Download 21 Health

Health & Medicine
 Medical
Sociology
General trends
 Cultural
patterns define what is or is
not healthy
◦ 2/3 of U.S. adults are overweight
 Social
inequality
 Technology
◦ PET scans & CAT scans
Group differences
 Women VS
 Women
longer
men
are healthier and live
Major causes of deaths in
high income countries
 Heart
disease
 Cancer
 Stroke
Deaths among young
Americans
 Accidents
Smoking
 Effects
◦ Physically & Psychologically
addictive
◦ Frequent minor illnesses
◦ Increased prenatal death
Smoking (cont.)
Greatest preventable cause of death
 440,000 die prematurely
 More than deaths from:
◦ Alcohol, Cocaine, Heroin
◦ Homicides, suicides, car accidents
◦ AIDS
◦ Combined

Euthanasia
 Assisting
in the death of a person
suffering from a terminal illness.
Social epidemiology
 Study
of the distribution of health
and illness in a population
Sexually transmitted diseases
 Genital
herpes
◦ Infects 1 in 5 adults
◦ (50 Million U.S. adults)
AIDS worldwide
 Highest
number of cases?
◦ Sub-Saharan Africa
 Most rapidly
◦ Thailand
 U.S. rate
rising rate?
is declining
High risk behaviors
 IV
drug use (Sharing needles)
 Using drugs that impair judgment
 Anal Sex
Human genetics research
 Stop
disease before it develops
 Information about their future
medical condition
 Health profile of a future child
Medical technology in poor
countries
◦ What happens as medical
technology attacks infectious
diseases in poor countries?
◦ Populations increase rapidly