MEDICAL SOCIOLOGY

Lecture no. 1 Medical Sociology, definitions and illuminations

Instructional Objectives At end of this lecture, students, would be able to; 1- Define and classify social sciences. 2- Differentiate between; socialism, capitalism and socialization. 3- Define and recognize types of families 4-Identify; norms, deviance and social control. 5- Recognize; authority, culture, race & ethnicity. 6- Spot; standard of living, social defense, social problems. 7- Mark systems of society. To a degree acceptable to the accreditation of College.

Social Sciences and Medicine: Health can not be isolated from its social context. Social, cultural, educational, economic, political, religious factors have a direct bearing on the incidence, prevalence, course and outcome of a wide variety of all diseases and health problems.

Examples of that, poverty, malnutrition, poor sanitation, lack of education, inadequate housing, unemployment, poor working conditions, bad cultural and behavioral factors all predisposes to ill health.

The patient is no longer considered as one who is under strict laboratory control (i.e. not a lab animal or a case) but, an individual with personal characteristics, variable habits, customs and beliefs all are reacting on his body and mind. *Good doctors are being identified as those who treat people, and bad doctors as those who treat cases.

Sociology: the scientific study of human society through investigations of social behaviors and relationships. Medical sociology: science that concerned with implications of sociology for the problems of health and disease in the society. It is part of community medicine and is essentially a practical discipline.

Definition of terms: Society: an organization of member agents Definition of terms: Society: an organization of member agents. It is a system of social relationships between individuals. Community: The people living in a particular place or region and usually linked by common interests. So it is a social group determined by geographical boundaries and or common values of interests .

Social Institutions: Is an organized complex pattern of behavior in which a no. of persons participate in order to further group interest. The family, the school, the club, the hospital and professional associations are all social institutions. Within each social institution, the rights and duties of the members are defined.

The Family: Definition: is the primary unit in all societies, it is a group of biologically related individuals living together and eating from a common Kitchen. (household not a family in that may not be blood related as servants).

Types of Families (structure): 1 Types of Families (structure): 1. Nuclear Family: is universal in all human societies. It consists of the married couple and their children while they are still regarded as dependents. They tend to occupy the same dwelling space. The husband usually play a dominant role in the household. New family: consists of parents and children under 10 years of initiation

2. Joint Family (extended family): is a kind of family grouping and more common in agricultural areas, it is characterized by: - In the same house, there are no. of married couples, all men are related by blood, all females are their wives, or unmarried girls or widows of the family kinsman. - All the property is held in common. All for each and each for All (socialistic). - All the authority for senior male of the family and subsequently for his wife. -The familial relations enjoy primacy over marital relations. - The motto is " union is strength".

3. Three Generation family: - Three generation in the household 3. Three Generation family: - Three generation in the household. - Occurs when young couples fail to find separate house. 4- One-parent family. 5- Communal family. 6- Quasi-family. 7- Strange family of modern ages. (homosexual, Gay, Lesbian)

- Divorce. - Widowed. - Both parents die - Divorce. - Widowed. - Both parents die. - Paternal, maternal or dual parent separation. 8. Problem families: those families lag below the minimum accepted level, both parents unable to meet physical and emotional needs of their children, the home life is utterly unsatisfactory, there is usually a personality and relationship problems, backwardness, poverty, illness, mental and emotional instability and marital disharmony. The child reared in such families are usually the victims of prostitution, crime and vagrancy.

Family in health and disease: Family in health and disease: * Anyone who is concerned with medical practice will come to know that family is ultimately the unit with which one has to deal. Most Eastern societies characterized by Familialism. Most Western societies characterized by Individualism.

Norms of Society: the standard of behavior expected from a person by their social group. Deviance: departure from accepted behaviors and it includes any thing from bad table manner to murder.

Social Control Mechanism: In every society, there are rules, formal (laws of enactment and parliament) and informal for maintenance of relationships of authority and subordination.

Culture: learned behavior which has been socially acquired and it is the product of human society and man largely is the product of his cultural environment . It is transmitted from one generation to another through learning process, formal and informal. Race: When population differentiated according to certain biological characteristics only. Ethnics: When population differentiated according to certain cultural aspect of racial groups.

Definition of Culture: the organization of shared experience which determine our patterns of thinking and feeling, it is socially learned, shared and reinforced. It guides our daily behavior (we recognize the situation and behave automatically).

Standard of Living: usual scale of our expenditure , the goods we consumed and the services we enjoy. It includes food, dress, house and in short " mode of living" and it depends on: -the level of national income -the total amount of goods and services in a country. -the size of population -the level of education -general price level -distribution of national income

Global Epidemiological Transition Western (developed) countries: 1 Global Epidemiological Transition Western (developed) countries: 1. Stage of Communicable diseases: controlled in the middle of nineteenth century by improvement of living standards after industrial revolution. 2. Stage of CNCDs: started after economic exhilaration after the end of II world war and controlled by active medical researches and information technology in middle 1990s. 3. Stage of social diseases: started from 1990s onwards.

Social Stress: It is a major source of stress, particularly in transitional societies, and it is the conflicts generated by new opportunities and frustrations arising from societal change and it includes: - The wave of migration from rural to urban areas and the consequent diminution in the traditional family support system (urbanization). - Greater exposure through the mass media to ideas that have been previously culturally alien. - Tourism. - Change in the technological needs.

Systems of the society and its effect on heath of population: -Economic system. -Social system. -Political system. -Ideological system. -Cultural system. -Educational system. -Health system. -Army system. -Religious system.