MEDICAL SOCIOLOGY: MIDTERM STUDYGUIDE

By 2050 it is projected that ____%of all Americans will be 65 and older.

20%

Woman's reproductive role accounts for less than ____percent of all doctor visits.

20%

Today, women outlive men by how many years?

5 years

In 2004, the average infant in the U.S. could be expected to live for ____ years.

78

For all causes of death, ______ have the lowest death rates. (which race/ethnicity)

Asians/Pacific Islanders

What does CDC stand for?

Centers for Disease Control

The work of what two scholars linked the poor health of the English working class to capitalism in a treatise published in 1845

Engel and Marx

AIDS potentially entered the United States through what country?

Haiti

Which group has the highest percentage of persons without health insurance?

Hispanic (specifically Mexicans)

What minority group is most likely to use hospital emergency rooms as their primary source of medical services?

Hispanics

For all causes of death, ________ have the highest death rates. (which race/ethnicity)

Non hispanic blacks

Which scholar initially provided a theoretical approach for medical sociology?

Parsons

Who suggests two major types of stress are: life events and chronic strains?

Pearlin

Several studies find that the strongest and most consistent predictor of a person's health and life expectancy is_____.

SES/social class

What factors promote self-care on the part of laypersons?

Shift in disease patterns from acute to chronic illnesses and the accompanying need to care for symptoms that cannot be cured; Dissatisfaction with professional medical care that is depersonalized; recognition of the limits of modern medicine; The increasing awareness of alternative healing practices; Heightened consciousness of the effects of lifestyles on health; The desire to be in control of one's own health when feasible

Where is equality in living conditions among the best in the world?

Sweden

In which study were syphilis patients intentionally not treated and allowed to die?

Tuskegee

Which stage of Suchman's concept of the illness experience requires decision-making by the sick person?

all stages

What is the most prevalent health problem of persons over the age of 65?

arthritis

fertility rate

births per 1000 women per year (general between 15 and 44 years old)

_____ babies die more often than _____ babies.

black; white

Weber maintains that life _____ influence life conduct/life choices

chances

bioterrorism

deliberately inducing an illness and death by preparing biological agents and cases (overt and covert)

egoistic suicide

detached from society; on own and overwhelmed by resulting stress; over stimulation of a person's intelligence by the realization he/she has been deprived of collective activity; and meaning

The interaction between life choices and life chances produces _____ toward particular forms of action. These constitute a "habitus" according to Bourdieu.

dispositions

Brenner's thesis is that there are few areas of our lives not intimately affected by the state of the ____.

economy

Which SES factor is the strongest single predictor of good health? (income, education ,wealth, occupation, neighborhood)

education

different types of suicide (according to Durkheim)

egoistic, anomic, altruistic, fatalistic

According to the World Health Organization, significant improvements in health in the nineteenth century were brought about by what might be called _____ methods.

engineering

What is the most dangerous job in the United States

fisherman

hippocratic oath

foundation of modern medical ethics; physicians swear that he/she will help the sick, refrain from intentional wrongdoing and keep confidential

What are the components of self-care?

health behavior and illness behavior

Medical sociologists divide health-oriented behavior into two general categories: _____ behavior and ____behavior.

health, illness

What is the leading cause of death in the United States, accounting for more than one-third of all deaths?

heart disease

____ is the leading cause of death for women after age 66.

heart disease

stress

heightened mind body reaction to stimuli (fear and anxiety)

How is AIDS primarily transmitted in Africa?

heterosexual relations

morbidity

how often a disease occurs in a specific area; focus on death

The theory of the _______ maintains that our self-concepts are the result of social interaction in which we see ourselves reflected in other people.

looking glass self

Which social class visits physicians the most?

lower class

Who are exposed to more violence in their daily lives and find themselves in situation where stress, inadequate diets and housing, and less opportunity for quality health care are common?

lower class/the poor

What federal program provides health insurance to those 65 years and older

medicare

Which social class visits doctors the least?

middle

The ______ in sub-Saharan Africa plays a particularly important role in the transmission of AIDS.

migrant labor

What caused the prevalence of STDs to soar around the globe?

migrant workers; birth control pills; ideology of sexual liberation and permissiveness among young urban adults; new pattern of employment; availability of multiple sexual partners

sick role

norms and values expected when sick (exemptions vs obligations)

Results have shown that the equalization of health care alone has _____ the disparity in health between social classes.

not reduced

mortality

often measured by crude rate; number of deaths per 1000 individuals per year

The epidemiologist studies both the _____and ______of health problems in a population.

origin, distribution

Health lifestyles activities typically take place _____ the health care delivery system.

outside

altruistic suicide

people feel themselves so strongly integrated into a demanding society that their only escape seems to be suicide

anomic suicide

people suffer a sudden dislocation of normative systems where norms and values are no longer relevant so controls of society no longer constrains them from suicide

In Rosenstock's model, what would be an example of an external trigger?

personal knowledge of someone affected by the health problem, mass media communication, interpersonal contact (not external=perception of bodily states)

How does the World Health Organization define health?

physical, mental and social well being

According to the World Health Organization, we are currently living in the _____ era.

postmedical era

A major factor causing the infant mortality differences between blacks and whites is ______.

poverty

What is a "case" in epidemiological terms?

refers to an episode of a disorder illness or injury involving a person

incidence

refers to the number of new cases of a specific health disorder occurring within a given population during a stated period of time

What order did the first three epidemiological eras appear?

sanitary, infectious, chronic

What is the most common response to symptoms of illness by people throughout the world?

self care

Cooley's "looking glass self"

self concepts are a direct result of our interactions with others; see ourselves in imagination as we think we appear; see judgement of others and imagine how we are viewed

One of the greatest threats worldwide, from infectious diseases, comes from what?

sexually transmitted diseases

What important concept did Talcott Parson's book The Social System contain?

sick role

Putman defines _____ as a community-level resource reflected in social relationships involving networks, but also norms, and levels of trust.

social capital

Compared to women, men usually have substantial health inferiority in terms of life expectancy because of the combination of two major effects: biological and ______ effects.

social-psychological

master status

status that has exceptional importance for social identity often shaping a persons entire life

People who become infected with HIV may be subjected to discrimination which can isolate them socially. What is this social outcome called?

stigma

Social status is a _____ dimension in "social class" consisting of how much esteem the person is accorded by other people?

subjective

lay referral system

system consisting of nonprofessionals; Friedson-process of seeking medical help to reach professional practitioner; highest in lower class

prevalence

total number of cases of health disorder that exist at any given time