11. Health and illness

Sociological Perspective on Health Health is a state of complete well-being: physical, mental, and emotional. Medicine is the social institution that diagnoses, treats, and prevents disease. Preventive medicine is a more recent approach to medicine, which emphasizes health habits that prevent disease, including eating a healthier diet, getting adequate exercise, and insuring a safe environment.

Talcott Parsons identified what he called “the sick role,” or the social definition of, the behavior of, and the behavior toward those whom society defines as ill. Parsons identified four components to the sick role. The sick person is: Not held responsible for being sick. Not responsible for normal duties. Not supposed to like the role. Supposed to seek help to get out of the role. Society loses sympathy for and denies the role to those who appear to like it or those who do not seek treatment.

In other cases, family and friends may show sympathy for a while, but lose patience with the victim and assume he or she is seeking attention. The culture defines diseases as legitimate if they have a clear “scientific” or laboratory diagnosis, such as cancer or heart disease: In the past, society considered conditions such as chemical dependency, whether drug- or alcohol-based, as character weaknesses, and denied those who suffered from addiction the sick role. Today, drug rehabilitation programs and the broader culture generally recognize addictions as a disease, even though the term “disease” is medically contested. In today's culture, addicts may take on the sick role as long as they seek help and make progress toward getting out of the sick role.

Health Care: Costs and Inequality What factors contribute to the rising cost? Continually advancing technology provides the most obvious and perhaps greatest cause. This is derived from: Innovations in all forms of medical equipment, surgical techniques, and therapies are costly on their own, but also require specialists to operate them, or additional training for existing specialists. Patients, with more access to information about new technology through the Internet and other sources, expect the latest technology in their own treatment. Research and physician demands to use new techniques to explore all possibilities in patient care fuel this expectation.

2. The rising cost of physician care is a significant contributor to rising medical costs. As technologies have increased so have the numbers of, types of, and demands for specialists. 3. Another contributor to rising health-care costs is malpractice insurance. 4. The availability of newer, more expensive drugs, particularly newer antibiotics and drug treatments for AIDS patients. 5. The cost of medicine has become a public policy issue and a social problem as people forgo medication to pay for food and other expenses.

How society influences health? In the 19th century, adult and child mortality started to fall, and since then there has been a large and rapid population increase. many social and economic changes and the general improvement in living standard: 1. Public hygiene which is reflected in sanitary reforms and public hygiene that helped to develop a clean and safe environment. 2. Better diet. Being well fed are most affective form of disease prevention.

3. Contraception, which led to small families, making possible a better diet, and healthcare for children. 4. Housing legislation, that helped to reduce overcrowding and the spread of infection disease between family members. 5. General improvements in living standards. Higher wages, better food, clothing, laws improving health and safety at work, reduced working hours, etc.