Chapter 14: Health and Illness
Place each finding about medicine as a social institution in chronological order.
- Erving Goffman found that psychiatric patients frequently offered explanations for being at a psychiatric hospital that highlighted their normalcy and attempted to reframe their selves as sane and healthy - David Rosenhan found that "pseudo-patients" who were admitted to a mental hospital were unable to convince hospital staffers of their sanity. - Milton Friedman argued that the AMA limits admissions to medical schools and restricts medical licensing to advance the interest of physicians.
Much of the city of ____, qualifies as a food desert, a predominantly low-income community in which the residents have little or no access to ____. Most food deserts are in densely populated urban areas that may have convenience stores and ____ restaurants but no grocery stores or other outlets for fresh fruits, vegetables, meats, and other healthy foods. Food deserts are often in neighborhoods that are predominantly in population.
- Flint, Michigan - fresh, affordable, healthy foods - fast-food - low income or nonwhite
Match each example to the appropriate approach to health care. Palliative
- Hospice care - opioids administered by a physician to relieve pain
After a surgery, Allen's doctor prescribed OxyContin and advised him to take it for a certain period of time. Ira takes fentanyl that she purchased on the street without her doctor's knowledge. Sam takes heroin because he is so socially isolated, and because he lost his job.
- fentanyl that she purchased on the street - so socially isolated
Identify each statement as applying to either Covid-19 or HIV/AIDS.
Covid-19 - The virus emerged in late 2019. - Advice for slowing the spread includes mask-wearing, social distancing, and handwashing. HIV/AIDS - The virus was identified in the early 1980s. - Advice for avoiding the virus includes avoiding intravenous drug use and unprotected sex.
Match each country to its response to the Covid-19 pandemic. United States
Despite several months of advance warning, the president publicly downplayed the threat.
Identify the true and false statements about autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
True Statement(s) - A widely accepted hypothesis is that ASD is multifactorial. - There are racial disparities in ASD diagnoses. - There are gender disparities in ASD diagnoses. False Statement(s) - Rates of ASD in the United States continue to rise due to greater prevalence in the population.
Identify the true and false statements about socioeconomic status (SES) and health.
True Statement(s) - People of higher SES can expect to live longer lives, and they generally enjoy feeling more physical well-being than those in lower groups. - People of higher SES can afford more and better health-care services (insurance plans, doctor visits, diagnostic tests and treatments, prescription medications). - People with lower SES have substantially higher rates of various diseases along with higher death rates and shorter life expectancy. - The effects of poverty consistently correlate with higher incidences of depression and other mental health problems.
Identify the true and false statements about the Flint, Michigan, water crisis
True Statement(s) - Residents started to notice there was something wrong with their water not long after the city switched from Detroit's water source, Lake Huron, to the Flint River. - After city water switched its source, residents started to experience a variety of symptoms—skin rashes, breathing problems, digestive disorders. - The effects of lead exposure can be long-lasting and irreversible and are especially dangerous to children under the age of five. False Statement(s) - Government officials acted quickly to remedy the problem. - While exposure to a small amount of lead is generally considered safe, the levels in Flint's water exceeded this amount.
Identify the true and false statements about acute and chronic diseases.
True Statement(s) -Both acute and chronic diseases can be fatal. -Over the past century, drastic changes in medicine and public health have all but wiped out certain acute diseases, while chronic ones have grown vastly in proportion. False Statement(s) -Chronic and acute diseases both have a sudden onset. -Chronic diseases are a more serious problem in developing countries while acute diseases are a more serious problem in developed countries.
Identify the true and false statements about doctor-patient relations.
True Statement(s) -Doctors in rural settings are more likely to spend time engaging in emotional labor with their patients than doctors in urban settings. -The pain of African Americans is more likely to be underestimated and undertreated compared with that of white patients. -Elderly hospitalized patients treated by female doctors have better outcomes than those treated by male doctors. False Statement(s) -Doctors automatically have more status than patients. -Research shows that men are at greater risk for many pain conditions and that they are more pain-sensitive in some instances compared to women.
Because it affects where people live as well as patterns of migration, the role of what phenomenon in spreading some of the most important diseases afflicting the world is now being identified by epidemiologists?
global climate change
Until recently, the United States has valued slim, athletic builds and bodies with just the right amount of curves, and consider people with these body types to be healthier than people with more fleshy builds. But in Dakar, Senegal, people tend to value body types that in the United States would be considered clinically overweight. Senegalese women especially associate these body types with both health and wealth: slimmer women actually want to gain weight in order to attain the "desirable," "healthy," "well-fed" build. What does this example suggest contributes to our ideal of a healthy body?
social factors and culture
Curative or Crisis
treats the disease once it has become apparent
Global climate change can affect animal populations that spread diseases among humans. Even small increases in temperature can multiply the numbers of which organisms that carry and spread pathogens (infectious agents) in a given area?
vector organisms
During the 2014 West African Ebola outbreak, what percentage of people infected with the disease eventually died from it?
40%
What rate of vaccination within a community is required to achieve herd immunity from measles?
95%
Based on this figure displaying Covid-19 deaths per 100,000 people, which statement draws an accurate conclusion?
Age and race/ethnicity are two strong factors that affected Covid-19 deaths
Yoga is an example of which concept?
CAM
The following table applies theory to drug and alcohol addiction. Fill in the table with the theoretical perspective that best fits each case study of addiction. Symbolic Interactionism
People learn to use alcohol and drugs in social interaction and are influenced by peers and other groups; they may attach different meanings and values to substances and behaviors
Match each country to its response to the Covid-19 pandemic. New Zealand
The government took strong action even before a single death occurred. The strategy seemed to be "go early and go hard."
Which statement highlights the idea that mental illness can be socially constructed?
The meanings and definitions of mental illness can vary over time and place.
The following table applies theory to drug and alcohol addiction. Fill in the table with the theoretical perspective that best fits each case study of addiction. Conflict Theory
Those in power can define social policy and create laws regarding medicine and health care; people of lower social status are more likely to be scrutinized as problem drinkers or drug addicts and may be unduly punished
One reason why sociologists are interested in health and illness is because our bodies (where health and illness are ostensibly located) are social objects.
True
Preventive
aims to avoid or forestall the onset of disease by making lifestyle changes
Select the bold phrases that represent ways that Willie's story fits with sociologist Rashawn Ray's explanation for Black people dying of Covid-19 at higher rates than people from other racial groups. Willie is a Black man who lives in a densely populated suburb of Atlanta. He suffered from diabetes and hypertension even before he contracted Covid-19. He works as an aide in a nursing home. When Covid-19 hit his nursing home, he downplayed its seriousness and didn't take preventative measures very seriously.
- lives in a densely populated suburb - diabetes and hypertension - works as an aide in a nursing home (an essential worker job)
Match each example to the appropriate approach to health care. Preventive
- quitting smoking - increasing exercise
Match each example to the appropriate approach to health care. Curative or Crisis
- setting a broken bone
Identify each disease as either acute or chronic
Acute - common cold - pneumonia - measles Chronic - diabetes - heart disease - breast cancer
Identify the approaches that characterize the U.S. health-care system
Correct Answer(s) - preventive - curative or crisis - palliative Incorrect Answer(s) - epidemic - rescission
Identify each example as applying to either an epidemic or a pandemic
Epidemic - the number of cases of a disease is significantly higher than expected - the West African Ebola virus outbreak of 2014 Pandemic - the Covid-19 virus that began spreading in 2020 - a disease spreads through an especially large geographical region.
Identify whether or not each scenario is an example of deprivation amplification.
Examples - A Black man has a higher risk of hypertension due to his race. He also lives in a food desert and buys groceries at a convenience store. - An elderly woman's age puts her at risk for Covid-19. She lives in a retirement community in a state with low vaccination rates. Not Examples - A woman suffering from anxiety shares her story on social media, which draws supportive attention from her friends and family. - A man who uses intravenous drugs knows he is at risk for HIV/AIDS but is unable to stop using drugs due to addiction.
What was the ethical challenge most closely connected with the Human Genome Project (HGP)?
Genetic testing could become a modern-day form of eugenics
Identify each research finding about Covid-19 as either describing men or women
Men - tends to downplay the seriousness of Covid-19 - more likely to engage in risky behaviors such as smoking and drinking - fatality rates 2.5 times higher than for the other gender Women - may have stronger immune systems due to genetic makeup
The following table applies theory to drug and alcohol addiction. Fill in the table with the theoretical perspective that best fits each case study of addiction. Structural Functionalism
People who become addicted to drugs and alcohol may be responding to strains in the social system and their own lives; they may adapt by retreating or escaping through drugs and alcohol
Match each country to its response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Italy
Police enforced stay-at-home orders, imposing fines on offenders. Residents took to their balconies to sing songs of support together
If a sociologist believes that people who become addicted to drugs and alcohol may be responding to strains in the social system and their own lives, what theoretical perspective do they represent?
Structural functionalism
Identify the true and false statements about medicalization.
True Statement(s) -Even birth and death have been medicalized. -Medicalization changes both the meaning of a condition and the meaning of the individual who suffers from it. -In some cases, medicalization takes pressure away from the individual. False Statement(s) Medicalization is never a positive thing.
Palliative
care focuses on symptom and pain relief, and on providing a nurturing and supportive environment to those suffering from a serious illness or at the end of life
The concept of acknowledging and incorporating a patient's cultural background as part of the treatment process, the recognition that patients' beliefs shape their approach to health care is known as cultural
competence
What is the term for a community in which the residents have little or no access to fresh, affordable, healthy foods, usually located in densely populated, urban areas?
food desert