Health

Question 1

What are the different approaches to health?

Answer 1

(Bio-)Medical Model
Biopsychosocial Model
Social and/or Ecological Model
Salutogenic Model
Life Course Model

Question 2

What is the focus of the Biomedical Model?

Answer 2

Diseases that produce anatomical or physiological abnormalities that cause signs and symptoms. Other factors may effect the consequences, but aren’t casual.

Question 3

What is the difference between a sign and a symptom?

Answer 3

Sign: anyone can see
Symptom: only patient experiences

Question 4

How does this model approach health?

Answer 4

Invokes the negative definition of health- that health is a lack of something., if there is no physical manifestation then a person is fine and healthy
Health is what is left behind from illness

Question 5

How are people suffering from social illnesses perceived via the Biomedical Health Model?

Answer 5

Mental health and physical health are considered distinct, and individuals (or patients) are considered passive victims of diseases.
The Biomedical Health Model ignores social illnesses

Question 6

How is health meant to be restored in accordance with the Biomedical Health Model?

Answer 6

The patients are expected to passively agree with treatment plans, and health is also improved by eliminating/reducing diseases

Question 7

What are some advantages of the Biomedical Health Model?

Answer 7

As of some symptoms and signs being harder to diagnose or identify, there has been an increase in diagnostic technology
Large scale reductions in mortality (death) and morbidity (amount of diseases in a population)

Question 8

What are some disadvantages of the Biomedical Health Model?

Answer 8

Focuses heavily on pathophysiology
The focuses on prevention and treatment disease (and not illness) ignores patient experience and social construction of diseases. The view of health problems as located within the individual tends to ignore the social determinants of health and illness.
There is too much power given to the pharma companies

Question 9

What is the focus of the Biopsychosocial Health Model?

Answer 9

Health can be affected by social factors and location; health can be socially clustered
Holistic consideration of the interaction of biological, psychological, and social factors that contribute to health and illness. The focus on these interactions makes the approach holistic and inclusive, rather than reductionist

Question 10

How does the Biopsychosocial Health Model improve from the Biomedical Model?

Answer 10

The Biopsychology Health Model focuses on how social framing can impact well-being
Shift of focus from disease to illness – the individual’s feeling of being unwell. This integrates individual psychology and cultural influences on health

Question 11

What is a negative of the Biopsychosocial Model of Health?

Answer 11

Individuality cannot be explained, i.e. why some people have the same disease but different illnesses
However, has been subject to critique (Henriques, 2015), such as inconsistencies about the mind/body relationship, and difficulties with taking all these factors into account when diagnosing.

Question 12

What is the focus of the Biopsychosocial Model of Health?

Answer 12

Originally thought by biologists, as why humans are perceived differently from animals. Based on niches and examines how people in the same ecosystem interact with the environment; how health is affected from the environment a person is in, and doesn’t focus on individuals but the whole population

Question 13

What are some features of the Biopsychosocial Model of Health?

Answer 13

Accommodates the possibility of enabling/empowering communities to define and address health needs
Similarly, the impacts of any measures to improve health from this perspective are typically seen a very long time after interventions (lifestyle drift?)

Question 14

What are some more negative features of the Biopsychosocial Model of Health?

Answer 14

Shifts in determinants of health tend to require significant political change and challenges to powerful institutions/organisations
Broader focus of health in this model creates difficulties with devising and measuring changes in health as the contributions of each domain are difficult to quantify

Question 15

What is the focus of the Salutogenic Model of Health?

Answer 15

This approach treats health like money in the sense that to increase health, you must increase what makes you healthy; reverse of the Biomedical model of Health

Question 16

What are some concepts of Salutogenesis (the Salutogenic Model of Health)?

Answer 16

Places emphasis on the creation of health, examining people’s resources and capabilities to promote their health (a positive definition in contrast to the pathogenesis of disease-focused models)
Health is movement on an axis between ‘dis-ease’ (total ill health) and ‘ease’ (total health) - (Lindstrom & Eriksson, 2005)
Sense of coherence (SOC) – ability of individuals to assess the situation they are in and the understanding and capacity to move in a health promoting direction. (Antonovsky, 1987)
Can be applied at individual, community and societal levels

Question 17

What are some limitations of the Salutogenic Model of Health?

Answer 17

Difficult to measure or assess the ‘dis-ease/ease’ continuum, the process is subjective
Potential for blaming the individual/community-increases dependency
An apolitical approach to health whilst (mis)recognising the political influences on health
Who controls resources as to increase the good aspects of life that will increase health

Question 18

What is the focus of the Life Course Model of Health?

Answer 18

The Life Course model is dependent on the other theories, considers life as a “developmental trajectory” with a complex interplay of:
biological
psychological
social
behavioural
protective and risk factors
which shape health outcomes across the course of a person’s life
Helps us understand critical periods, pathways and accumulation

Question 19

What is the definition of “Critical Period”?

Answer 19

Exposure whether biological or other during a specific period which can have long lasting or lifelong effects on the structure or function of organs, tissues and body systems not significantly modified by later experiences

Question 20

What is the definition of “Pathways”?

Answer 20

Early advantages or disadvantages in relation to etiological exposure sets a person on a pathway to later exposure that is etiologically important event

Question 21

What is the definition of “Accumulation”?

Answer 21

Factors that elevate disease risk or enhance good health that may accumulate gradually over the life course

Question 22

What are some features of the Life Course Model of Health- both positive and negative?

Answer 22

More effective explanation of how health develops and declines over the life course
Offers explanatory model of how social determinants influence health and the development of health inequalities
Provides multidimensional opportunities for preventative, protective and curative interventions
“Pathways” can be excessively fatalistic/deterministic?
Leads to “front loading” of interventions around pregnancy/early years

Question 23

What is a culture?

Answer 23

A culture is the ways of being, the social behavior and norms found in different societies, most of which are rooted in the popularised knowledge/ideas, customs, laws, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups. As such, understandings of and attitudes towards health are bound to vary according to cultural settings of a group of people, and is difficult to define if you are in one

Question 24

What are some dimensions that can shape culture, and therefore beliefs?

Answer 24

Religion
Location
Age
Ethnicity

Question 25

What is cultural positionality?

Answer 25

Positionality refers to a geographical location with many significant cultural domains. people may then identify with these geographical locations. With a contrast in these positionalities, we can identify if certain positionalities are beneficial to health or not

Question 26

What is one approach that healthcare professionals take when examining people of different cultures?

Answer 26

Cultural competence: the health care professional will have a broad understanding of the culture of the person and try to treat them in accordance with that knowledge. However, they must do so in care, as this removes individual nuances as not all people may have the same culture, i.e., a doctor treating a Shia Muslim in accordance with the practice of Sunni Muslims

Question 27

What is a better approach that healthcare professionals can adopt when treating someone of a different culture?

Answer 27

Cultural humility: the healthcare professional will not know all about the patient’s culture but instead try and find a middle ground with the patient and therefore can equally share the dominance of their position. There are limits that aren’t crossed and this allows the patient to receive crucial care, whilst not having their culture ignored

Question 28

How can cultural humility be practiced?

Answer 28

QIAN:
Self-Questioning: How does your own background affect your understanding and assumptions about the world?
Immersion in the culture (by both individuals): How would you like to be treated if you were in your patient’s shoes? How do you foster respect?
Mutually Active listening: How can you best understand each other?
Flexible Negotiation: How can you collaborate on a working solution?