Intro to HLTHAGE
Health studies
Examines the complexity of our thoughts regarding health and illness starting with the basic observation that the nature of illness, health, and medicine are all up for debate
Social constructionism
the observation that nothing we think, know about the world, including health and illness, is either fixed or given.
We may experience our world as an objective reality
Provide examples for unhealthy and healthy practices
Healthy practices: exercising, eating healthy, wearing a bike helmet
Unhealthy: eating too much junk food, excessive social media use, drug/alcohol abuse, little to no physical activity
Culture
Elements of learning, sharing, and common beliefs/values that provide a frame of reference for members of the culture sharing group
Health disparity
Data sources in health studies. Provide an example of each
Qualitative - interview, observation, etc
Quantitative - survey, Statistics, graphs, etc
Social constructionists vs Social determinists
Social constructionists: they are interested in the interactions of people which lead to health-related opinions and social judgments and how these affect health practices and policies. not concerned with determining whether or not someone is health or not
Social determinists: Focus on social factors that influence health of populations, defines people as either healthy or ill, examines how health and illness are distributed in populations
Describe Socioeconomic status (SES)
Social standing or class of an individual or group that is often measured by income, education, and occupation
Black, Hispanic, and Asian people have substantially higher rates of infection, hospitalization and death compared to white people
Social identity
Everything that makes us who we are (background, career, education, gender, etc),
Disciplinarity
Expertise in a discipline which is a specific area of knowledge
Health narratives
Shifted from “ discovery stories” about medical knowledge to “constructed stories
Why is income considered to be "the greatest contributor to individual health" ?
Higher income is correlated with greater life expectancy and higher self-rated health
Socio-economic disadvantage is linked with higher disease and mortality rates
Western view of health
Emphasis on the use of prescription medicines, believes care should be provided by professionals
Mortality vs Morbidity
Mortality: # of deaths over a period of time across a population, provide information about rates of death not cause
Morbidity: prevalence of disease in a specific population, used to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions
Health sciences vs Health studies
Health sciences - focus on medical (i.e. microbiology, toxicology, immunology, etc)
Health studies - focus on social science (i.e sociology, health psychology, geography, anthropology, economics)
Medicalization/Demedicalization
Medicalization: The process where conditions and behaviours come to be defined as a medical problem
Demedicalization: The process where conditions and behaviours once understood as medical problems are reconceptualized (redefined to become non medical problems)
health promotion vs health population
Promotion: focus on the structural factors that create inequalities, believes that funds saved in health care should be used to aid individuals
Population: favours producing wealth as a means to increase health, believes that funds should be redistributed to other areas of government to strengthen economy
Indigenous view of health
Understandings of health are seen as inseparable from religion and spirituality, often based on supernatural phenomena, care is often delivered by a "medicine man" or shaman
Social causation theory
Higher schizophrenia rates among those with lower income, occupation, and education rates
3 disciplinary research methods and (basic) traits of each?
Multidisciplinary - involves several research methods, little interaction between researchers
Interdisciplinary - involves several disciplines, theories and methods from each discipline inform the others, researchers share goals
Transdisciplinary - involves several disciplines, theories and methods from each discipline inform the others, researchers share goals and overarching framework
Define contested illness and Provide an example
Mental illnesses (anxiety, depression, etc) Chronic lyme disease
Compare and contrast the biomedical model to the behavioural model
Biomedical model: illness is the result of a biological or psychological problem
Behavioural model: illness is the result of poor choices made by individuals
Alternative healers (Definition), and Provide 3 examples of alternative healers
Alternative healers: Forms of alternative medicinal practices, that differ from mainstream practices
Examples: Religious, Magician, Traditional chinese, Aboriginal
Intersectionality
Combined effect of social and power relations