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Importance of having good education
Importance of having good education
Social class and its effect on health
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Health and ill health can mean different things to different people. According to (Seedhouse, 1986) “A person’s optimum state of health is equivalent to the state of the set of conditions which fulfil or enable a person to work to fulfil his or her realistic chosen and biological potentials.” Seedhouse gives a social definition to health and does not take into consideration the advances that can be made when using factors of the biomedical model. This essay will evaluate the social and biomedical models of health, incorporating the sociological perspectives of Parsons (1951) and Marx (1818).
The biomedical model of health focuses on the physical and biological aspects of disease and illness along with the key elements of diagnosis and cure.
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The social model looks at how society contributes to a person’s health and well-being, taking into consideration factors such as education and environment; “healthy people are those who live in healthy homes on a healthy diet in an environment equally fit for birth, growth, work, healing, and dying…” (Illich, 1976). There are many advantages of the social model, for example; education is considered a major factor in preventing illness and promoting health. Marx (1818) believed that the level of education and care you receive depends on your class. If you are wealthy and high class (the bourgeoisies) then you are more likely to have a higher level of education and better health care, but if you are the working and lower class (the proletariat) then you are less likely to have access to good education and better healthcare. A disadvantage of the social model is that not all illnesses and diseases can be prevented. Breast cancer is one example of a disease that cannot be prevented through any form of socialization, but with advances in the medical fields, cancer patients can now live longer and lead more of a normal
Health and inequality have always been two very controversial topics in society. Society tends to classify us into a class (or social class) based on an unequal distribution of power, wealth, income, and status (Germov 2015: p. 510). Your socioeconomic status”(SES) is also a major factor in the health inequalities we face in todays society. What does socioeconomic status (SES) even mean?
The Social Determinants of Health are certain circumstances that have an effect on the health and overall well being of humans and their own commonalities in terms of financial and societal situations. The reason why it is essential for us to pass beyond considering women’s health and access to health care as individual or biological problems is because women bear unique health needs yet so much health systems are not even acknowledging them. There are situations only females experience that have bad health affects, such as childbirth and pregnancy, although they aren't diseases, physiological and social tactics carry many health jeopardies depend upon health care. Gender based inequalities
First, the sociological model of health provides more value on the social, economic and environmental causes of disease such as cancer for example, rather than only focusing on the biological aspect such as the medical model. Therefore, health and disease prevention is a key aspect, instead of relying on the treatment alone. Although medicine is frequently still required for treatment, the focus however is still primarily on self help and community activity. Furthermore, by finding the source of the issue and solving the cause, the problem is less likely to return or resurface. In other words, the sociological model of health is the preferred model for studying and examining diseases issues such as cancer as it relates to most important working
Socio-economic class or socio-economic status (SES) may refer to mixture of various factors such as poverty, occupation and environment. It is a way of measuring the standard and quality of life of individuals and families in society using social and economic factors that affect health and wellbeing ( Giddens and Sutton, 2013). Cockerham (2007 p75) argues: ‘Social class or socioeconomic status (SES) is the strongest predictor of health, disease causation and longevity in medical sociology.’ Research in the 1990s, (Drever and Whitehead, 1997) found out that people in higher SES are generally healthier, and live longer than those in lower SES.
As discussed, it is clear that when it comes to public health the lines are often quite blurred. The Biomedical Model and the Lifestyle Theory Model both have their advantages however a common theme throughout both models is that they are both too reductionist in their approach to health. They failed to consider other health models viewpoints, or incorporate external factors such as the social gradient into their reasoning behind the cause and effect of bad health. Therefore instead of trying to categorise health into definite ‘health models’, health needs to be accepted more for what it is - a forever changing and adapting concept.
Social construction refers to the statistics like the morbidity and mortality rate of our society. Our gender, class, ethnicity, religion and even education construct society, these all determine our experience of reality. An example of how sociologists have tried to deconstruct health in society is looking at the theories of sociologists like Leslie (1980). She developed the '3 Fold model of Health'.
Although very divergent in their focus, the existing theoretical models seem to have some similarities and differences. This is especially true in regard to their factors of analysis when considering social determinants of health. For example, Krieger’s ecosocial theory encompasses and acknowledges the roles of social and psychosocial processes of disease process (WHO 2010).
Health is described as physical and mental well-being and freedom from disease, pain or defect. However, such descriptions only superficially define the actual meaning of health. There may be many occasions when individuals are not necessarily ill or in pain but may be overweight, stressed or emotionally unstable. Health is a quality of life involving dynamic interaction and interdependence among the individual’s physical state, their mental and emotional reactions, and the social context in which the individual exists. There are many factors that influence your health, but three major components contribute to general well-being: Self-awareness, a balanced diet and, regular physical activity.
This model considers other aspects of an individual 's life such as their culture and environment. Unlike the biomedical model, the social model tries to prevent the disease in the first place, so it focuses more on educating people and health promotion. The biomedical looks at an individual’s physical disease but the social model also looks at a person’s well-being. According to Stephan Sutton, Andrew Baum and Marie Johnston (2004) the SAGE Handbook of Health psychology ‘a combination of high psychological demands, such as time pressure and low decision latitude increases the risk of psychophysiological stress reactions and subsequent ill
Health is a crucial element of human life. The World Health Organization (WHO) has defined ‘‘Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity’’, (1998). There are a lot of elements to affect health such as: biological, physical, environmental, and sociological. Predominately, social structure and health professionals’ knowledge have a huge implication on health and illness. The two theories Functionalism and Weberianism have various social impacts to cause illness (Germov, 2014). Similarly these two theories have implications on health care system and health professionals’ perception (Scott, 2005). This essay is an analytic overview of two main sociological theories: Functionalism
Puffjacket. ( 2010) Why Is Health Difficult To Define? [online] Available at: http://www.etudier.com/dissertations/Why-Is-Health-Difficult-To-Define/35259.html [Accessed:5 Jan 2014].
The notion of health is contextual and an interactive, dynamic process between person and environment (Schim et al, 2007). Both wellness and illness are conceptualized by the ‘person’, existing on a continuum across the lifespan (Arnold & Boggs, 2001).
(Williams and Bendelow, 1998). The social model of health looks at factors such as; the social, environmental, economic and cultural factors which are the broader influences on health instead of diseases and injuries. ‘the social model locates people in social contexts, conceptualizes the physical environment as socially organized, and understands ill health as a process of interaction between people and their environments’ (Broom, 1991, 52). Social model of health perceives health and illness in different ways other than just medical facts, by looking at the broader factors that can cause ill health or be the source of you being ill such as; being in poverty; having poor housing, job-related stress, pollution, family, employment status, working conditions, health services, housing, environmental pollution, friends, income, education, social life, national food deprived neighbourhoods as well as poor life choices, these factors can shape your physical along with your mental health and it is not just science that can shape our physical and mental
In the event of an individual falling ill, we as a nation are very lucky to have such excellent Physicians. Sociology has a variety of different perspectives when it comes to the understanding of the honest purpose of healthcare. With the new era emerging with new technology, humans have become inattentive to the environment and health wellness. I will be explaining the importance of healthcare from the Functionalistic Perspective, targeting three main factors; sick role, gatekeeper and social class. Along with some interesting facts, and studies of the environments role in health within a community.
This also requires the person to be socially and economically productive in order to be seen as healthy. According to Mildred Blaxter (1990), there are different ways of defining health. Furthermore, disease can be seen as the presence of an abnormality in part of the body or where there is a harmful physical change in the body such as broken bones. So, illness is the physical state of disease, that is to say, the symptoms that a person feels because of the disease. However, there is some limitation of these definitions which is not merely an absence of disease but a state of physical, mental, spiritual and social wellbeing.