Biopsychosocial vs. Biomedical Model Essay

Why are higher income and social status associated with better health? If it were just a matter of the poorest and lowest status groups having poor health, the explanation could be things like poor living conditions. But the effect occurs all across the socio-economic spectrum. Considerable research indicates that the degree of control people have over life circumstances,

Naidoo and Wills(2001, p.47) “Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity’ - WHO (1946).” This definition falls into a holistic way of defining health, which believes that there are more areas to look at when thinking of health than just simply the absence of a disease. It considers the cause of why someone is ill and not just simply about ’fixing it’.

But over the past few decades, the definititon and concept of health has evolved to encompass more elements than just the physical well-being of a person. This is partly attributed to various researches and studies that have taken place around the world in the last 60 years. Already in 1948, the World Health Organization declared that health is “a state of complete physical, mental and social well being and not

The bio-medical model of ill health has been at the forefront of western medicine since the end of the eighteenth century and grew stronger with the progress in modern science. This model underpinned the medical training of doctors. Traditionally medicine had relied on folk remedies passed down from generations and ill health was surrounded in superstition and religious lore with sin and evil spirits as the culprit and root of ill health. The emergence of scientific thinking questioned the traditional religious view of the world and is linked to the progress in medical practice and the rise of the biomedical model. Social and historical events and circumstances were an important factor in its development as explanations about disease

Socio-economic class or socio-economic status (SES) may refer to mixture of various factors such as poverty, occupation and environment. It is a way of measuring the standard and quality of life of individuals and families in society using social and economic factors that affect health and wellbeing ( Giddens and Sutton, 2013). Cockerham (2007 p75) argues: ‘Social class or socioeconomic status (SES) is the strongest predictor of health, disease causation and longevity in medical sociology.’ Research in the 1990s, (Drever and Whitehead, 1997) found out that people in higher SES are generally healthier, and live longer than those in lower SES.

There is a strong correlation with an individual or group SES and the quality of health care received. Social Economic Class relates to what group of class an individual fit in based on their income, which can include wages, investments or other source. The quality of care depends on the facilities that is offering the services, the staff, accessibility to the service and the kind of health insurance that the person has. Affording health care is expensive and the lower or poor class has to decide between being able to afford food or other daily needs and going to a clinic for screening. Most of the time, individuals who fall in the class will ignore the health signs while

Many are benighted to the fact that health is rooted in a classist, race ingrained, education entrenched hierarchy. The higher you are on the socio-economic pyramid the greater the guarantee of safe housing, sufficient food, and access to quality care. High income and social status is correlated to better health outcomes because regardless of age and sex, low-income citizens are susceptible to lower life expectancy and more illnesses. This is further heightened by one 's race/ethnicity. The degree of control a person has over their way of life is based on stressors that these two factors (income and class) produce. Education goes hand in hand with socioeconomic status as education supposedly facilitates the likelihood of employment and consequently establishes a class paradigm. Outside of that, when people are knowledgeable and are equipped with problem solving skills they are privileged with a sense of autonomy over life circumstances. Education is a gateway for better access to healthcare and information on healthy living. Stressful occupations, underemployment, and unemployment are linked with poor health because a person 's job, or lack thereof, has domineering influences on their physical, mental, and social wellness. Employment provides financial stability, outlets for personal growth, opportunities for social contact etc. thus when that is generally nonexistent, or is taken away from a person, physiological and emotional safety is compromised. Then there is

The biomedical model of health fails to comprise factors such social or environment that relate or associate with illness and also it views very little about the individual`s wellbeing history such as medical history or feelings. Holistically, a person`s well-being doesn’t not depend on physically states only and the biomedical model of health believe that a person is ill or has broken (leg or arm), they can be fixed which would lead to health restoration along with that, this model doesn’t consider that the person have or will be in pain and that pain can lead to many. Through this model, there are high chances of diagnosing wrong illnesses. For example: an individual might repine about back pain and then with biomedical model method (tests), the back might appear ok, but the history of something such insomnia, depression or others would not be viewed.

Health and social class have always been closely linked. Recent research has shown that the gap between social classes is not only widening in terms of annual income but also in terms of health. Social class affects a person's physical health, longevity, and ability and access to appropriate nutrition and medical care. People who have received more education and have a higher income are less likely to have and die of chronic diseases, such as heart disease, strokes, diabetes, and cancer. While individuals of lower social-economic class tend to experience more health issues, they have less access to healthcare of appropriate quality compared to individuals of higher social-economic classes. This is because there are higher health risk factors

In general, individuals with higher socioeconomic status have better health, hence, lower mortality rate. “Individuals who occupy the lower ranks in the social and economic hierarchies… experience worse health status and higher levels of mortalities” (Palloni & Yonker, 2014, p. 15). Socioeconomic status encompasses the individual’s education, income and occupation. All of those factors can have an impact on an individual’s health. Families with higher income can provide greater quality food choices, have good healthcare, afford living in a safe

Research shows that seniors with less education and from lower socioeconomic levels experience more disease, a shorter life expectancy and poorer emotional wellbeing. Additionally, Raina et al. (2000) explains that older men and women health is differentially susceptible to various health determining factors. For example, for older men, education has more effect, income and stress affects older women. The proposition is that health education is necessary to create health awareness and to increase health outcome among the seniors. Rowlands, Protheroe, Winkley, Richardson, Seed & Rudd (2015) study shows that low health literacy is correlated with greater use of medical services, less precautionary care, greater difficulty managing long-term illnesses,

Health is defined based on three dimensions: physical, mental and social health; a fairly recent modification from the 18th century viewpoints (Ware,1987). Health is perceived differently according to the different models of health that help in guiding and understanding of health and health issues. In relation to the following essay, two models; biomedical model and social model will be discussed and compared in terms of their relevancy in the modern times. The second half of the essay will focus on the effectiveness of the social model in explaining the increasing prevalence of health conditions related to the obesity epidemic.

This essay will discuss ways in which a person’s socioeconomic class and his/her social situation can have an impact on his/her health, using examples. We believe that there is a direct link between socioeconomic/social class and health (Adler et al. 1994). I will be defining the key terms: socioeconomic and health, social class then proceed to discuss about how poverty, income, employability, environment and housing can impact on a person’s social situation and their health.

The aim of this essay is to examine the influence that socio-economic status has on an individual’s health.

Health and wellness are increasingly being used. Health actually is more to a medical and describes the mental and physical state of a person. It will reflect a lack of disease of a person. In the contrary, wellness is defined as the overall process of maintaining a state of good health of a person. Wellness involves conscious decisions on the part of the individual, while health simply describes a person's condition of the body. However, the combined phrase health and wellness showed the meaning of the state of complete physical, mental, emotional health and social wellbeing, and it is when a person is absence of disease.