Explain Different Sociological Approaches to Health and Ill Health

As stated by the World Health Organization (WHO), ‘health’ is defined as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity” (WHO, 1948). The health and wellbeing of individuals is generally determined by their circumstances and environment, a phenomenon referred to as the social determinants of health. WHO describes the social determinants of health as:

There are a lot of different definitions of health and ill health all of which are socially constructed; meaning that social issues usually influence a new theory or alter an old definition of health. In this section I will be analysing different definitions of health and ill health.

According to the dictionary, the word health is “the state of being free from illness.” At a first glance, this defination seems to be very direct and simple, however the meaning of the word ‘health’ nowadays is much more complex. The above definition pretty much sums up our view of health in the first half of the 20th century.

Doctors can be portrayed as agents of capitalism. It can be seen that they tend to hide the real causes of illness (poverty and class inequality) and portray illness through the patient’s physical symptoms rather than their economic status. For example, doctors can prescribe their patient with medication (which they may need to be pay for) that isn't effective making them have to buy more.

Marxist believe that the health service helps the capitalist economy more directly, believing that the health service maintains a healthy, hardworking and productive workforce. Workers who are ill or injured are returned to work and therefore continue to make profits for the owners of capital. Marxist believes that inequalities in health are related to how productive people are. The low levels of expenditure on the working class is explained by the presence of social class division throughout society, whereby working class people consistently receive worse treatment across the range of services in housing, education and health (Moore, 2008, p.265).

“Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander people have a greater amount of disadvantage and significantly more health problems than the non-Aboriginal & Torres strait Islander population in Australia”

The Marxist approach looks at the two reasons they believe the health service exists, firstly it persuades society that our capitalist society cares, it legitimises capitalism by limiting social unrest and class conflict. The second reason, is that is enables the workers to carry on working for the bosses, as when they are ill the health service makes them better and allows them to carry on being a productive member of the workforce. This theory would explain why certain members of society such as the elderly and those with mental health problems receive less funding and care, they are not productive members of society therefore receive less expenditure.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO, 1978), health can be defined not only in terms of absence of disease, injury or infirmity, but also, as a state of mental, physical and social well-being. Over the last decades, many studies have emphasized the role of social circumstances on health status. The tight link between health and a wide range of socioeconomic, environmental and demographics factors have been increasingly recognized and proffer an alternative perspective on how to consider public health, social justice and even restructuring of the health care system (Daniels et. al., 2004). The increasingly acknowledgement that health is also a result of cumulative experience of social conditions and exposure to environmental

In this assignment I hope to effectively discuss and evaluate the patterns and trends associated with health and illness within the higher and lower social classes. I am going to do this by discussing and evaluating the following explanations and perspectives within sociology; Artefact explanation, Natural or Social Selection explanation, Cultural or Behavioural explanation and Materialist or Structuralist explanation.

Those who live in poorer communities often suffer from greater ill health while those living in deprived areas are often without access to the best health care. This lack of prevention stems from poor education often received in those areas and the culture that often permeates within them.

Partnership is when two or more organisations work together, showing cooperation and collaboration. This can provide better care and support for service users. For example, different funds working together, instead of working individually and stressing. Another example, a social worker and the health visitor will need to work together, share ideas and use different skills to develop a support plan that will benefit children and families. This also promotes multi-disciplinary working. Partnership thus can reduce conflicts and enhance team working skills as professionals can work together, sharing responsibilities and ensuring need led approaches are met and set. This can be done by reviewing care plans and offering support.

In modern society there is a general consensus that ‘good health’ is something that everyone wants to experience and that each individual knows what this involves. Because there are so many different definitions of health and ill health it can become a very complicated concept. Walsh (2011) states that “In sociological terms ‘health’ and ‘illness’ are contested concepts. This means that the general meaning of these words should not be taken for granted.

Mortality rates: In gender men generally die earlier than women because of many aspects of their life, for instance in general women tend to take care of them self more physically. A lot of women go on diets and a lot of exercise DVDs and detunes are mainly aimed at women. Women in general do try to eat healthy and go on diets whereas men usually aren't very aware of their diet and don’t have much intention on improving it. Women also tend to go to the doctors and seek medical advice more often and have their illnesses diagnosed and treated more often than men. Because women' generally take more care of themselves and do more to keep themselves healthy.

This program will consist of 500 Hispanic women age 25 to 34 years. We will recruit our participants from Planned Parenthood clinics and low-income communities. Using the Social Determinants of Health concept, we will identify who will be recruited, how we will apply our intervention, and why it will be effective. Recruitment will be based on income earned and education level as they are often directly related (CDPH, 2006). After recruiting our target population, we will conduct a pretest that will ask participants knowledge about proper nutrition during pregnancy, risk factors for birth defects, and preventive measures. This will help us understand what our participants currently know, and compare the results with a posttest conducted

This essay will be discussing the extent to which social class and poverty affects health and illness. Firstly, what is social class? Each person’s perception of social class can be different; is social class defined by a person’s accent, the area they live in, or something as simple as their income? Project Britain describes social class as “The grouping of people by occupations and lifestyle”. (Cress, 2014). To find social class Sociologists group people according to common factors, they compare people and various criteria can be conveniently used to place people in social groups or classes. Next we ask the question what determines a person’s health, the NHS defines health as “Physical and mental, it is the absence of disease”. (NHS 2017).