Transcript Chapter 1

Chapter 14
Health, Healthcare,
and Disability
( 1 of 20 )
Health is not simply the absence of disease but is now a
broader definition:
– Health – a state of complete physical, mental, and
social well-being
 Physical
 Social
 Psychological
– Health care – any activity intended to improve
health
– Medicine – an institutionalized system for the
scientific diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of
illness
( 2 of 20 )
•
Life expectancy
•
•
refers to an estimate of the average lifetime of
people born in a specific year
Infant mortality rate
•
the number of deaths of infants under 1 year of age
per 1,000 live births in a given year
•
Differences in life expectancy and infant mortality
rates
 insufficient or contaminated food
 lack access to pure, safe water
 inadequate sewage and refuse disposal
 lack of information about maintaining health
 lack of qualified physicians
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lifespan
1995-2000
lifespan
2000-2005
lifespan
2010-2015
lifespan
2020-2025
lifespan
2045-2050
Japan
80.5
81.5
83.3
84.9
88.0
2.
Sweden
79.3
80.1
81.1
82.1
84.6
3.
Iceland
78.9
79.4
80.3
81.1
83.1
4.
Australia
78.7
79.2
80.1
81.0
83.0
5.
Israel
78.3
79.2
80.6
81.6
83.5
6.
Switzerland
78.6
79.1
80.0
80.9
82.9
7.
France
78.1
79.0
80.3
81.5
84.0
8.
Canada
78.5
79.0
80.0
80.8
82.8
9.
Norway
78.1
78.9
80.2
81.2
83.7
10.
Belgium
77.9
78.8
80.2
81.4
83.8
11.
Spain
78.1
78.8
79.7
80.6
82.6
12.
Italy
78.2
78.7
79.7
80.6
82.5
13.
Austria
77.7
78.5
80.1
81.2
83.6
14.
Malta
77.6
78.5
80.3
81.6
84.0
15.
Greece
78.0
78.5
79.5
80.4
82.4
16.
Netherlands
77.9
78.3
79.3
80.2
82.2
17.
Cyprus
77.8
78.3
79.2
80.2
82.2
18.
United Kingdom
77.2
78.2
79.8
81.1
83.0
19.
Germany
77.3
78.2
79.7
81.0
83.4
20.
Singapore
77.1
78.1
79.7
80.9
82.9
21.
Finland
77.2
78.0
79.7
81.0
83.0
22.
New Zealand
77.2
78.0
79.0
80.0
82.0
23.
Luxembourg
77.0
77.9
79.5
80.8
82.8
24.
USA
76.5
77.5
79.2
80.7
82.6
25.
Barbados
76.4
77.2
78.4
79.3
81.4
rank
country
1.
( 4 of 20 )
– Social epidemiology – the study of the causes and distribution of
health, disease, and impairment through a population
Targets of Investigation
• Disease agents:
–
–
–
–
Biological agents (insects, bacteria, and viruses)
Nutrient agents (fats and carbohydrates)
Chemical agents (gases and pollutants in the air)
Physical agents
• Environment:
– Physical (geography and climate)
– Biological (presence of absence of known disease agents)
– Social (socioeconomic status, occupation, and location of home)
• Human Host:
–
–
–
–
Demographic factors (age, sex and race/ethnicity))
Physical condition
Habits and customs
Lifestyle
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Chronic diseases – illnesses that are long term or lifelong and
that develop gradually or are present from birth
Acute diseases – illnesses that strike suddenly and cause
dramatic incapacitation and sometimes death
Two of the most
common
sources of
chronic disease
and premature
death in the
United States
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Health in the United States
Age
• Chronic disease incidence increase rapidly after age 65
• 20 % of the population will be at least 65 by 2050
• The number of persons aged 85 or over will have tripled
from 4 million in 1995 to 12 million in 2050
Sex
• (2000) Life expectancy at birth was 74.2 years for males
and 79.9 years for females
• Gender roles and gender socialization may contribute to
the difference in life expectancy between men and
women
Race/Ethnicity and Social Class
• Socioeconomic factors trump race as influencers of health
• People with lower incomes are more likely to be employed in
jobs that expose them to danger and illness
( 7 of 20 )
Lifestyle Factors
• Drug use and abuse
• A drug is any substance - other than food and water –
that, when taken into the body, alters its functioning in
some way
•
•
–
–
Therapeutic
Recreational
Alcohol
• Adults consume more beer than milk or coffee
• Among people who drink, 10 % account for 50% the
total alcohol consumption
Nicotine (Tobacco)
• Responsible for about 1 in every 5 deaths in this
country
• Is more addictive than heroin
( 8 of 20 )
Smoking cigarettes is your choice.
This is Bryan Curtis. He started smoking when he was 13 years old. He then began
to smoke about 2 packs a day and died just after his 34th birthday of lung and
liver cancer. Also pictured is his wife and 2-year-old son
( 9 of 20 )
• Illegal Drugs
•
•
•
Marijuana is the most extensively used illegal drug in the
United States
About 23 million people over the age of 12 in the United
States report that they have used cocaine at least once
People who use cocaine over extended periods of time
have high rates of infection, heart problems, internal
bleeding, hypertension, stroke, and other neurological and
cardiovascular disorders than do nonusers
Taking drugs is a voluntary action on a person’s part.
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• Sexually Transmitted Diseases
•
•
Having sex is a lifestyle choice
gonorrhea, syphilis, genital herpes, HIV, HPV, AIDS,
ART
Anti-Retroviral Therapy
( 11 of 20 )
Buffalo Hump
Facial Wasting
Protease Paunch
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Holistic Medicine
•
An approach to health care that focuses on prevention of
illness and disease and is aimed at treating the whole
person – body and mind – rather than just the parts in
which symptoms occur
Alternative Medicine
•
healing practices inconsistent with dominant medical
practice
( 15 of 20 )
Functionalist
Perspective:
The Sick Role
(Parsons)
People who are sick . . .
1)
2)
3)
4)
are not responsible for their condition
temporarily exempt from normal roles and obligations
must want to get well
must seek competent help from a medical professional
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Conflict
Perspective:
Inequalities in Health and Health Care
• ability of all to obtain health care
• how race, class and gender inequalities affect health
• power relationships between doctors and other healthcare
workers
• role of profit in the health care system
( 17 of 20 )
Symbolic Interactionist
Perspective:
The Social Construction of Illness
• we socially construct health and illness and how both should be
treated
• the social definition of illness leads to the stigmatization of
individuals who suffer from the disease
• medicalization refers to the process whereby non-medical
problems become defined and treated as illnesses or
disorders.
• demedicalization (the reverse of this process)
• homosexuality
• childbirth
• menopause
( 18 of 20 )
Disability knows no
economic boundaries
According to disability rights advocates, “disability must be
thought of in terms of how society causes or contributes to the
problem – not in terms of what is ‘wrong’ with the person with
a disability.”
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Questions?
Comments?
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