Medical Anthropology

Question 1

Anthropology dfn

Answer 1

-study of human societies and cultures and how they developed

Study of human biological and physiological characteristics and how they evolved

Question 2

Medical anthropology and aim

Answer 2

-it is a branch of anthropology which employs social science methods of enquiry to study how health and Illness are experienced and and influenced by political, social, economic and social environmental factors

To improve public health in economically poor nations

Question 3

The 3 methods of social science enquiry

Answer 3

• grounded theory
• phemenological
• ethnography

Question 4

Singer and Baer 2012 dfn

Answer 4

-medical Anthropologists are Engaged in using and expanding key concepts of anthropology to understand what sickness is how it is experienced perceived and responded to upon the sufferer their social networks and their healers and how health related beliefs and practices that fit within and are shaped by encompassing social and cultural systems and social economic context

Question 5

Focus of medical Anthropology

Answer 5

To understand factors which affect

1 health and well being 
2 distribution and experience of illness
3 importance and utilization of pluralistic medical system 
4 social interactions
5 perception of health and illness
6 health disparities 
7 distribution of health
8 prevention and treatment of illness

Question 6

MA and links to other fields

Answer 6

Medical anthropology as a discipline (sub branch of Anthropology )draws upon cultural, biological, archaeological and linguistic anthropology and these tools are used in the study of MA

Question 7

Origins of MA

Answer 7

Divided into 2
1 physical anthropology
-asses health of ancient societies
-identify cause of death

2 cultural
-looks at the cultural aspect of health

Question 8

List 4 approaches or theories of anthro

Answer 8

1 cultural construction of sickness/ centered MA

2 holistic MA

3 critical MA

4 ecological and evolutional MA / medical MA

Question 9

Describe the 4 theories / approach to MA

Answer 9

1 centered MA - Studies how a societies understanding and responses to disease are shaped by cultural assumptions

2 critical MA - Studies how distribution of wealth power and division of labor affect societies health looks at the political economy of health from a global to a micro level

3 medical MA - Studies how an individuals in a society health is impacted by the biotic and a biotic environment

4 holistic - integrate the three above approaches into one and look at the social environmental and political economy factors / opportunity for health promoting interventions

Question 10

Epidemiology

Answer 10

The study of the frequency distribution and spread of diseases in control of outbreaks

Question 11

MA and Epidemiology

Answer 11

• seeks to capture at risk individuals for prevention and intervention
• can design interventions to tackle issues about non-compliance

Question 12

Cultural epidemiology

Answer 12

Integration of culture into a set of explanatory variables to explain disease

if we can understand reasons about noncompliance we can create interventions to overcome the perceptions

addresses public health problems

designs interventions to promote health

Question 13

MA significance

Answer 13

1 Design interventions culturally accepted

2understand the relationship between healthcare personnel and suffer and know their preferences

3helps instead of genetics

4helps instead of global health

5 helps to understand health disparities and outcomes

6aids in the study of bioethics

7helps to determine the determinants of health