1. Chapter 13 Health and Population
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2. Theoretical Thumbnail: How Health and Medical Care Affect Us.
Perspective
Focus
Insights
Functionalist
The positivity of sickness and healing
Both sickness and healing, and thus the medical care system, contribute to social order and better health.
Conflict
The negativity of medical care
Providing a better social environment reduces mortality more than medicine does; medical care reflects the profit motive and social inequality.
Symbolic interactionist
The interaction between doctor and patient
Patients are more satisfied with medical treatment if their doctors interact positively with them.
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Health and Society
Global Analysis of Health
Since 1900 life expectancy in the U.S. has increased by more than 50%.
Infant mortality rate has improved dramatically.
When compared to other industrial societies however, life expectancy for Americans is lower.
Minorities are more likely to suffer from diseases—these diseases are associated with the effects of poverty.
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Medical Care
Changing Medical Profession
Today doctors find their autonomy eroded, prestige reduced, and their competence challenged.
More doctors are working for HMOs and large practices.
Efforts by insurance companies, employers, and the government to reduce costs have decreased doctor independence.
More women and minority-group members are entering the profession.
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Smoking
Over 430,000 people have died since 1990 from smoking-related illnesses.
25% of Americans smoke regularly
The prevalence of smoking is three times higher amongst people with less than 12 years of education.
Among white teenagers, females are more likely to smoke.
Smokers are less risk-averse than non-smokers.
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6. Sexism in Medical Research
Researchers have found that some well-accepted treatments may actually be dangerous to women patients because they are based on research on men only.
Cardiovascular disease strikes women later in life, and they are much more likely to die after undergoing heart-bypass surgery.
Bias against women shows up in the lack of research on health problems that affect women only.
There is a serious lack of knowledge about breast cancer , which kills about 44,000 women every year.
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7. Social Diversity in Health
Women are more likely to use health services than men, but are often not treated as seriously by doctors as men.
Mexican Americans go to the doctor as a last resort and rely on folk medicine.
African Americans are more likely than whites to receive treatment in hospital outpatient clinics and emergency rooms.
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U.S Healthcare System
High cost. Why?
Aging population.
Expensive medical technology.
Americans visit doctors more often, swallow more pills, and seek more costly treatments.
Run as a business.
Payment System
No government-paid universal health service.
Most covered by private insurance, or Medicaid and Medicare.
15% of the population have no health insurance.
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9. Global Analysis of Population
Demography—the scientific study of population
More than any other area of sociology, demography is based on accurate vital statistics often obtained through a census – periodic head count of the entire population of a country.
Vital statistics – consist of information about births, marriages, deaths, and migrations into and out of a country.
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10. Global Analysis of Population
Population Growth
Nearly 100 million babies are born every year.
Population does not increase linearly, with the same number of people added annually. It grows exponentially, with an increasingly large number of new people appearing in each succeeding year.
Populations are growing much faster in poor, developing countries than in rich, developed ones.
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Birth Rate
Birth Rate – is the number of babies born in a year for every 1,000 members of a population.
Developed countries are close to or are already experiencing zero population growth – a situation in which the population stops growing.
Why do people in rich nations have fewer babies?
Access to effective and convenient methods of birth control.
Nuclear family system.
Industrialization.
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Death Rate
Death Rate- the number of deaths in a year for every 1,000 members of a population.
Infant Mortality Rate – shows the number of deaths among infants less than 1 year old for every 1,000 live births.
Life Expectancy –average number of years that a group of people can expect to live.
Two factors shape death rates and life expectancies:
Medical Practice
Wealth
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13. International Migration
Refers to a movement of people from one country to another – does not increase the world’s population, but may greatly alter the population of a specific country.
– more than 28 million European immigrants settled in the U.S.
A push and pull stimulate international migration:
Push comes from economic hardship
Pull comes from economic opportunity elsewhere.
Today there is a worldwide mass movement of people from various poor countries to more prosperous ones. Why?
There are 2 revolutions: the information revolution which enables people to know what life is like in other parts of the world
Transportation revolution which makes it easier for people to travel long distance.
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14. Age, Gender, and Marriage
Other characteristics of a population also influence its growth:
Age structure –pattern of the proportions of different age groups within a population- shapes the birth rate.
Sex ratio –indicates the number of males per 100 females.
Marriage rate –number of marriages in a given year for every 1,000 people – is likely to be high.
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15. Patterns of Population Change
The 2 most influential explanations of population change are:
Malthusian theory—Argued that population grows faster than the food supply because a population multiplies but food production increases only by addition. As a result, he argued, population growth will stop.
People could bring a stop to the growth through “preventive checks” – late marriage and sexual restraint.
Malthus’ predictions did not come true for most of the world, but for some countries like Africa, famine and AIDS is killing over 1/3 of the population.
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16. The Demographic Transition
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17. Combating Population Growth
Voluntary Family Planning
Compulsory Population Control
U.S. Population Policy
Birth Control –Family planning has become the norm rather than the exception.
Sterilization us the most popular.
Immigration
26% of nation’s growth is due to immigration.
There is widespread fear that immigrants take jobs from U.S. low-skilled workers.
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18. Current Event: The Impact of Immigration
Stereotype of hard-working immigrant is true.
Immigrants are more likely to be employed and less likely to be unemployed compared with native-born Americans.
Immigrants have almost no impact on manual laborers’ wages.
Immigrants are less likely to compete with U.S. workers because they typically lack the language skills, educational background, and institutional know-how.
Immigrants benefit consumers by keeping prices down.
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19. Copyright © Allyn and Bacon 2009
Chapter Summary
How does the health of U.S. citizens compare with that of other nations?
How did the medical profession change in the 1990s?
Who is likely to seek medical care when ill?
What are two theories regarding population patterns?
What is the impact of immigration on U.S. society?
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