Download Chapter 14 Health, Health Care, and Disability

Chapter 14
Health, Health Care,
and Disability
Chapter Outline
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Health in Global Perspective
Health in the United States
Health Care in the United States
Sociological Perspectives on Health and
Medicine
Disability
Health Care in the Future
Health, Health Care, and Disability
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Health is a state of complete physical, mental,
and social well-being.
Health care is any activity intended to improve
health.
Disability is a reduced ability to perform tasks
one would normally do at a given stage of life.
Health in Global Perspective
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Life expectancy: AIDS has cut life expectancy
by 5 years in Nigeria, 18 years in Kenya, and
33 years in Zimbabwe
Infant mortality rate: 149 infants under 1 year
of age die per 1,000 live births in Sierra Leone,
196 die in Angola, and 122 die in Malawi.
Social Epidemiology
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Study of the causes and distribution of health,
and disease in a population.
Studies:
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Disease agents – insects, bacteria, nutrient agents,
pollutants in the air and temperature.
Environment - physical, biological and social
environments.
Human host -demographic factors such as age,
sex, and race/ethnicity.
Recent Medical Innovations
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Bloodless surgery - operations are performed
using combinations of iron supplements and
vitamins, large doses of a blood-building drug
rather than blood transfusions.
Robotdoc - computer-controlled robot used in
hip replacement surgery.
Paying for Medical Care in the U.S.
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Private Health Insurance: cited as the main
reason for medical inflation, gives doctors and
hospitals an incentive to increase costs.
Public Health Insurance: projections call for
Medicaid spending to double and Medicare
spending to triple in the next few years.
The U.S. Health Care System
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Health Maintenance Organizations: provide
total care with an emphasis on prevention.
Managed care: monitors and controls health
care providers' decisions, insurance company
has the right to refuse to pay for treatment.
Implications of Advanced Medical
Technology
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Create options that alter human relationships
(prolonging life after consciousness is lost).
Increase the cost of medical care.
Raise questions about the very nature of life
(invitro fertilization, cloning, stem cell
research).
The Sick Role
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The sick are not responsible for their condition.
The sick are temporarily exempt from their
normal role obligations.
The sick must want to get well.
The sick must seek help from a medical
professional to hasten their recovery.
Sociological Perspectives on
Health and Medicine
Functionalist:
The sick role
People who are sick are exempt from
obligations, but must want to get well and
seek competent help.
Conflict:
Inequalities in health
and health care
Problems in health care are rooted in the
capitalist system, exemplified by the
medical–industrial complex.
Sociological Perspectives on
Health and Medicine
Symbolic Interactionist:
Social construction of
illness
People socially construct “health” and
“illness,” and how both should be treated.
Postmodernist:
The clinical gaze
Doctors gain power through observing
patients to gather information, thus
appearing to speak “wisely.”
Disability
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Estimated 48 million people in the U.S. have
one or more physical or mental disabilities.
Less than 15% of persons with a disability are
born with it.
Accidents, disease, and war account for most
disabilities in this country.
Percentage of U.S. Population
with Disabilities, 1997
Characteristic
Percentage
With a disability
23.0
Severe
14.8
Not severe
8.3
Social Inequalities Based on
Disability
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Workers with a severe disability earn 50%
(men) and 64% (women) of what workers
without disabilities earn.
Only 26% of Latinos/as with a severe disability
are employed; those who work earn 80% of
what non-Latino white persons with a severe
disability earn.
Living With a Disability
Strategies:
 Avoidance - deny condition to maintain
hopeful images of the future and elude
depression.
 Vigilance - actively seek knowledge and
treatment so they can respond to the changes
in their bodies.