HEALTH AND MEDICINE

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HEALTH AND MEDICINE

• Health -- a state of complete physical, mental
  and social well-being.
• It is as much a social as a biological issue
• What is defined as health and illness is
  influenced by culture.

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Society and health

• 1. People judge their health in relation to
  others they know.
• 2. People define as healthy what they think of
  as morally good.
• 3. Cultural standards of health change over time.
• 4. Health relates to a societys technology.
• 5. Health relates to social inequality

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Health Issues in the U.S.

• Social epidemiology -- the study of how health
  and disease are distributed throughout a
  societys population.
• a) Age and sex
• b) Social class
• c) Race
• c) Regional differences

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• Eating disorder --an intense involvement in
  dieting or other forms of weight control in order
  to become very thin.
• Cigarette smoking -- the most serious preventable
  health hazard.
• Sexually transmitted diseases more than fifty
  diseases.

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• Ethical issues Confronting death.
• 1. When is a person dead?
• 2. Do people have a right to die?
• 3. What about euthanasia, assisting in the death
  of a person suffering from an incurable disease?

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Medicine

• Medicine -- a social institution concerned with
  combating disease and improving health.
• Holistic medicine-- emphasizes prevention of
  illness and takes account of the persons entire
  physical and social environment.

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• Its founded on
• 1. Patients are people.
• 2. Responsibility, not dependency.
• 3. Personal treatment.

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Paying for health A global View

• Medicine in socialist societies
• a) The Peoples Republic of China.
• b) The former Soviet Union.
• Medicine in capitalist societies
• Sweden-- system described as socialized medicine
  -- government owns and operates most medical
  facilities and employs most physicians.

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• United States
• direct-fee system -- patients pay directly for
  the services of physicians and hospitals.
• Three ways of paying
• Private insurance programs.
• Public insurance programs-Medicare and Medicaid.
• Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs)

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Theoretical Analyses of Medicine

• Structural-functional analysis
• Views illness as a social dysfunction
• People respond to illness by assuming the sick
  role -- patterns of behavior defined as
  appropriate for people who are ill.

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• The sick role has three characteristics
• a) Illness suspends routine responsibilities.
• b) A sick person must want to be well.
• c) An ailing person must seek competent help.
• The physicians role.

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• Symbolic-interaction analysis.
• The social construction of illness.
• The social construction of treatment.

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• Social Conflict Analysis
• Draws a connection between health and social
  inequality and, ties medicine to the operation of
  capitalism.
• 1. The access issue.
• 2. The profit motive.
• 3. Medicine as politics.