lecture 5 Flashcards
define individualism
each person is motivated by self-interest to elevate their own wellbeing with the least efforts and resources possible
who is responsible for ones health in the current view of health policy?
the individual themselves
Macro-social
Refers to large-scale social, economic, political and cultural forces that influence the life course of masses of people simultaneously
what is epidemiology concerned with?
The distribution of disease and death and their determinants and consequences
diseases can be ____ and _____
Communicable
Non-communicable
What is “epidemiological transition”
Disease patterns, determinants and consequences
explain “The Model Minority” and give an example
People who are perceived to be at a higher socio economic success in comparison to the population average
Ex. chinese immigrants were viewed as the model minority (very hardworking, etc)
Used by government to compare to other minority groups as an example of how it is not a systemic issue
Discrimination developed and changed over time, policially convenient if their beneficial to the economy etc
list the “highers” and “lowers” of poverty
Lower:
Life expectancy
Living conditions
Access to health care
Higher:
Suicide rates
Suffering from chronic diseases/conditions
Food insecurity
Percent of their income to pay for health care expenses (ex. Dental, prescription medications, health insurance)
Food Insecurity
Not enough money to buy nutritious foods
___ of indigenous ppl in urban areas live in poverty
1/4
what % of ppl are in severely poor/bad housing
5
In canada, ___% of people fall below the low income percentage
10%
what did increase of industrialization lead to?
increase of productivity and wages
in the 1970s, wages become _____ and productivity ______
wages become stagnant while productivity increases
Greatest peaks of inequality is a direct result of __________?
the top 1% of earners taking home all the money and not putting it back into the system
how do wealthy people get candidates they like in power?
spend money on lobbyists to influence political infrastructure of the country
increased income inequality leads to?
increased political polarization
what occured in the 1980s?
upward income mobility
what was upward income mobility?
low income groups (those in bottom 10%) were able to move up in income
specifically, 72% of them
Whitehall study methods and findings
METHODS:
Looking at the interactions between social class, psychosocial factors and lifestyle as the determinants of disease
Social rank of individuals (job title), health detriments around the heart and gut
Everyone had the same access to healthcare (control variable)
25 yrs
RESULTS:
Individuals with lower social rank were more likely to have heart disease and more likely to have fat around the abdomen and gut.
For every decrease in lower ranking people, there is a corresponding increase in health issues
What buffered it? Lower rank have decreased job security → increase stress
Lower perception of self agency in their jobs
Find other ways to regain that hierarchy and control
Do politics belong in science?
answer + state why
yes, Policies inform science and vice versa. The two cannot be isolated
who developed Phrenology
Franz Gall
What was phrenology + its beliefs?
One of the earliest forms of neuroscience and psychology
The human mind could be divided into distinct regions in the brain, measurable through cranial bumps (cranial palpitation)
essentially the theory was shape of a skull indicates mental abilities
describe relationship between phrenology and racism
Used to form associations of brain structure and racial type
(ex; hindoo brain is small but european brain is large)
Used to justify and defend slavery on the basis of “inferior race”
who is James Marion Sims
“The Father of Modern Gynaecology”
what did James Marion Sims do (2 things)
Pioneered tools and surgical techniques for women’s reproductive health during a time treating women was considered distasteful
ex; speculum
Experimented on enslaved women without anaesthesia because he believed black women did not feel pain
4 years later he practiced on white women, but with anesthetics
tuskegee experiment
- investigated syphillis
- had no treatment for black men as they faced terrible symptoms
how can false beliefs inform medical judgements even today (give example from a study)?
Medical students who endorsed racial biased beliefs rate black (vs. white) patients pain as lower and made less accurate treatment recommendations
describe “Healthy Immigrant Effect” and explain a finding about treatment of health issues for minorities vs whites
Mental Health services are underutilized by immigrants compared to other Canadians, so they are less likely to be seen as sick
Once treatment is initiated, there is evidence that racial and ethnic minorities discontinue treatment at rates higher than their white counterparts
what is hysteria
Tendency to attribute women’s physical complaints to mental illness
Sex selective disorder
Attributing a condition to a sex, and only based on sex
what is hysteria now called?
somatization
what was the treatment for hysteria?
marriage and sex
NHTSA and the Journal Traffic Injury Prevention study findings
Female drivers are 17% more likely to be killed in a car crash than a male occupant of the same age
Seatbelt wearing female occupant has 73% greater odds being seriously injured in a frontal car crash than a seat belt wearing male in the same kind and severity of crash
Women are ___ more likely than men to be misdiagnosed and discharged while having a heart attack
7x
study findings that show sex bias in health research (4)
Women with chronic pain are much more likely than men to receive prescriptions for sedatives, rather than pain, and have to wait an average of 65 minutes before receiving analgesic (vs men)
the thing abt 7x more likely to be misdiagnosed during heart attack
Lag time from the onset of symptoms (visiting their GP) to diagnosis is longer in female patients than male patients for 6/11 types of cancer, as well as the pooled cancer overall
studies on animals mainly use male mice
why do studies using animals usually use MALE mice?
belief that the estrous cycle requires daily tracking that’s time consuming and multiplies cost of research
Pendergast et al. 2014 study comparing male variability n wide array of traits to that of females tested at random stages of estrous cycle
9,932 trait measurements across 30 broad categories
Female variability was no greater than that of males on any trait
On 3 traits (metabolism, hormone, morphology) females displayed significantly lower variation than males
