13: Health and Medicine
- Page ID
- 2094
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- 13.1: Prelude to Health and Medicine
- This chapter examines the social aspects of health and medicine. It does not discuss the medical causes of various diseases and illnesses, and neither does it tell you how to become and stay healthy, as these are not, strictly speaking, sociological topics. But it will discuss the social bases for health and illnesses and some of today’s most important issues and problems in health care.
- 13.2: Understanding Health, Medicine, and Society
- Health refers to the extent of a person’s physical, mental, and social well-being. This definition emphasizes that health is a complex concept that involves not just the soundness of a person’s body but also the state of a person’s mind and the quality of the social environment in which she or he lives. The quality of the social environment in turn can affect a person’s physical and mental health, underscoring the importance of social factors for these twin aspects of our overall well-being.
- 13.3: Health and Medicine in International Perspective
- Health refers to the extent of a person’s physical, mental, and social well-being. This definition emphasizes that health is a complex concept that involves not just the soundness of a person’s body but also the state of a person’s mind and the quality of the social environment in which she or he lives. The quality of the social environment in turn can affect a person’s physical and mental health, underscoring the importance of social factors for these twin aspects of our overall well-being.
- 13.5: Medicine and Health Care in the United States
- the practice of medicine in the United States raises many important issues about its cost and quality. Before we discuss some of these issues, a brief discussion of the history of medicine will sketch how we have reached our present situation.