provides an analytical framework for understanding the social contexts of health, illness and health care.
medical sociology
central topics of medical sociology
health and illness, political, economic and environmental circumstances fostering ill health
why is medical sociology important?
Social factors play a critical role in determining or influencing the health of individuals, groups and society as a whole.
efforts to improve social health
social medicine
concluded that medicine is a social science by studying typhus fever
Rudolf Virchow (1821-1902)
* Medical sociology truly became a discipline of its own in the 1950s and 60s due to 4 primary reasons
* 1. Changing patterns of morbidity and morality * 2. The Impact if Preventative Medicine and Public Health * 3. The Impact of Modern Psychiatry * 4. The Impact of Administrative
Why have chronic disease become prevalent in the modern industrialized world?
aging
how do we handle risk factors of chronic disease
* Understand risk factors, If you cant treat it medically, treat it behaviorally and socially
* Examples of how we handle the onset of chronic disease in society
* No smoking in bars and restaurants, higher taxes on cigarettes, take coke machines out of schools,
why were infectious diseases spreading around the world?
mass transportation, air travel
new type of infectious disease
STD's
why did std's increase dramatically worldwide in 1970's
* 1. Birth control pill lead people to increased promiscuity * 2. Sexual liberation increased permissiveness * 3. Migrant employment in developing nations spread disease from urban to rural areas. * 4. The availability of multiple partners on an unprecedented scale
In the mid 1900s the focus included social factors