Society and oral health Flashcards
What is sociology?
A study of human groups, social facts, how society functions or doesn’t function. It focuses on two interrelated areas: social factors and recurrent relationships among people. Studies patterned relationships - groups of people acting in an organised way. It attempts to explain different forces or influences that shape society.
What are some social factors?
Fixed factors, lifestyle, behaviours, social, psychological and cultural factors. Socio-economic factors, access to services, education, food, transport and education.
What are social determinants of health?
Social positions, environments (living and working), food and transport policies, early child experience, poverty, unemployment, social and psychological/ecological circumstances.
What are social inequalities?
Comes from social structure (class).
Marx didn’t say poor people are poor because they were immoral, deserved to be.
Control of power, economic resources and wealth lead to social stratification, a class structure.
The position you were born determined the likely outcome of your health, wealth, education and future occupation.
What is the definition of health inequality?
Differences in health between different population groups eg age, disability, socio-economic status, geographical area, sex and ethnicity.
What is health inequity?
Differences in health between different social groups that are unjust and can be avoided. These differences are caused by unequal access to opportunities and resources. These, with differential exposure to risk factors and vulnerability, can lead to health inequalities in terms of health outcomes and consequences.
What are the differences between groups?
Differential health outcomes - mortality, life expectancy, infant mortality, maternal health, morbidity - CVD, dental caries, edentulousness, reported oral health problems. Risk exposure, vulnerability, beliefs, attitudes, behaviours that impact on health, access to services.
What are some graph summaries?
- High income countries have lower infant mortality rates and higher life expectancy
- Higher social classes, lower levels of oral diseases
- North-South divide in GB - higher levels of dmft in the north
- Higher levels of disease in more deprived areas
- The greater the social inequalities in societies, the higher the disease levels and mortality and lower the lifestyle expectancy
- Social gradient persists within fluoridated and non fluoridated areas
- Social positions in childhood influence health outcomes in adulthood
What is the biopsychosocial model of health?
Physiology, genetics and society community and family and cognition, emotion and motivation.
What does the model imply?
Psychological and social factors influence biological functioning, and the interactions between these factors play an important role in health/disease.
Helps us understand how suffering, disease and illness are affected by multiple levels of organisation of factors from societal to molecular.
Helps us understand patients subjective and how various factors/conditions impact on each other.
