Consumerism in Health; Identity and Intersectionality

Question 1

Consumerism

Answer 1

• Ideology in which an individual consumes goods and services to fulfill their own interests
• Freedom to make informed, rational choices

Question 2

Commodity

Answer 2

Something that can be purchased and sold

Question 3

Brand identity

Answer 3

Combination of medical expertise and image management to attract new consumers of a certain organization/product

Question 4

Destination countries

Answer 4

Countries that medical tourists go to for procedures

Question 5

Direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising

Answer 5

Pharmaceutical advertising aimed directly at consumer (instead of advertising to prescribing physician)

Question 6

Downstream factors

Answer 6

Heal people after they’ve already become sick

Question 7

Upstream factors

Answer 7

Fix issues that make people sick in the first place

Question 8

Race and ethnicity

Answer 8

May refer to genetic linkage and biological characteristics, which are usually socially constructed

Question 9

Gender equity

Answer 9

People of all genders have similar access to resources

Question 10

Healthscapes

Answer 10

Tangible aspects of health care system (E.g. hospitals, clinics, physical layout of health care organization)

Question 11

Hospital advertising

Answer 11

Hospitals making stays there seem appealing (e.g. comfortable room, good food, television, etc.)

Question 12

Individualism

Answer 12

Stresses that individual > collective group in terms of importance

Question 13

Informed consumer/expert patient

Answer 13

Consumer who knows risks, benefits and costs of health care

Question 14

Intersectionality

Answer 14

• Relationship b/w any and all of one’s social identities
• Social identity is a result of relationships b/w various identities and none should be neglected

Question 15

Lifestyle drugs

Answer 15

Gives consumers right to choose what they see as a health problem

Question 16

Marketization

Answer 16

Previously public services become more like private businesses, facilitating competition b/w firms trying to attract customers

Question 17

Medical tourism

Answer 17

International travel for the sake of acquiring medical treatment

Question 18

Morbidity

Answer 18

Prevalance and incidence of a disease in a given population

Question 19

Morality

Answer 19

Rate of deaths in population over a period of time

Question 20

Patriarchal institutional structures

Answer 20

Emphasize male privilege and male domination, creating social relations that are oppressive to other genders and men who don’t demonstrate dominant forms of masculinity

Question 21

Social gradient

Answer 21

Ranking in society based on socio-economic status and one’s relative position in a market economy

Question 22

Social identity

Answer 22

Sense of self in relation to society as a whole and its broader social structures

Question 23

Structures of identification

Answer 23

Societal structures that shape individual experience and identity, though experiences are inherently different from anyone else