- Symptoms
- Allergies
- Family
- Blood/ pressure
- Asthima- breathing rate and pulse
Socio-medical: looking at life style to analyses what could be causing symptoms. E.g. poor housing and poverty are causes to respiratory problems, and in response to these causes and origins of ill health, the socio-medical model aimed to encourage society to include better housing and introduce programmes to tackle poverty as a solution. Looking at life’s style to analyses what could be causing symptoms. E.g. looking at a persons housing to see’ if their poor housing conditions are causing health problems.
The socio medical model of health focuses on the social factors that contribute to health and well being in society. When this model considers social factors, it particularly looks at the impact of poverty, poor housing, diet and pollution, finance, work, education and environment. These models are mostly adopted by health care professionals and community psychiatrist nurses. For example health care professional will give advice on how to stop smoking or refer you to a stop smoking clinic to set counselling. The main causes of preventable death in modem and waste societies are things such as:
- Lifestyle, such as smoking, drinking, unhealthy diet and drugs.
- Environment conditions. E.g. pollution and homeless.
- Financial issues and poverty.
P4) describe different concepts of ill health
Health can be defined in terms of the absence of diseases, sometimes described as a negative approach to health. This is contrasted with a positive definition such as that provided by the world health organisation.
Ill health means different things to different people. How people view ill health depends on a variety of factors; if they've been seriously ill before, how knowledgeable they are about illness and also what they would class as a "severe" or "mild" illness etc.
There are four main concepts of ill health are:
The first concept is ill health as disease symptoms. This concept focuses on the symptoms associated with ill health, such as vomiting, diarrhoea, pain and also visible symptoms, such as rashes and lumps on the skin. This is a common concept among patients, rather than health professionals, as it is about what the sufferer feels, rather than what the doctor or nurse is classifying those symptoms as. This concept of health is beneficial as people who have this concept will pick up on symptoms much quicker, and therefore will more readily seek medical advice.
The second concept is ill health as a subjective sensation of illness. This is a general feeling of being ill or unwell. Malaise is a general feeling of uneasiness or discomfort, and is often an initial stage of an illness or disease. It is a general term for all sorts of non-visual symptoms (symptoms that are not physically apparent), such as fatigue, depression, and the general feeling of being run-down and exhausted.
The third concept of ill health is ill health as a disorder or malfunction. This usually relates to more serious and life threatening diseases illnesses, such as heart disease, intestinal blockage or a brain tumour.
The fourth concept ill health is some people they feel well but have a diseases they think positively, motivation, still want to go to work or play and although they are sick they even plain on going to holiday outside country. Another concept ill health is clinical iceberg which is thousand of people outside walking with a disease without being diagnosed about it. For example a woman who has being living without knowing that she can’t have children after few years she went to her doctor to try to find out what is the problem that is preventing her from having children. This is called concept ill health a diseases that doesn’t have symptom. A diseases that doesn’t have symptom to feel encase if you haven’t being diagnosed about it.
P5) compare patterns and trends of health and illness in three different social groups
The social class is divided in to five main groups which are:
- professionals e.g. managers, directors, doctors and lawyers
- nurses, police, journalists, actors etc
- skilled and non- manual
- partly skilled
- unskilled
I am going to choose three groups which are skilled non – manual, unskilled and professional. To compare patterns and trends of health and illness in these three groups.
When we are talking about the professionals we mate about lawyers, doctors and so on. Unskilled people are those people that work as cleaner, road wiper and son.
Professionals- are people who earn lot of money and live their life better than unskilled people. Normal in society people qualifies them as higher class, middle class and lower class. There is a close correlation between the patterns of lack and of illness and disease. There is a 5 year difference in life hope between professional men and men who do unskilled and skilled non-manual work. The ways professionals’ people conduct their life it’s totally different with unskilled people. For the reason is that professionals have more opportunity to have access on different area comparing unskilled people. The salary the professionals earn is gives them the opportunity of buying big house, eating health food, putting their children to private school for good education. For example unemployment and economic inactivity affect self-esteem and mental health and increase stress, in addition to the effects of relative poverty on housing, diet and access to leisure activities. The social effect of unemployment through ill-health is substantial and the resulting poverty can aggravate such factors as crime and substance misuse which add to the cycle of poor conditions and ill-health.
Unskilled manual workers are more likely than professionals to have long-term limiting illness, higher infant mortality in their families, and their children are more likely to suffer from chronic sickness and tooth decay. Children up to the age of 15 years from unskilled families are 5 times more likely to die from unintentional injury than those from professional families. Children up to age 15 years from unskilled families are 15 times more likely to die in a fire in the home than those from professional families
40 per cent of unskilled men smoke compared with 12 per cent of men in professional jobs.
M1) Use two sociological perspectives to explain different concepts of health.
Perspective concepts of health
- Functionalism positive health
- Marxism negative health
- Feminism holistic-definition of health
- New right
The two concepts of sociological perspectives that I am going to choose are functionalism and Marxism I am going to talk on both side which positive and negative concepts of health.
Functionalism- means the society need to have all facilities to maintain holist concept of health in the community. It should be link with holism because functionalism says that for intellectual point of views we need to have education so people can be educated. In the society we need to have social club for people who are lone they need to have social club so they can not be isolated. Holism is link with functionalism because therefore in society we need to have schools, hospitals, social clubs and play ground so that people who doesn’t have friend they could make friend in places like this that why functionalism says we need to have all the activities for people so they don’t feel isolated. Holistic is a wellness approach that addresses the body, mind and spirit or the physical, emotional and spiritual aspects of an individual. Holistic concepts of health and fitness view achieving and maintaining good health as requiring more than just taking care of the various singular components that make up the physical body, additionally incorporating aspects such as emotional and spiritual well-being. Therefore functionalism talks about the facilities that we need to have in society such as education, hospital and on. Functionalism and holistic as a connection with both is it talks about the well-being of individuals in response to society. For example people in society need schools, so we can build our self –esteem and social club helps us to go out to meet new people everyday on our lives. Therefore many people they kill their selves because of being isolated at home without anyone to talk to.
Marxism and positive health- Marx assumes the inevitability of the revolution of capitalist society into socialist society because of eventual discontent. The socialization of labor, in the growth of large-scale production, capitalist interest groups and organizations, as well as in the enormous increase in the dimensions and power of finance capital provides the principal material foundation for the unavoidable arrival of socialism. The physical, intellectual and moral perpetrator of this transformation is the proletariat. Marxism was against capitalism because the way rich people used to treat poor people back to the day. He used to like the wealth to be equally there should not be rich and poor people he used to think about equality in society. Rich people were being coming rich and poor people were suffering on exploitation of rich people. With the domination of the proletariat, the socialization of production cannot help but lead to the means of production to become the property of society. The direct consequences of this transformation are a tremendous rise in labor productivity, a shorter working day, and the replacement of small-scale unified production by collective and improved labor. Capitalism breaks for all time the ties between producer and owner, once held by the bond of class conflict. For example poor people where exploitate by rich people all the thing is link poverty and inequality and affects positive health therefore poor people. Equality and equal pay made people feel better because it as gave individual the opportunity on buying healthy food and accessing to the different sectors.
M2) explain the biomedical and socio-medical models of health.
Case study
John is 76 years old. He was admitted to hospital because of being homeless. The nurses referred him to social workers to have all facilities. This is a socio-medical model. He was seen by the social worker, assessed and provided with finance, housing and social club.
The biomedical model of medicine has been around since the mid-nineteenth century as the predominant model used by physicians in the diagnosis of disease.
This model focuses on the physical processes of a disease. It does not take into account the role of social factors or individual subjectivity. The model also overlooks the fact that the diagnosis is a result of negotiation between doctor and patient. This model is effective at diagnosing and treating most diseases. The biomedical model of health looks at individual physical functioning and describes bad health and illness as the presence of disease and ill symptoms as a result of physical causes such as injury or infections and doesn't look at social and psychological factors. It does not take into account social and psychological factors. It is dominated by considerations of genetically determined disease and biological states, and susceptibility of resistance to trauma and disease. The idea that people’s health at least in a relatively affluent society like Britain, is predominantly a reflection of science’s understanding of the body, the diseases process and the development and availability of effective treatments reflects a bio-medical model of health. Most medical work involves diagnosing and treating abnormalities within the body and hospital based, high technology medicine still receives the major share of health care.
The socio model of health looks at how society and our environment affect our everyday health and well-being and includes factors such as social class, occupation, education, income and poverty, poor housing, poor diet and pollution. The focus of these models is principally to explain why health inequalities exist and persist. For example poor housing and poverty are causes to respiratory problems, and in response to these causes and origins of ill health, the socio-medical model aimed to encourage society to include better housing and introduce programmes to tackle poverty as a solution. “According to this website ’’ socio-medical model approach to health based on diseases prevention and health promotion. In the socio-medical model;
- Health is more than the absence of disease, it is a resource for everyday living.
- Diseases are caused by a combination of factors, many of them environmental and poor diet.
- The focus of injury is on the relationship between the body and environment
M3- use sociological explanations for health inequalities to explain the patterns and trends of health and illness in three different social groups.
There is overwhelming evidence that standards of health, the incidence of ill health or morbidity and life expectancy vary according to social group in our society and especially to social class. The higher social class are living longer and enjoying better health than the lower social group. The black report considered four types of explanation that might account for the differences in levels of illness and life expectancy experienced by different social classes. The differences in health and well-being were an effect of the level of people’s income, the quality of their housing and the environment in which they lives and worked. The four possible sociological explanations are;
- The statistical artefact explanation
- Natural or social selection
- Culture and behavioural explanations
- Material or structural explanations.
Social class is divided into five main list groups I am going to choose three groups which are professional, unskilled and skilled manual. To compare the pattern and trends of illness in these groups.
Inequalities in health exist, whether measured in terms of mortality, life expectancy or health status; whether categorised by socioeconomic measures or by ethnic group or gender. Going back on my P5 I compared three social group in ways of how they live their life. For example every kind of illness and disease is linked to class. Poverty is the major driver of ill-health and poorer people tend to get sick more often and die younger than rich people. Those who die youngest are people live on benefits or low wagers, in poor quality housing, and who eat cheap unhealthy food. The rate in class 5 unskilled manual workers is about twice that of class1. A person born into social class professional lives on average. About sever years longer than someone in social class 5 unskilled and skilled workers. Men and woman in class 5 are twice as likely to die before reaching retirement age as people in class1. About 90 per cent of the major causes of death are more common in social classes 4 and 5 than in other social classes. Lung cancer and stomach cancer happen twice as often among men in manual jobs as among men in professional jobs, and four times as many women die of cervical cancer in social class 5 as in social class1.
D1- Evaluate the biomedical and socio-medical models of health.
On this assignment I am going to evaluate the biomedical and socio-medical models of health.
Regarding different researches I have done my view states that the biomedical model of health looks at individual physical functioning and describes bad health and illness as the presence of disease and ill symptoms as a result of physical causes such as injury or infections and doesn't look at social and psychological factors. Going back on my P3 the biomedical model of health has been around since the mid-nineteenth century as the predominant model used by physicians in the diagnosis of disease. This view underpins the policies and practice of the national health service. The proponents of the model regard health as being largely the absence of disease and see the intervention of health professionals as necessary in times of illness. Sociologists believe that the focus on the individua patient for whom a cure should be found is a limination of this model. For example if people are ill they cannot make their normal contribution to the smooth running of society. For the functionalist, if people adopt the sick role and are exempt from their usual social responsibities, they do have a responsibility to co-operate with the health professionals and to take all reasonable steps to get better. On my point of view I think it’s depends on where individual lives and this counts the condition of lifestyle as well.
The social model of health looks at how society and our environment affect our everyday health and well-being, including factors such as are social class, poverty, poor housing, diet, pollution and income. For example the advantages of the socio medical model are that it encourages people to live healthy lifestyles and also it looks at the cause of the illness and tries to change the factor that causes illness to prevent a re occurrence instead of just sending the person away with a bottle of pills until next time. The disadvantage is that it takes time to look for factors affecting the illness and a prevention to stop it happening again. The disadvantage of socio-medical model is that, if people are suffering from different illness is because their lifestyle is poorer. For example going back to my M3 rich people they have better life comparing with poor people. Therefore many people are suffering from different illness because of the conditions of the housing, income and the food that they eat. On my own point of view society cannot compare rich person and poor person, for the reason is rich people they have more privilege to access on different health care sector comparing with poor people, the food that they eat is more healthy food than poor people. My conclusion is that looking at life style to analyses what could be causing symptoms. E.g. poor housing and poverty are causes to respiratory problems, and in response to these causes and origins of ill health.
D2- evaluates the four sociological explanations for health inequalities in terms of explaining the patterns and trends of health illness in three different social groups.
On this part of assignment I am going to evaluate sociological explanations for health inequality in terms of patterns and trends of health illness in different social groups.
Socioeconomic inequalities in ill-health and disability typically take the form of a ‘social gradient’, in which those in higher socioeconomic groups have better health and fewer disabling conditions than groups below them. For a number of dimensions of health, rates in the poorest groups are particularly high, with the gradient flattening out among better-off groups. The chances of living in good health and without impairment are unequal. The chances are much higher for people in more advantaged circumstances than for those further down the socioeconomic steps. The social groups for whom life anticipation is shorter, and for whom infant mortality rates are higher, suffer poorer health than other groups because of inequalities in wealth and income. Poverty and continually low incomes are associated with poorer dangerous and insecure employment. For example inequalities in health exist, whether measured in terms of mortality, life expectancy or health status; whether categorised by socioeconomic measures or by ethnic group or gender. The poor lifestyle choices were linked to a range of chronic illnesses including heart disease, some forms of cancer, bronchitis and diabetes. Linking this to my M3 those who die youngest are people live on benefits or low wagers, in poor quality housing, and who eat cheap unhealthy food. The rate in class 5 unskilled manual workers is about twice that of class1. During my researching I come across of understanding that in addition to the health implications of higher levels of poverty, there are issues of access to the health service. In addition, a higher proportion of people from minority ethnic groups live in areas of deprivation in inner city areas with associated poor housing, pollution and relatively high unemployment it is therefore difficulty to know whether the poorer heath is due to poverty or ethnicity. to compare economic inequalities relating it to equal opportunities commission ( 2005) almost 30 years after the equal pay act made it illegal to pay women less for doing the same job, a pay gap of 18 per cent still exists between women and men working full time.