Midterm 1 (Simplified) Flashcards
(98 cards)
How is health a social construction
Because health is subjective. Our interpretations through personal experiences, culture, and social/political and historical contexts
Ways to conceive health (6):
- Normality
- Balance
- Adaptation to environment
- Being fit
- Absence of disease
- Resource for living
Health state
Present health of individual
Health status
Characteristics of being healthy/unhealthy; longer term attribute
Population health
- Health status and outcomes within a group of people rather than considering health of one person at a time
- The focus on community and social level factors that influence health
Illness
Perception of ill health, based on a person’s response to particular symptoms (Eg. pain, nausea) that cannot be directly observed
Factors influencing perception of symptoms (7):
- Gender
- Age
- Education
- Occupation
- Health status/previous experience with symptoms
- Family
- Culture
The Illness belief dimensions (4):
- Casualty
- Controllability
- Susceptibility
- Seriousness
Casualty in the illness belief dimension (2):
- Examines what causes people to ascribe to their symptom
- People look for causal explanations to make sense of their experiences of illness and disease
Controllability in the illness belief dimension (2):
- Examines the extent to which people believe illness is controllable
- Associated with self-rated health, preventive are, behaviour during illness, use of physician services, compliance with medical treatment
Perceived Susceptibility
Subjective perception of risk of contracting a disease or susceptibility to illness
Perceived Severity
Person’s belief about the seriousness or severity of a disease
Disease
Any harmful deviation from the normal structural or functional state of an organism
Why do health, illness, and diseases change? (5)
- Scientific knowledge changes
- Disease change
- Distribution of disease in population change
- New ideas about health are built on other existing ideas
- Culture and societies change and culture and societies influence health illness and disease
Salutogenic model of health
Created by Aaron Antonovsky of an idea that health results of continuous everyday life interactions between the individual and inevitable social-, economic-, cultural-, physical-, mental- and biochemical stressors
Wellness
Inclusive concept that incorporates not only good health, but also the quality of life and satisfaction with general living conditions
Fundamental conditions and resources for health (9):
- Peace
- Shelter
- Education
- Food
- Income
- Stable eco-system
- Sustainable resources
- Social justice
- Equity
Health promotion
Process of enabling people to increase control over, and to improve, their health
Cause of decline in infectious disease
Result of the advancing biomedical practice of antibiotics, immunizations, and vaccines, as well as living conditions
Medical sociology importance
Reinforced the importance of broadening research perspectives in health to include an analysis of both disease pathology and the impact of the social environment
The sociology of medicine
Subspecialty of sociology with the purpose to improve theoretical understanding of social phenomena in which patients/practitioners interact. It offers a critical analysis of both patient compliance and medical dominance of health
Health sociology
Focuses on population health behavior rather than patient illness
5 main theoretical paradigms
- Structural Functionalist paradigm
- Conflict paradigm
- Symbolic Interactionist paradigm
- Feminist paradigm
- Sociology of the body paradigm
Structural Functionalist paradigm (5):
- Views society as a harmonious social system made up of several institutions that function to maintain stability
- Emphasizes that good health and effective health care are essential for a society’s ability to function
- Health and illness defined as “Social roles”
- Uses surveys and statistical analysis
- Examples: Sick role by Talcott Parsons