Page 448 - Introduction To Sociology

440 Chapter 19 | Health and Medicine
19.3 Health in the United States
Although people in the United States are generally in good health compared to less developed countries, the United States is still facing challenging issues such as a prevalence of obesity and diabetes. Moreover, people in the United States of historically disadvantaged racial groups, ethnicities, socioeconomic status, and gender experience lower levels of healthcare. Mental health and disability are health issues that are significantly impacted by social norms.
19.4 Comparative Health and Medicine
There are broad, structural differences among the healthcare systems of different countries. In core nations, those differences include publicly funded healthcare, privately funded healthcare, and combinations of both. In peripheral and semi-peripheral countries, a lack of basic healthcare administration can be the defining feature of the system.
19.5 Theoretical Perspectives on Health and Medicine
While the functionalist perspective looks at how health and illness fit into a fully functioning society, the conflict perspective is concerned with how health and illness fit into the oppositional forces in society. The interactionist perspective is concerned with how social interactions construct ideas of health and illness.
Section Quiz
19.1 The Social Construction of Health
1. Who determines which illnesses are stigmatized?
a. Therapists
b. The patients themselves
c. Society
d. All of the above
2. Chronic fatigue syndrome is an example of _______________.
a. a stigmatized disease
b. a contested illness
c. a disability
d. demedicalization
3. The Rating of Perceived Exertion (RPE) is an example of ________________
a. the social construction of health
b. medicalization
c. disability accommodations
d. a contested illness
19.2 Global Health
4. What is social epidemiology?
a. The study of why some diseases are stigmatized and others are not
b. The study of why diseases spread
c. The study of the mental health of a society
d. The study of the causes and distribution of diseases
5. Core nations are also known as __________________
a. high-income nations
b. newly industrialized nations
c. low-income nations
d. developing nations
6. Many deaths in high-income nations are linked to __________________
a. lung cancer
b. obesity
c. mental illness
d. lack of clean water
7. According to the World Health Organization, what was the most frequent cause of death for children under five in low- income countries?
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