LC459 Sociology of Health Assignment Sample

Introduction Of LC459 Sociology of Health Assignment

Health and illness derive their definition from social structures because they intersect with societal norms together with cultural values and with contextual beliefs. Perceptions regarding health and disease exist beyond biological definitions since society affects them through economic structures political factors and social networks. This essay explores three key aspects: The social model of health argues about social divisions such as gender and class while health experience examines the "sick role" notion developed by Parsons and doctor-patient exchanges include state and professional definitions of care. Analysing these constructs provides essential knowledge for both health inequality solutions and better healthcare delivery systems.

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Main Discussion

The Social Model of Health

The social model of health therefore orients itself towards how this health and ill-health is determined by certain social factors. In contrast to the biomedical model, this concentrates on factors related to the community and environment apart from the physical and chemical aspects such as environmental status, economic status, and social culture (Short and Zacher, 2022). It strives to tackle health disparities by requiring enhancements in the roles and contexts that lead to worse health. For example, poverty, housing status, and education severally influence health, their mutual interdependence being evident.

Division 1: Gender

Sex is an important determinant of health status and health differences. Females fare worse in reproductive health services due to inadequate resource endowment in many LMICs. For instance, pregnancy-related complications remain one of the number one killers of women in sub-Saharan Africa because of poor maternal health facilities. In the same way, social-cultural beliefs or loopholes exempt men from seeking mental health services, more suicides occur. For this reason, in the UK men are three times more likely to commit suicide than women proving that the stigma around masculinity and expressing emotions is a problem (Cabezas-Rodríguez, Utzet and Bacigalupe, 2021). Additionally, cardiovascular disease prognosis varies with gender, and women receive fewer timely diagnoses because doctors underestimate women's signs and symptoms.

Division 2: Class

Socioeconomic status influences the health of people. Such individuals are usually of lower SES status and are potentially excluded from health insurance, dwell in inadequate housing conditions, and are at risk of exposure to hazards at the workplace. The Marmot Review (2010) revealed the shift in the concentration of people affected by health inequality has become even worse than previously; the life expectancy of people at the bottom of the income distribution is almost 7 years less than those at the top of income distribution in the UK. Also, children in deprived areas make them develop more chronic diseases including asthma through poor housing and inadequate healthcare (Assari, 2017).

The Experience of Illness

Sickness and disease are not disease-related occurrences but social constructions that are influenced by culture, expectation, and practice. Again, it revealed the fact that societal context defines how illness is seen or considered and how it is named and managed. For instance, while in some cultures, mental health disorders are considered shameful and the result of the patient's misconduct, others embrace consulting with a therapist. Likewise, things such as weight could also be defined in some cultures as measures of personal responsibility while morality erases aspects of the social and genetic determinants of health tendencies (Conrad and Barker, 2010). Talcott Parsons formulated the idea into which sick role theory falls by positing that sickness is a functional status in society with predictable expectations. Sick role refers to conditions under which a person becomes ill, is free from his/her normal duties but required to go for treatment, and deserves to get well. This model depends on the relation between the individual and the society in assuming functionality is restored (Cheshire et al., 2020). However, there are critics of the sick role. What it fails to take into account is that people go out looking for treatments and seeking medical care, especially not for diseases or disorders that can be persistent. For instance, an individual with depression disorder might be unable to do the “responsibility” of getting treatment due to the illness. Likewise, chronic diseases such as diabetes take the focus off the cure and place it on recovery, which is effectively impossible. The theory also fails to take into consideration systematic factors like the lack of finances or the geographical churn to get access to health facilities. Of illness as a social process, HIV/AIDS can be used as a good example (Burnham, 2013). At the initial stage of the AIDS epidemic, the people living with HIV/AIDS were socially isolated or charged for being infected by the virus. Such mental health stigma prevented the patients from seeking treatment and support. Likewise, persons with a disability experience social exclusion in areas such as disability-sensitive infrastructure and workplace inclusion with many experiencing negative effects on how they go about their sickness. Summing up, illness occurs not only on the individual level, but is also influenced by cultural beliefs, organizations, and circumstances. Knowing these dynamics is crucial to developing positive state healthcare structures that incorporate everyone (Safilios-Roschild et al., 2017).

Doctor-Patient Interaction

It should also be noted that the organization of healthcare involves both public and private initiatives, though with a significant component of governmental regulation. The state provides care to everyone in such systems, such as the NHS, and therefore the focus is on egalitarianism. However, where the existing resources are limited, patient outcomes can result in longer waiting times. On the contrary, the privatization of healthcare is more efficient but fleshes out inequalities since it is marked by people's ability to pay for health services. They also show that the relationship between doctors and patients is highly professional and that doctors have authority and knowledge over their patients (Khazen, 2021). It will be stated that such dynamics are capable of generating asymmetries, which implies that patients can be deprived of the possibility of being empowered while making decisions. For instance, doctors can give attention to the identification of diseases and medication as patients' experiences and decision voices may be erased. Also, there are cultural differences that affect communication; while in some cultures patients will wait for a doctor's advice without questioning, in others patients are free to make their own decisions. There were reports that cultural disparities sometimes lead to misunderstanding, which in turn affects the quality of treatment the patients receive (Karunaratne, Sibbald and Chandratilake, 2024). Through the Medical gaze, Foucault portrays doctors inspecting patients through the lenses of illness demoralizing the aggregation of people into diseases. This unequal relationship can result in total disregard for the patient's emotional and social aspects. According to Bourdieu's concept of cultural capital, the fact that patients themselves could be better educated and socially superior means that they can more easily challenge doctors or deal with health facility bureaucracies. Real-world examples underscore these dynamics. At least in the NHS, power dynamics are far dealt with using policies highly embracing patient involvement such as shared decision-making (O'Callaghan, 2021). However, problems remain, especially for vulnerable populations, who are unlikely to effectively defend their rights. While systems of private healthcare are advanced, especially in development countries, patient satisfaction is still higher than public and still, there is a serious issue of inequality. Therefore, there are key questions in understanding communication between doctors and patients in terms of system organization, social culture, and power relations. Solving these challenges presupposes enhancing equality, cultural competence, and patient self-determination in the sphere of healthcare (Shim, 2010).

Critical reflection

Examining health and illness from the social constructionist perspective indicates the strength of social, cultural, and economic determinants of health. This view states that the biomedical model fails to attend to social factors such as poverty, gender disparities, and cultural prejudices. Nevertheless, although the social model helps analyse health inequities, it may also obscure the issue of health by reducing its determinants to social aspects only. For instance, while the social model could adequately explain conditions such as cancers or genetic disorders, they need biomedical solutions. The proposed solution is to use both models with their strengths combined in an integrated approach. Whereas the biomedical model has important instruments for diagnosing and curing, the social model refers to contexts and systems that hinder or promote health equity. For instance, combating diabetes calls for biomedical solutions, including insulin use, but this has to be done together with tackling socio-political factors such as hunger and literacy. Lastly, the idealism of the whole person as a biopsychosocial model acknowledges the fact that health has biological and social factors(Samuelsen and Steffen, 2004).

Conclusion

In conclusion, health and illness are sometimes considered a product of society for their social, economic, and cultural inserts. The social model of health shows how oppression based on things like gender and class plays out and Parsons' sick role shows cultural perceptions and problems with chronic and mental health. Doctor-patient communications are conditioned by hierarchies and the role of protocols, as well as by state regulation. A social approach toward the definition of health is necessary for tackling the issue of inequalities and enhancing efficient healthcare provision. Further research should examine the prospects of the integration of biomedical and social models that would inform pro-equity and inclusion policies in health.

References

• Assari, S. (2017) ;Social determinants of depression: the intersections of race, gender, and socioeconomic status,; Brain Sciences, 7(12), p. 156. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci7120156.
• Burnham, J.C. (2013) ;Why sociologists abandoned the sick role concept,; History of the Human Sciences, 27(1), pp. 70–87. https://doi.org/10.1177/0952695113507572.
• Cabezas-Rodríguez, A., Utzet, M. and Bacigalupe, A. (2021) ;Which are the intermediate determinants of gender inequalities in mental health?: A scoping review,; International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 67(8), pp. 1005–1025. https://doi.org/10.1177/00207640211015708.
• Cheshire, A. et al. (2020) ;Sick of the Sick role: Narratives of what “Recovery” means to people with CFS/ME,; Qualitative Health Research, 31(2), pp. 298–308. https://doi.org/10.1177/1049732320969395.
• Conrad, P. and Barker, K.K. (2010) ;The Social Construction of Illness: Key Insights and policy Implications,; Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 51(1_suppl), pp. S67–S79. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022146510383495.
• Karunaratne, D., Sibbald, M. and Chandratilake, M. (2024) ;Understanding cultural dynamics shaping clinical reasoning skills: A dialogical exploration,; Medical Education [Preprint]. https://doi.org/10.1111/medu.15479.
• Khazen, M. (2021) ;Power dynamics in doctor-patient relationships: A qualitative study examining how cultural and personal relationships facilitate medication requests in a minority with collectivist attributes,; Patient Education and Counseling, 105(7), pp. 2038–2044. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pec.2021.11.023.
• O'Callaghan, A.K. (2021) ;‘The medical gaze': Foucault, anthropology and contemporary psychiatry in Ireland,; Irish Journal of Medical Science (1971 -), 191(4), pp. 1795–1797. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11845-021-02725-w.
• Safilios-Roschild, C., 1970 et al. (2017) Criticism of Parsons, Sociology | Health & Disability. https://resource.download.wjec.co.uk/vtc/2016-17/16-17_3-24/pdf/_eng/unit-6/3-criticisms-of-parson.pdf.
• Samuelsen, H. and Steffen, V. (2004) ;The relevance of Foucault and Bourdieu for medical anthropology: exploring new sites,; Anthropology and Medicine, 11(1), pp. 3–10. https://doi.org/10.1080/1364847042000204951.
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