9 - Sociology of Health & Illness

Question 1

Policy sociology

Answer 1

Concerned with attempts to improve the delivery of health services through sociologically informed research

Question 2

Critical sociology

Answer 2

Examines the practices of multinational pharmaceutical companies, medical schools, and privately run, for-profit clinics and hospitals

Question 3

Four expectations of the sick/patient role

Answer 3

• Should be exempted from normal social responsibilities
• Should be taken care of instead of having to take care of themselves
• Are socially obligated to try to get well
• Are socially obligated to seek technically competent help

Question 4

Medicalisation

Answer 4

• Process by which certain behaviours or conditions are defined as medical problems
  and medical intervention becomes the focus of remedy and social control
• Criticised as form of reductionism that reduces complex medical conditions to biomedical causes without examining possible sociocultural or political factors

Question 5

Iatrogenesis

Answer 5

Doctor-generated epidemics that avert people from preventing and treating their illness

Question 6

3 kinds of iatrogenesis

Answer 6

• Clinical
• Social
• Cultural

Question 7

Clinical iatrogenesis

Answer 7

This refers to ways in which diagnosis and cure can cause problems that are as bad or worse than the health problems they are meant to resolve.

Question 8

Social iatrogenesis

Answer 8

This occurs when political
conditions that “render society unhealthy” are hidden or obscured.

Question 9

Cultural iatrogenesis

Answer 9

This entails how the knowledge and abilities of the medical community are extolled, and patients are given no credit for their recovery

Question 10

Critical issues in medical sociology

Answer 10

• Unemployment and Immigration of Doctors
• Immigrant doctors’ credentials are often considered insufficient

Question 11

Racialisation of a disease

Answer 11

A disease becomes racialized when it is strongly associated with people of a particular racial or ethnic background, so that people of this background are treated negatively

Question 12

Female doctors are more likely to

Answer 12

• Enter family medicine
• Leave the profession sooner
• Work fewer hours and see fewer patients

Question 13

Female doctors are less likely to

Answer 13

• Become surgeons
• Be sued for malpractice
• Join professional organizations

Question 14

Inverse care law

Answer 14

• The availability of good medical care tends to vary inversely with the need for it in the population served.
• In poor areas, where need is often highest, we are more likely to see doctor shortages, overworked doctors, and obsolete facilities and
  equipment.