1. Social Sciences in Medicine
Michael L. Tan
June 2009

2. Social Medicine
The applications of the social sciences and humanities toward an understanding of medicine and health care.

3. Social Sciences Anthropology (and archaeology) Demography Economics
Geography
History
Linguistics
Political science
Psychology
Sociology

4. Humanities Arts Literature Classics Philosophy Religious studies
(There are overlaps with the social sciences, eg history and anthropology are often cited as being part of the humanities as well.)

5. Why social sciences in medicine?
“Medicine is a social science, and politics is nothing but medicine on a large scale.” “It is the curse of humanity that it learns to tolerate even the most horrible situations by habituation.” “My politics were those of prophylaxis, my opponents preferred those of palliation.”
-Rudolf Ludwig Virchow ( ), Physician, public health advocate, anthropologist

6. The social sciences provide tools for:
Analyzing health and illness
Developing greater competencies (especially cultural competence)
Developing a more critical and discerning science.

7. 1. Analyzing health, culture and society
Urie Bronfenbrenner’s nested ecological model or social ecological model points out different levels for analysis:
Micro or individual or interpersonal level, including the family
Meso level: organizational level (eg faith-based institutions, schools) where enculturation and socialization take place

8. Nested ecological model (con’td)
Exo level: community level (geographical or virtual)
Macro level: large structures such as government, faith-based institutions, mass media

9. Cutting across these levels are:
Ecological factors (interactions between humans and the natural environment)
History

10. Lens from the social sciences & humanities
Micro:
health psychology theories looking into behavior change
Phenomenological/interpretivist perspectives looking into meanings and experiences, how we make sense of the world (anthropology and the humanities emphasize the biocultural interfaces/predispositions as well)
Economics often looks into individual motivations, eg the “nudge” factor

11. Levels/lenses Meso level: peers, organizations
Sociology and anthropology offer social interactionist perspectives looking into how we socialize, how culture becomes habitus or kaugalian
Political science offers social capital theories that look into how we build networks of knowledge and trust that can be passed inter-generationally

12. Levels/lenses Exo: the community
Again, social interactionist theories help us to understand who we develop a sense of community, and how such affiliations affect/reinforce/challenge behaviors around health. The four B’s are an example of powerful exo factors at work (bantay, bisita, baon, balot).

13. Levels/lenses Macro: “big picture”
Political economy looks at power relations, across classes, ethnicities, castes, and how these shape access to resources. In the area of medicine, political economy looks at health policies, budgets, ideologies.

14. Levels/lenses Human-environment relations
Demography looks at how populations and population movements affect health and illness.
Geography focuses on perceptions of and utilization of spaces, and how this impacts on health and illness. (How do we react when we see many people?)
Cultural ecology (from anthropology) looks at how cultures are shaped and reshaped in response to the environment.

15. Levels/lenses
History: cuts through all the levels, offering perspectives across time.

16. 2. Cultural competence
Cultural competence is defined as an ongoing process by which individuals and systems
respond respectfully and effectively to people of all cultures, languages, classes, races,
sexes, ethnic backgrounds, religions, sexual orientations, abilities and other diversity factors in a manner that recognizes, affirms, and values the worth of individuals, families, and communities and protects and preserves the dignity of each.” (US National Association of Social Workers, 2001)

17. Why cultural competence?
We live in a multicultural world. Think of the diversity in the Philippines:
170 languages (8 with at least 1 million speakers)
3 major religions
Wide disparities in socioeconomic status
At least 7 genders (More in another lecture)

18. Why cultural competence?
A diaspora that is creating all kinds of mestizo populations and cultures, as well as Filipinos working with nearly every known culture in the world.

19. Ethnocentrism vs cultural relativism
Ethnocentrism: Judging other people’s beliefs and practices using our own cultural norms and standards. This hampers the development of cultural competence.
Cultural relativism: Understanding that there are social, historical and even environmental contexts to culture. There are debates on how far we can go with cultural relativism.

20. Cultural competence and medical practice
Cultural competence means
Enhanced clinical competence
Greater efficiency in administrative functions
Wider “clientele”

21. Some caveats: Cultures are not homogenous and static.
The social sciences should not teach you to manipulate patients. Move from the idea of patient compliance to patient adherence.

22. 3. A critical and discerning science
Physicians, like many natural and physical scientists, tend toward absolutes and dogmatism. The social sciences help sharpen the mind, awaken the spirit, keep you critical and discerning.
While the social sciences can help to develop medicine, think too of how medicine might help to explain social phenomena, and harness more of these social phenomena for health care.

23. Hallmarks in 21st century science
Evidence-based
Translational (bench to bedside)