Year Three - Health Inequalities Flashcards
What is the definition of sociology?
the study of the development, structure and functioning of human society
What does sociology study in relation to healthcare?
- people’s interactions with those engaged in medical occupations eg healthcare professional-patient relationships
• The way people make sense of illness eg illness versus disease
• The behaviour and interactions of healthcare professionals in their work setting eg professional values, interactions between healthcare professionals and other health care staff
What makes health promotion possible?
The understanding of how different groups in society operate
What is the sick role?
A role taken on by patients which:
- Exempts ill people from their daily responsibilities
What are the rules of the Sick Role?
o Patient is not responsible for being ill and is regarded as unable to get better without the help of a professional
o Patient must seek help from a healthcare professional
o Patient is under a social obligation to get better soon as possible to be able to take up social responsibilities again
What is the role of the health professional when interacting with someone taking on the sick role?
o Professional must be objective and not judge patients morally
o Professional must not act out of self-interest or greed but put patients interests first
o He/she must obey a professional code of practice
o Professional must have and maintain the necessary knowledge and skills to treat patients
o Professional has the right to examine patient intimately, prescribe treatment and has wide autonomy in medical practice
o Role of doctors in this is potentially controversial as we are the ones who have to justify any significant level of sickness eg medical certificates for those needing to be off work
What are the 9 categories used in the National Statistics Sociio-Economic Classification (NS-SEC) that determine social class?
- Large employers and higher managerial and administrative occupations
- Higher professional occupations
- Lower managerial, administrative and professional occupations
- Intermediate occupations
- Small employers and own account workers
- Lower supervisory and technical occupations
- Semi-routine occupations
- Routine occupations
- Never worked and long-term unemployed
What is the NS-SEC used for ?
to measure the employment relations and conditions of occupations. They show the socio-economic positions in modern societies and help explain variations in social behaviour and other social phenomena
What is the labour market?
Source of income, economic security and prospects of economic advancements
What is the work situation defined as ?
The location in systems of authority at work, degree of autonomy
What influences life chances at work ?
Employment People Role Place in Job Relationship with employer Health
How does gender influence health?
o Men have a higher mortality at every age
o Women have a higher morbidity
o Women consult more frequently in general practice setting
o More women consult GP for depression but suicide rates are 3x higher in men
o Females more likely to be carers
o Men do slightly more exercise than women on average
How does ethnicity influence health?
o Ethnicity includes social and cultural influences as well as genetic- as such there is some fluidity and change
o T2DM prevalence is higher in South Asian populations
o Greater prevalence of sickle cell disease in African origin groups
o Mortality in Scotland is higher in the majority ethnic (white) population than in the black and minority ethnic population
o Most minority ethnic groups have higher rates of abstinence and lower levels of drinking compared to people from white backgrounds
o People from mixed ethnic backgrounds are less likely to abstain ans more likely to drink heavily compared to other non-white minority ethnic groups
o Indian, Chinese, irish and Pakistani backgrounds on higher incomes tend to drink above recommended limits
What is the impact on physical environment on health?
o ¼ adolescents living in cold homes are at risk of multiple mental health problems compares to 1/20 living in warm homes
o Children living in cold homes are >2x likely to suffer from a variety of respiratory problems than children living in warm homes
o Excess winter deaths are almost 3x higher in the coldest quarter than in warmest
How does education influence health?
o Those with higher levels of education tend to be healthier than those of similar income who are less well educated eg better understanding of health, more effective engagement with health care services such as screening programmes, better engagement with health related advice and are better able to navigate health services
