SOC319 Sociology of Medicine Exam #1 – Flashcards
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Medical sociology
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-Popularized by Robert Straus in 1957. -Increasingly popular today with the rise of chronic illnesses.
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Medical Care
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Caring for the sick.
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Health Care
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Prevention of sickness/conditions
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Sociology OF Medicine
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-Studies medicine to highlight a sociological concern. -Professional & patient
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Sociology IN Medicine
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-The sociology used to explain sociological reasons for certain illnesses. -Medical concerns
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Critical perspective
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-changes/examines values and cultural values. -health care problems are linked to the social arrangements and cultural values of any society. -Health care should be oriented toward the prevention of disease and illness. -Medical system based on the needs of the consumers not to the providers -Health care system improvement is possible only through social structural change.
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Medical costs
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-In 2009, 17.6% of gross domestic product, $2.4 trillion, leading cause of personal bankruptcy in the U.S.
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Increased specialization
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-One in four doctors are primary care physicians (general practitioners, family doctors, etc.) -Primary care is difficult to attain in many areas; emergency rooms become the sources of primary care.-
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Life expectancy
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-U.S. ranks 30th among nations in life expectancy. -79 years average (81 years for women, 76 year for men).
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Infant mortality
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-Best predictor of prenatal care quality. -US ranked 29th in 2004 for infant mortality rates.
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Absence of preventative medicine
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-Simply a resource investment issue!
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Medicalization
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-Social problems becoming seen as medical problems. -Demonstrate various interests (i.e. corporate, educational, interpersonal) in expanding the province of medicine.
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Double Jeopardy
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Racial disparities are often intertwined with social class. -The combination of health risks associated with stigmatized racial status and low socioeconomic status.
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Residential racial segregation
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-Primary institutional mechanism of racism and health disparities. -Restricts social economic status attainment. -Concentrated poverty and social disorder created by this makes it difficult for good nutrition and regular exercise -Leads to financial vulnerability
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Social conditions that contribute to isolation
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-Aging of the urban population -Fear of crime stemming from the violence and perceived violence of everyday life; creates "safe houses" in which vulnerable populations barricade themselves into their house. -The degradation of public spaces in poor urban areas and residential facilities, such as senior public housing units -Transformation in the nature of state social services (these populations are simply less visible than they used to be)
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Dying Alone
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-Refers to Robert Putnam's book, "Bowling Alone" which is a commentary on the increasing social isolation of individuals. -A powerful symbol of social abandonment and failure -Means you have been forgotten
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July 1995 Heatwave in Chicago
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Deadliest heat wave in recorded American history (700 deaths) -Chicago residents who lack social ties and who did not leave their homes regularly died disproportionately during the catastrophe -Medical examiner's reports said things like, "recluse", "no known relatives", "chain was on the door", etc.
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DALYS
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-Provide an aggregate measure of healthy years of life lost due to premature death or disability -Reflects the many extant gaps in regional, and thereby global, epidemiological data
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Contracting HIV
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-1 in 47 chance if you have unprotected sex. -These chances do not increase if you have more unprotected sex than most other people.
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Morbidity
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Disease rate
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Mortality
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Death rate
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Disease
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The biophysiological phenomena that manifest themselves as changes in and malfunctions of the body.
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Illness
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A social psychological state presumably brought on by disease
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Medical model
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focuses on organic pathology in individual patients, rarely taking societal factors into account.
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Social model
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Focuses on an interaction between external environments in which people live, and the internal environment of the human body.
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Top 4 causes of death
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-Heart disease -Cancer -Chronic lower respiratory disease -Stroke
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Social structure
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enduring patterns of social life that shape an individual's attitudes and beliefs, behaviors and actions, & psychological resources.
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Du Bois's theory of racial differences
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-Saw racial differences in health as reflecting differences in "social advancements", the "vastly different social conditions" under which blacks and whites lived. -Black men had poorer health than black women
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Diminishing returns hypothesis
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Argues that racial minorities receive declining health returns as SES increases.
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Hispanic paradox
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Despite hispanic immigrants' low access to health care and high poverty rates, their levels of health are equivalent and sometimes superior to that of the white population.
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Disability weights
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A subjective measure of how "burdensome" a given illness is for a human life.
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Social support
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-something that maintains or sustains the organism by promoting adaptive behavior or neuroendocrine responses in the face of stress or other health hazards.
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"Living alone"
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residing without other people in the household.
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"Being isolated"
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having limited social ties
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"Being reclusive"
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Largely confining oneself to the household
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Anorexia
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-The refusal to maintain body weight at or above a minimally "normal weight" for age and height out of fear of gaining weight or becoming "fat". -Denial of the gravity of one's low body weight.
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Obesity
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Having a BMI equal to or greater than 30.
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Overweight
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Having a BMI equal or greater than 25 but less than 30.
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Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy (HAART)
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-Rallies the immune system, allowing those with HIV and AIDs to live on for many decades. -Adherence is essential for this to work. -
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Contemporary Healthism
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-Broom & Whittaker, 2004 -Health is viewed as a virtue and a sign of proper conduct.
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Tension of the discreditable life
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-Goffman, 1963 -Working consistently to manage the selective concealment of their HIV diagnose, in a quest to find support, yet avoid become a pariah.
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Reasons some diseases receive less media attention
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-They affect minority groups, primarily. -Children are not affected -Not promoted by celebrities/big organizations -Disease does not affect a large population of people.
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Means by which entities draw attention to concerns
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-A strong organization -Large numbers -an ability to provide information -Protests -Headline grabbing advocacy tactics *These things are subject to debate.
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Dementia
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-Affects approximately 50 million Americans.
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Emeritus
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-An assisted living facility -Home to about 40,000 residents -Fined for negligence in the case of George McAfee
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Memory care units
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-A good marketing tool for families living with elders who have dementia/alzheimers -Staff are generally not well trained. They receive a general orientation and 8 hour intro.
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"Fill the building"
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-People are admitted to Emeritus to meet capacity numbers, even if their conditions make them eligible for placement in a nursing home, not assisted living.
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Faults of Emeritus
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-Residents are overmedicated -Staff are undertrained -Lack of staff leads to poor care of residents -Emeritus recruiters target seriously ill elders because they can be charged more. -Staff placed in med room without proper training. -Multiple missing persons, death, sexual assault accusations.
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Multi-Drug Resistant Tuberculosis (MDR-TB)
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-A mutated form of TB that is harder to treat than normal TB. -Caused by not taking drugs on time (on a daily schedule)
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Tuberculosis in Swaziland
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-25% of the population are HIV + (TB is a secondary disease) -Greater stigma with TB than HIV in South Africa -Swaziland has the highest rates of TB in the world. -It is spread communicably.
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Assisted Living
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-Less regulations than a nursing home -Less accountability -Private sector -Less rules and oversight. -NOT A MEDICAL FACILITY!!
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Nursing home
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A medical facility for elderly people.
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Stigma
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A thing that prevents a person from full inclusion in one's community
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Concentric Zone Theory
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-Further out you get from polluted areas, the greater one's income -Polluted areas tend to have more black people.
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Quality of Life variables
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-Race/ethnicity -Parents' education -Education -Parents' income
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AIDS
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-An illness fraught with meaning beyond the clinical definition. -A more serious/complicated form of HIV.
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Factors contributing to reduced mortality
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-Sanitation -Improved housing and nutrition -General rise in the standard of living
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Social ties studied by Syme
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-Marriage -Contacts with extended family and friends -Church membership -Other formal and informal group affiliations
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Boomerang kids
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Kids who move back in with their parents, especially after college.
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Rugged individualism in the U.S.
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-19% of men and 37% of women 65+ live alone as of 2010.
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Problems highlighted by Syme and Berkman
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-The more precise identification and description of subgroups within the lower socioeconomic classes that have either markedly higher or lower rates of disease -The disentanglement of socio-environmental from physical-environmental variables -The clarification of "causes" and "effects". -The more comprehensive description of those psycho-social variables that may compromise bodily defense to disease and increase susceptibility to illness.
