7.1: Chapter Introduction and Objectives

Health, Healthcare & Informal Fallacies

Learning Objectives

1. Examine Health and Healthcare through Sociological Theories: Understand the functionalist, conflict and symbolic interactionist perspectives on health and healthcare. Analyze how these sociological approaches explain the role and dynamics of health and healthcare systems, including global aspects and international disparities, particularly in industrial nations.
2. Explore Health Inequalities and Systemic Issues: Investigate the problems and challenges within the health sector, particularly in the USA, including the poor status of "American" health. Examine how social class, race, and ethnicity impact health outcomes and access to healthcare. Understand the complexities and consequences of these disparities.
3. Analyze Economic and Bias Factors in Healthcare: Delve into the economic aspects of healthcare, including the high costs and the role of private health insurance. Critically assess the presence of racial and gender biases in healthcare, understanding how these biases affect treatment and outcomes. Explore how these economic and bias factors contribute to the overall structure and effectiveness, or lack thereof, of healthcare systems.

The following text is remixed under the CC-BY License Social Problems: Continuity and Change v. 1.0 | Chapter 13 Understanding Social Problems | OER | published by Saylor Academy | 2012 | CC BY NC SA | Health and Health Care Saylor Academy 2012

The following text is remixed under the CC-BY License [Textbook] Introduction to Logic and Critical Thinking- Chapter 4 | OER | By Matthew J. Van Cleave | published by Lansing Community College | 2016 | CC BY NC SA

Health and Health Care

Chapter Introduction

Real World Application: Pandemic

The worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, which emerged at the end of 2019 and continued to impact global societies for several years, offers a profound case study from a sociological perspective, particularly in the context of health and healthcare. This pandemic has not only been a public health crisis but has also significantly influenced social structures, behaviors, and inequalities.

Sociologically, the pandemic highlights the concept of social determinants of health. It has vividly demonstrated how factors such as socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity, and geography can influence individuals' vulnerability to disease and access to healthcare. Lower-income communities, often with limited access to healthcare resources, have disproportionately suffered from the virus's impacts. Similarly, racial and ethnic minorities in many countries have experienced higher rates of infection and mortality, laying bare existing health disparities.

The pandemic has also brought to the forefront the relationship between individual behaviors and collective health outcomes. Measures such as social distancing, mask-wearing, and vaccination are not just medical issues but also social behaviors influenced by cultural norms, misinformation, trust in government and health authorities, and personal beliefs. The varied responses to these measures have reflected broader social and political divides, with significant implications for public health.

Moreover, COVID-19 has had a substantial impact on mental health, revealing the psychological strains associated with prolonged social isolation, economic uncertainty, and fear of illness. The rise in mental health issues has highlighted the need for accessible and robust mental health care services and has prompted a reevaluation of how societies approach mental health.

The pandemic has also acted as a catalyst for change in various societal aspects, including work, education, and technology. The shift to remote work and learning has altered traditional views on work-life balance and the structure of education, prompting a rethinking of future models. Additionally, the increased reliance on technology for communication, work, and healthcare has raised questions about digital access and inequality.

In conclusion, the COVID-19 pandemic has been a defining global event with far-reaching sociological implications. It has exposed and exacerbated existing social inequalities, influenced social behaviors and norms, impacted mental health, and driven significant changes in work, education, and technology use. As such, it provides a critical area of study for understanding the complex interplay between health, society, and global challenges.

Social Problems in the News

“More Columbus Kids Living in Poverty,” the headline said. New data from the Ohio Department of Education showed that three-fourths of schoolchildren in Columbus, Ohio, live in poverty or near poverty and qualify for federally subsidized school lunch. Ten years earlier, only about 58 percent of Columbus children qualified. According to the news report, “Childhood poverty directly impacts children’s health. Children living in poverty are less likely to receive needed medical care, more likely to have health problems such as asthma, more likely to be overweight, among other health problems.”

Source: Lietz, 2012Lietz, J. (2012, January 17). More Columbus kids living in poverty. Examiner.com. Retrieved from http://www.examiner.com/children-s-health-in-columbus/more-columbus-kids-living-poverty.

This news story reminds us that social class is linked to health and illness, and it illustrates just one of the many ways in which health and health care are urgent problems in our society. Accordingly, this chapter examines these problems. Its discussion is based on the common sociological view that health and illness are not just medical problems but social problems.

Unlike physicians, sociologists and other public health scholars do not try to understand why any one person becomes ill. Instead, they typically examine rates of illness to explain why people from certain social backgrounds are more likely than those from others to become sick. Here, as we will see, our social backgrounds—our social class, race and ethnicity, and gender—make a critical difference.

The fact that our social backgrounds affect our health may be difficult for many of us to accept. We all know someone who has died from a serious illness or currently suffers from one. There is always a medical cause of this person’s illness, and physicians do their best to try to cure it and prevent it from recurring. Sometimes they succeed; sometimes they fail. Whether someone suffers a serious illness is often simply a matter of bad luck or bad genes: We can do everything right and still become ill. In saying that our social backgrounds affect our health, sociologists do not deny any of these possibilities. They simply remind us that our social backgrounds also play an important role (Cockerham, 2012).Cockerham, W. C. (2012). Medical sociology (12th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

With this basic understanding in mind, we now turn to sociological perspectives on health and health care.