Chapter 19 Sociology – Flashcards
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Demographer
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one who studies population issues, particularly in relation of fertility, mortality, and migration, and how these processes vary among individuals in a population.
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Population dynamics
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the process by which a population changes in size over time.
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Fertility
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the process by which members of a population produce live births.
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Mortality
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the process by which individuals in a population gradually die.
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Migration
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the process by which individuals move from one location, region, country, or city to another.
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First demographic transition
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the transition by a country or region from a pretransition period to high fertility and high mortality, to a mid-transition period of declining mortality followed by a declining fertility, to posttransition period in which both mortality and fertility are low.
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Stylized facts
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A series of facts or empirical regularities that we think we know with great certainty.
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Total fertility rate
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a measure of fertility in a given calendar year reflecting the fertility of women at different childbearing ages. A total fertility rate of 3.2 in 2010 in a given population means that the average woman would have 3.2 children during her lifetime, if fertility rates in this population remained the same.
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Age pyramids
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a diagram that plots the age distribution of a population, with the numbers at the youngest ages at the bottom of the graph and the numbers at the oldest ages at the top, and with males and females on the left and right hand side, respectively.
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Epidemiology
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the study of health-related events in populations, their characteristics, their causes, and their consequences.
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Epidemiological transition
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the transition of a population from health conditions primarily involving infectious disease to health conditions primarily involving chronic disease.
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Infectious diseases
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a disease caused by the entrance, presence, or growth of a microorganism or other foreign agent inside the body
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Chronic diseases/chronic health conditions
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a health condition that is long lasting, including heart disease, cancer, arthritis, diabetes, asthma, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
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Birth cohort
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a group of individuals in a population born within a given time period. Thus the 1995 1999 birth cohort refers to those born between 1995 and 1999.
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Life expectancy (at age x)
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The average number of additional years (past age x) that the average person in a population can expect to live.
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Healthy life expectancy
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the average number of healthy years one can expect to live if current patterns of death and illness remain the same.
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Physically and mentally unhealthy days
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the number of days people in a given population rated their physical or mental health as not good.
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Chronic disease prevalence
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the total number of cases of a particular disease in a population, or the proportion of disease cases compared to the population as a whole.
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Medicare
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a government program in the United States that provides health insurance to all individuals over 65 years of age.
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Advance directive
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Written instructions (such as a living will) that a person prepares in the event that he or she is no longer able to make decisions at the end of life.
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Palliative care
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all types of healthcare designed to reduce pain and suffering by helping patients get better. It is often contrasted with hospice care, where there is no hope of curing or improving a patient.
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Hospice care
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the treatment of people with incurable disease in the final stage of life. The goal of hospice care is to attempt to help patients live as pain-free as possible in their finals days.
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Fetal programming hypothesis
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the idea that things that happen to a person during critical periods of development can change the way the tissues and structures of his or her body and brain function.
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Life-course perspective
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a model that highlights the effects that social contexts a person inhabits throughout life have on his or her health.
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Sensitive-period model (latency model)
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a model focused on the idea that very early life exposures can affect adult outcomes but may remain latent for years.
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Cumulative-exposure model
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a model highlighting a gradual process of worsening health with continued exposure to toxins.
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Social-trajectory model
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an approach focused on the idea that early life experiences determine where a person ends up in the social pecking order, which in turn influences his or her health.
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health disparities
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a difference in health status linked to social, economic, or environmental conditions including socioeconomic status, race and ethnicity, gender, and geographic location.
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Socioeconomic gradient in health
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a term used to describe how those with lowest status are less healthy than those in the middle, who are less healthy than those at the top.
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Fundamental social cause of health
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a theory stating that individuals of higher socioeconomic status have access to knowledge, money, power, and social connections that are deployed throughout the life course to avoid disease and death. These resources can be deployed in a range of situations. As a result, this theory predicts that no matter what the causes of bad health, socioeconomic inequalities will inevitably emerge.
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Baby boom
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the post World War II period in the United States from approximately 1946 through 1964. During this period, fertility was high. The birth cohorts born during the baby boom years produced a generation of Americans that was the largest in U.S. history.
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Population aging
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a term used to describe a society where the average age of the population is increasing.
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Population momentum
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the tendency of a population that has been changing in size to continue to change in size even if factors such as fertility and mortality have shifted to levels that would, in the long run, imply no change in population size.
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Replacement fertility
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a level of fertility in which individuals in a population, on average have a sufficient number of offspring that will imply, over the long run, non change in the size of the population.
