Health and Medicine

Read this chapter for a review of health and medicine. As you read each section, consider the following topics:

  • Should parents be forced to immunize their children?
  • What might sociologists make of the fact that most of the families who chose not to vaccinate were of a higher socioeconomic group?
  • How does this story of vaccines in a high-income region compare to that in a low-income region, like sub-Saharan Africa, where populations are often eagerly seeking vaccines rather than refusing them?
  • Take note of the term medical sociology as well as the difference between the cultural meaning of illness, the social construction of illness, and the social construction of medical knowledge
  • Take notes of social epidemiology and various theories of social epidemiology used to understand global health issues. What are some of the differences between high-income and low-income nations?
  • Take note of the application of social epidemiology to health in the United States. Also focus on the disparities of health based on gender, socioeconomic status, race, and ethnicity. Lastly, be able to define the terms stigma and medicalization.
  • Take note of the different types of health care in the United States. How do these health care systems compare with those of other countries?
  • Explore health care issues through conflict, interactionist, and functionalist perspectives.

Key Terms

anxiety disorders
feelings of worry and fearfulness that last for months at a time

commodification
the changing of something not generally thought of as a commodity into something that can be bought and sold in a marketplace

contested illnesses
illnesses that are questioned or considered questionable by some medical professionals

demedicalization
the social process that normalizes "sick" behavior

disability
a reduction in one's ability to perform everyday tasks; the World Health Organization notes that this is a social limitation

epidemiology
the study of the incidence, distribution, and possible control of diseases

impairment
the physical limitations a less-able person faces

individual mandate
a government rule that requires everyone to have insurance coverage or they will have to pay a penalty

legitimation
the act of a physician certifying that an illness is genuine

medical sociology
the systematic study of how humans manage issues of health and illness, disease and disorders, and healthcare for both the sick and the healthy

medicalization
the process by which aspects of life that were considered bad or deviant are redefined as sickness and needing medical attention to remedy

medicalization of deviance
the process that changes "bad" behavior into "sick" behavior

mood disorders
long-term, debilitating illnesses like depression and bipolar disorder

morbidity
the incidence of disease

mortality
the number of deaths in a given time or place

personality disorders
disorders that cause people to behave in ways that are seen as abnormal to society but seem normal to them

private healthcare
health insurance that a person buys from a private company; private healthcare can either be employer-sponsored or direct-purchase

public healthcare
health insurance that is funded or provided by the government

sick role
the pattern of expectations that define appropriate behavior for the sick and for those who take care of them

social epidemiology
the study of the causes and distribution of diseases

socialized medicine
when the government owns and runs the entire healthcare system

stereotype interchangeability
stereotypes that don't change and that get recycled for application to a new subordinate group

stigmatization
the act of spoiling someone's identity; they are labeled as different, discriminated against, and sometimes even shunned due to an illness or disability

stigmatization of illness
illnesses that are discriminated against and whose sufferers are looked down upon or even shunned by society

underinsured
people who spend at least 10 percent of their income on healthcare costs that are not covered by insurance

universal healthcare
a system that guarantees healthcare coverage for everyone