Problems Chapter Two

Countries that have relatively high gross national income per capita and have diverse economies made up of many different industries.

Countries that have relatively low gross national income per capita, with simpler economies that often rely on a few agricultural products.

The poorest countries of the world.

Illnesses, symptoms, and the impairments they produce.

The average number of years that individuals born in a given year can expect to live.

A societal shift from low life expectancy and predominance of parasitic and infectious diseases to high life expectancy and predominance of chronic and degenerative diseases.

Death

The number of deaths of live-born infants under 1 year of age per 1,000 births (in any given year).

The rate of deaths of children under age 5.

A measure of deaths that result from complications associated with pregnancy, childbirth, and unsafe abortion.

Defining or labeling behaviors and conditions as medical problems.

The view that medicine can not only control particular conditions but also transform bodies and lives.

A discrediting label that affects an individual's self-concept and disqualifies that person from full social acceptance.

The successful performance of metal function, resulting in productive activities, fulfilling relationships with other people, and the ability to adapt to change and to cope with adversity.

All mental disorders, which are health conditions that are characterized by alterations in thinking, mood, and/or behavior associated with distress and/or impaired functioning and that meet specific criteria (such as level of intensity and duration).

The growing economic, political, and social interconnectedness among societies throughout the world.

Any medical insurance plan that controls costs through monitoring and controlling the decisions of health care providers.

A federally funded program that provides health insurance benefits to the elderly, disabled, and those with advanced kidney disease.

A public health insurance program, jointly funded by the federal and state governments, that provides health insurance coverage for the poor who meet eligibility requirements.

A public health insurance program, jointly funded by the federal and state governments, that provides health insurance coverage for children whose families meet income eligibility standards.

Also known as workers' comp, an insurance program that provides medical and living expenses for people with work-related injuries or illnesses.

The removal of individuals with psychiatric disorders from mental hospitals and large residential institutions to outpatient community mental health centers.

An approach to health care that focuses on using specific interventions to target specific problems.

An approach to health care that focuses on the broader social determinants of health, such as poverty, and economic inequality, gender inequality, environment, and community development.

Programs designed to reduce transmission of HIV by providing intravenous drug users with new, sterile syringes in exchange for used, contaminated syringes.

Also known as universal health care, a state-supported system of health care delivery in which health care is purchased by the government and sold to the consumer at little or no additional cost.

In health care, a concept requiring equality between mental health care insurance coverage and other health care coverage.

According to the World Health Organization, "a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being."

Measures of health that serve as indicators of the health of populations include morbidity (often expressed as incidence and prevalence rates), life expectancy, and morality rates (including infant and under-5 childhood morality rates and maternal mortality rates). Maternal mortality rates reveal the greatest disparity between developed and developing countries.

The conflict perspective criticizes the pharmaceutical and health care industry for placing profits above people. For example, pharmaceutical companies' research and development budgets are spent not according to calculations about maximizing profits. Because the masses of people in developing countries lack the resources to pay high prices for medication, pharmaceutical companies do not see the development of drugs for diseases of poor countries as a profitable investment.

HIV/AIDS is most prevalent in Africa, particularly sub-Saharan Africa. With slightly more than 10 percent of the world's population, Africa is home to 60 percent of individuals infected with HIV. About 1 in 12 African adults has HIV/AIDS and as many as 9 to 10 HIV-infected people in sub-Saharan Africa do not know that they are infected.

Obesity, which can lead to heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, and other health problems, is the second biggest cause of preventable deaths in the United States.

Mental illness is a "hidden epidemic" because the shame and embarrassment associated with mental problems discourage people from acknowledging and talking about mental illness. Because male gender expectations associate masculinity with emotional strength, mean are particularly prone to deny or ignore mental problems.

Features of globalization that have been linked with problems in health are increased transportation, the expansion of trade and transnational corporations, and free trade agreements.

In an address to the 2001 World Health Assembly, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan remarked, "The biggest enemy of health in the developing world is poverty." Approximately one-fifth of the world's population live on less than US$1 per day and nearly one-half live on less than US$2 per day. Poverty is associated with malnutrition, unsafe water and sanitation, indoor air pollution, hazardous working conditions, and lack of access to medical care.

The World Health Organization found that France provides the best overall health care among major countries, followed by Italy, Spain, Oman, Austria, and Japan. The United States ranked 37 out of 191 countries, despite the fact that the United States spends a higher portion of its gross domestic product on health care than any other country.

Selective primary health care focuses on using specific interventions to target specific health problems, such as promoting condom use to prevent HIV infections and providing immunizations against childhood diseases to promote child survival. In contrast, comprehensive primary health care focuses on the broader social determinants of health, such as poverty and economic inequality, gender inequality, environment, and community development.

The goals of health care-reform efforts in the United States generally fall into one of three categories: (1) creation of a universal health program; (2) expansion of existing government health insurance programs; (3) implementing tax incentive and other strategies to make private insurance more affordable.

Health, according to the World Health Organization, is "a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being." Based on this definition, we suggest that the study of social problems is, essentially, the study of health problems, because each social problem is concerned with the physical, mental, and social well-being of humans and the social groups of which they are a part.

Heart Disease

False

14 hours

Heterosexual contact

Two-thirds

True

The federal government

False

True

True