HSC210 : Health Sociology : Social Determinants of Health

Question: 

Sociology analyses the social determinants of health and utilises a number of concepts and theories in order to understand health and illness. Draw on two sociological theories to explain the social determinants of health and discuss how this differs from the medical model.

Students should read widely prior to completing the essay. This includes all required readings but should move beyond these to include other sources.

Typically a good strategy is to use the set readings to cover the key sociological concepts and ideas and then if you are using an example issue (e.g. eating disorders or the effects of alcohol) do some further reading so that you have evidence relating to your chosen example.

Answer: 

The health and well-being of a population is dependent upon the sociological determinants to a great extent. It has been said that the external environment has a wide range of elements that affect the sound physical and mental well being of an individual (Braveman & Gottileb,2014). Sociology critically presents an overview about the determinants that affect the physical and mental health of the people on the basis of theories and societal model. This essay would delve into the development of a deeper concept of the sociological theories and proceed with relating it to the social determinants of health. The essay would also present a clear view on the contrasting characteristics of the sociological theories and the biomedical theories. The two conceptual models that have been chosen in order to explain the influence on the social determinants of health in this essay are the functionalism and the conflict theory.

The functionalism theory as propounded by Parson, it states that in order to build a strong and functional community it is important that the community has access to proper medical facilities and a healthy living standard (Martindale,2013). It further explains the fact that if a community comprises of a lot of unhealthy inhabitants then it ultimately leads to the disruption of the social equilibrium. The model significantly emphasizes upon the events of premature death and claims that in such cases the individuals make a zero contribution to the society at the cost of utilizing and exploiting all the resources that the society offered (Ng & Muntaner,2014). Also, in case of premature death, the individual does not fulfill all the social roles that is expected from the society in return of the various social rigmarole such as socialization, child birth, child care and so on. The theory proceeds with the explanation of true and pretentious sickness. It states in order to be stated as a true sickness, the mentioned characteristics must be met adequately. The characteristics include, firstly the cause of the disease should not be on account of personal negligence. For instance, due to an unhealthy life-style if a person becomes over weight or develops Cardiac complications then in that case, the sickness is because of the manifestation of self-negligence and it evokes meager or no sympathetic response from the society. Hence, in order to fall under the legitimately sick category it is important to be diagnosed sick and the sickness should not be a result of personal negligence. Secondly, it is also mentioned that the sick people must possess a will to recover and heal and thirdly, the sickness must be testified and diagnosed by a physician who would thoroughly check the patient for any kind of sickness and accordingly provide medications. In most of the cases, it has been observed that the patients even on recovery fake their illness and possess no will to get better and enjoy the attention and care. In such cases, the society does not perceive such individuals as sick. The medical experts and the physicians thoroughly diagnose the patient and according to the theory are stated to maintain a hierarchal relationship with the patients. This is because the physicians examine the patients for the occurrence of any disease and accordingly prescribe medications that are expected to be followed strictly by the patients. So, it seems as if the physicians are the leaders and the patients need to obey the leaders and follow the instructions and because of the same, the hierarchal relationship has been mentioned in context of the functionalism theory (Rubin,2016). However, it is critical to note here that the societal model of functionalism has a number of disadvantages as it does not consider the phenomenon of terminal sickness into account and is more focused on the short-term illness (Frank,2013). At the same time, the theory also does not consider the effect of the social background that might contribute to the development of diseases. For instance, a place that lacks proper sanitation or drinking water facility is bound to have an unhealthy community and in such cases the theory does not stand valid. Lastly, there have been many instances that prove the physicians are not always correct with their treatment hence patients must participate actively while the process of intervention is going on (James & Prout,2015). Therefore the hierarchal classification does not also completely hold true.

The conflict approach mainly focuses on the fact that there is inequality even in medical science in terms of the healthcare provided to different groups of people. Discrimination in medical science on the basis of caste, creed, sex and ethnicity is reflected in health and medical science all over the world (Therborn & Aboim,2014). People from ‘so called’ backward groups have a higher chance of becoming ill and if they are unwell, they are deprived of proper medical care and chances of getting proper healthcare for these groups are quite difficult. The evidences and examples of this theory is somewhat dramatic.

On the contrary there are examples to suggest the criticism of the conflict theory. Alternative medicine is emerging and expanding all over the world but so has its criticism by physicians over the years (Bury,2013). Physicians often feel that alternative medicine is not very effective and might even be harmful to their personal practice financially. For example psychiatrists, psychologists and other healthcare professionals often provide care to a lot of women and children suffering from eating disorders which is very considerate and obliging and person who treat such kind of disorders receives quite a handsome source of income by defining eating disorders as a medical issue and hence by doing so they incorporate this culture in to the society’s definition of beauty of women.

The focus of biomedical model is limited rather confined to only the physical and biological aspects of the disease or disorder, whereas an array of social determinants like sanitation and hygiene are considered in the social model (de Andrade et al.,2015). Physicians and health professionals comply on the biomedical model for medication and treatment procedure however the social model includes the perceptions of a large number of people within a classified society (Bowling,2014). Diagnostics and treatment are the only aspects included in the biomedical model but the social model begins with the concept of prevention. A remarkable burden is placed on medicine and healthcare in order to justify the biomedical model, on the contrary the social model helps in the reduction of this burden.

Hence, in conclusion it can be said that the biomedical model focuses more on the biological aspect of health and well-being but the social model takes into consideration the social determinants such as the environment and economic factors and concentrates on the complete well-being of the individual within the society. Therefore, it must be admitted that both the models share a different perspective that is essential and must not be treated invalid. The biomedical model is more or less concerned with the diagnosis of the disease and devising a course of intervention and it can be treated as a complement to the social model that is focused on enhancing the standard of living in a community.

References:

Braveman, P., & Gottlieb, L. (2014). The social determinants of health: it's time to consider the causes of the causes. Public health reports, 129(1_suppl2), 19-31.

Bowling, A. (2014). Research methods in health: investigating health and health services. McGraw-Hill Education (UK),99-102

Bury, M. (2013). Health and illness in a changing society. Routledge,pp 53-59

de Andrade, L. O. M., Pellegrini Filho, A., Solar, O., Rígoli, F., de Salazar, L. M., Serrate, P. C. F., ... & Atun, R. (2015). Social determinants of health, universal health coverage, and sustainable development: case studies from Latin American countries. The Lancet, 385(9975), 1343-1351.

Frank, A. W. (2013). From sick role to practices of health and illness. Medical education, 47(1), 18-25.

James, A., & Prout, A. (2015). A new paradigm for the sociology of childhood?: Provenance, promise and problems. In Constructing and reconstructing childhood (pp. 6-28). Routledge.

Martindale, D. (2013). The nature and types of sociological theory. Routledge,pp 70-72

Ng, E., & Muntaner, C. (2014). A critical approach to macrosocial determinants of population health: engaging scientific realism and incorporating social conflict. Current Epidemiology Reports, 1(1), 27-37.

Rubin, I. L. (2016). Social Determinants of Health. In Health Care for People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities across the Lifespan (pp. 1919-1932). Springer, Cham.

Therborn, G., & Aboim, S. (2014). The killing fields of inequality. Análise Social, (212), 729-735.