Sociology of Health and Illness

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Sociology of Health and Illness

• Prof Elaine Denny

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Key questions you might ask

• What accounts for socio-economic inequalities in
  health?
• How do social structures, institutions and
  processes affect the health of individuals?
• What is the nature of the doctor-patient
  relationship
• How do lay people make sense of health and
  illness?
• What impact do health care services have on
  individuals and society?

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• You can apply these questions to the topics you
  will be asked to study

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Sociological perspectives

• Two broad approaches to study
• MACRO approaches
• MICRO approaches

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Macro approaches

• Emphasise how health and illness is influenced by
  social structures and institutions outside of the
  control of individuals
• E.g. the government
• Education
• Income support
• housing

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Macro approaches

• Marxist or political economy perspectives
• Structuralist
• Functionalist
• Feminists

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Micro approaches

• Emphasis is on how individuals and groups
  interact, and how this gives rise to shared ideas
  about health and illness
• This occurs through socialisation (shared norms
  and values)

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Micro approaches

• Interactionalists
• Interpretivists

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Contribution of sociology

• In contrast to approaches such as physiology or
  psychology sociology examines the social
  dimensions of health, illness and health care
• Social patterning of health and illness
• Inequalities in health ethnicity, gender,
  social class

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Aboriginality, lifestyle and genetics obscuring
social processes (White 2002)

• In Australia it is claimed that Aboriginal people
  have higher rates of diabetes because they freely
  choose bad western foods such as potato chips,
  soft drinks and alcohol, for which they are not
  genetically programmed. They choose poor food
  (therefore it is their fault) they are not
  genetically capable of processing Western food
  (the fault of their biology) they are lazy or
  indifferent about their health (the fault of
  their culture)
• The conclusion that policy makers, informed by
  this way of approaching the problem then reach is
  that it is the Aborigines problem that they are
  sicker and die sooner, and nothing can be done
  about it.

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• The commonsense understanding of the cause of
  disease portrayal in our culture especially the
  idea that lifestyles are freely chosen
  individualises and obscures the way in which
  disease is socially produced.
• There is little evidence the social structures of
  class, gender, ethnicity and of inequality have
  stopped shaping peoples lives.
• Society has become more unequal and the poor
  sicker.

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Summary

• There are two broad approaches in sociology
• Sociology examines the social dimensions of
  health and illness
• It is particularly concerned with inequality in
  health and illness
• It considers how social structures influence our
  chances of becoming ill and receiving health care