Social Aspects of Diseases

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Social Aspects of Diseases
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• Dr. Mostafa Arafa
• Associate Prof. of Family and Community
  medicine
• Faculty of medicine, medical sciences
• King Khaled University, S.A.
  
• mostafaarafa_at_hotmail.com

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The prevention of disease is a major role of
public health programs. In developing and
implementing prevention programs the
environmental social factors are increasingly
recognized as important components, depending on
many reasons.
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Another important concern of environmental
factors also has been developed because of the
difficulty in getting individuals to change their
behavior.
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A third reason for the increasing interest in
environmental factors is the fact that
distribution of many diseases remains relatively
constant over time even though individuals come
and go from the population.
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The term environment is a general one describing
many different conditions and influences under
which any person or thing lives or develops. The
environment is a result of a continuous
interaction between natural and human made
components, social process and the relationship
between individuals and groups.

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RATIONAL FOR ENVIRONMENTAL APPROACH FOR DISEAS
PREVENTIONMagnitude of disease problemFor
example CHD, cancers, mental illness, diabetes
and stroke
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Difficulties in changing behavior To prevent
disease we increasingly ask people to begin do
things that they have not done previously, to
stop doing things that they have been doing for
years and to do more of some things and less of
others .
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Pattern of disease ratesSome groups often have a
characteristic over time even though individuals
come and go from these groups. If groups have
different rates over time, there may be something
promotes or discourages disease among individuals
in those groups.

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There are three important factors, through which
the environment affects the incidence, severity,
and persistence of non-infectious diseases
Socio-economic status, Marital status and Gender.

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Socioeconomic status

• A consistent finding dated from the twelfth
  century , is that people in the lowest
  socioeconomic groups have the highest rates of
  morbidity and mortality, whether the
  socioeconomic status was studied in relation to
  education, income, or occupation the lower the
  level the higher the death and morbidity rate.

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Marital status

• It has been known for many years that people who
  are not married-whether single, separated ,
  widowed or divorced- have higher mortality rates
  than married people.

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Gender

• One of the most well-established facts among
  students of health and disease is that men have
  higher mortality rates than women. This excess of
  male deaths occurs at every age and for every
  major cause for which comparison is possible. foe
  any age.

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Another social factors affecting disease incidence

1. Life events life events can increase the rate
   of illness, especially minor diseases
2. Behavior pattern type A behavior persons are
   more exposed to stressful life events. This
   behavior pattern is said to be exhibited by
   persons engaged in a relatively chronic and
   chronic struggle to obtain unlimited number of
   things in the environment in the shortest time.

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• TWO IMPORTANT EXAMPLES FOR BEHAVIORAL FACTORS
  AFFECTING HELATH SMOKING ALCOHOL

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Health effects of smoking

• Excess mortality
• Economic cost
• Cardiovascular diseases
• Coronary heart disease
• Peripheral arterial occlusion disease
• Cerebrovascular disease

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Health effect of smoking (cont.)

• 4. Cancer
• 5. Gastrointestinal diseases
• 6. Diseases of the mouth
• 7. Passive effect of smoking on childrens
  health, adults and lung cancers
• 8. In utero effect of maternal smoking

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Smoking control measures

• Smoking cessation classes
• Clinical intervention
• Special community intervention programs

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• Smoking prevention
• This can be accomplished by a number of
  mechanisms changes in the public attitudes
  towards smoking acceptability, restriction that
  limit supply to youth, high price to reduce
  product affordability, and specific educational
  programs designed to reduce acquisition of the
  smoking habit..

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Alcohol-related health problem

• The consumption of alcohol is important to
  public health because it contributes to the
  etiology, course, and outcome of numerous acute
  and chronic physical, psychological , and
  behavioral problems.

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Alcohol related physical, psychological and
behavioral problems 1- psychological-
behavioral2- acute alcohol withdrawal
syndrome3- GIT symptoms e.g. gastritis,
cancers4- respiratory symptoms e.g. T.B. ,
pneumonia5- neurological e.g. epilepsy, head
injuries
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Strategies for prevention

• Recognition of the relationship among per
  capita alcohol consumption, rates of heavy use,
  and the incidence of alcohol-related health
  problems has focused attention on primary
  prevention strategies aimed at the drinking
  population, generally with the principle
  objective of reducing per capita alcohol
  consumption.

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Strategies for prevention (cont.)

• These strategies comprise two groups first
  health protection measures and the second group
  is the health promotion measures. The two
  approaches are complementary and interactive, and
  it is unlikely that one would be effective
  without the other. A third group of measures
  include preventive health services.

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Strategies for prevention (cont.)

• Health promotion measures include activities
  that individuals and communities can use to
  promote health life style. For example public
  education programs, health warning labels,
  advertizing and marketing, and media portrayals.
  

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Summary

• The importance of social factors in the
  etiology of diseases is becoming increasingly
  clear. The evidence of some factors is weak or
  still unclear. Nevertheless, we will need to use
  data emerging from researches because today most
  serious diseases are influenced by the social
  environment. Continuous research on social
  factors must come an important priority in both
  public health planning and program development.