold while others take medicine and drink plenty of water and get sleep
• medicalization of society

  - medical responses applied to everyday social problems

  - deviance viewed as physical/social disorder rather than criminality

  - it's expected that there is a medical response to everyday social problems
• medicalization of deviance

  - deviance as a medical problem (use medicine to be healthy); sick/ill (treated) rather than bad (punished)

  - medical approach is humanitarian and scientific
• three major functions of medicine (functional theory):

  - maintenance of health

  - medical research

  - social control
• maintenance of health

  - medical professionals with the most basic task is to keep people healthy; do not harm

  - restore health to the sick

  - promote healthy activities (diet, exercise, stress levels, etc.)
• medical research

  - knowledge gained

  - through universities or hospitals
• social control

  - public health policies carried out by medical professionals

  EX: what kind of vaccines the public should get
• conflict theory

  - disagree that functional theory is helping people in such an organized way

  - health care is expensive

  - profit motive of medicine
• health care is expensive:

  - partial coverage only through jobs; different jobs have different health privileges or coverage

  - unequal access to health care; privilege rather than right
• profit motive of medicine:

  - businesses interested in making profits rather than treatment

  - treatment is expensive

  - more tests doctors do, the higher the cost
• feminist theory

  - focus on gender (girls and women)

  - healthcare and medicine has been mainly focused on men

  EX: when a medicine bottles say adults should take 2 tables, this is based on a 5'9 male
• differences between developed and developing countries

  - developing countries have young girls dying from issues related to regular things like pregnancy
• social class differences

  - girls and women from upper and middle classes often have more control over their health and more of a voice than those from lower classes
• doctor-patient relationship

  - sick role

  - physician's role
• sick role

  - when one is sick, they are allowed to deviate from the norm

  - one receives privileges like being absent from daily activities

  - expected to get healthy

  - playing the sick role (excuse)

  EX: purposely saying they're ill so they don't have to turn in a paper
• physician's role

  - assist patients; authority over patients

  - treatment-oriented rather than prevention-oriented

  - make profit by providing treatment and helping with health

  - well-respected; most prestigious occupation and status (hospital status)
• socialized medicine

  - government support health services

  - when government is involved in healthcare; everyone is involved and accounted for

  - health care is a right

  - universal health care (access for all)

  - gov also decides how much or little they will cover
• fee-for-service

  - charged per service (business model and profit motive)

  - health care is a privilege; everything has a charge

  - doctors are no different than business people trying to make a profit

  - supported by the American Medical Association (AMA)
• deprofessionalization

  - doctors feel that there's a loss of autonomy by physicians

  - used to be viewed as more prestigious compared to now because of insurance companies that dictate what will and will not be covered
• urban-rural differences

  - more medical facilities in urban than rural areas

  - more specialists in major citie
• U.S.

  - only developed country without a national health care program

  - government participation challenges individualism

  - dictate what kinds of medicines we have or what kind of procedures to get
• age

  - life expectancy increasing and death rate decreasing

  - fewer infants dying and people are living longer due to medical technology

  - elderly are the group that needs care and resources
• infant mortality rate

  - number of babies who die before age of one per 1,000 births

  - U.S. does not do well compared to other countries

  - poverty factor: high percentages of certain racial & ethic groups brings this rate up
• gender

  - women healthier than men

  - from birth to death at every age level, girls and women are always healthier

  - a son is more likely to be ill, have mental disabilities and colorblindness

  - men usually have the heart attacks and strokes
• social class

  - higher class healthier than lower class

  - higher classes have healthier lifestyles

  - people who are poor or working class/poor take more sick days

  - life expectancy shorter for those in lower class

  - more stress and worry contributes to health
• race and ethnicity

  - differences in access to health care and views about health

  EX: Italian Americans very concerned about pain and want it relieved immediately

  Jewish Americans view pain as something that could be a long term complication and interested in hearing what doctors have to say about treatment
• demographic transition theory

  - way to understand population and health

  - 3 major stages in terms of countries and what they go through

  - can not have low birth rate and high death rate (end of society)
• high birth rate and high death rate

  - many infants and people die

  - developing countries

  - families have many children even if they cannot support them
• high birth rate and low death rate

  - rapid population growth with surviving infants and less people dying

  - good thing, but rapid growth puts pressure on economy
• low birth rate and low death rate

  - developed countries

  - very few children being had in families; less people dying means there is no need for infants to replace them

  - can't sustain society this way
• cultural norm

  - norm of what's best for every society: low birth rate and low death rate
• large families in developing countries

  - traditional, rural, and agricultural societies

  - rural communities have more children than urban

  - lower classes have more children (farming communities)

  - focus on quantity

  (developed countries focus on quality of life)

  EX: China having one child policy