Chapter 19
Health and Illness
By Boundless
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Illness, sometimes considered another word for disease, refers to a state of poor health.
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Disparities in health services play out based on different systems of stratification, such as gender.
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Health disparities refer to gaps in the quality of health and healthcare across racial and ethnic groups.
Social class has a significant impact on one's physical health, ability to receive adequate medical care and nutrition, and life expectancy.
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Health literacy is an individual's ability to read, understand and use healthcare information to make decisions about treatment.
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Historically and in many parts of the world, women's participation in the profession of medicine has been significantly restricted.
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In the functionalist model, Parsons argued that illness is a form of deviance that disturbs the social function of a society.
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Conflict theory argues that the economic and political structures of a society create social divisions, inequalities, and conflicts.
According to theorists working in the symbolic interactionist perspective, health and illness are socially constructed.
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The labeling approach to health and illness claims that mental illness is manifested solely as a result of societal influence.
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Healthcare in the United States is provided by separate legal entities, often private facilities with governmental insurance for citizens.
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The interactions between physicians, nurses, and patients are central to healthcare.
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Alternative medicine is any practice claiming to heal "that does not fall within the realm of conventional medicine".
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Publicly funded health care is a form of healthcare financing designed to meet the cost of healthcare needs from a publicly managed fund.
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European colonization contributed to the spread of disease worldwide.
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Infectious diseases result from the infection, presence and growth of pathogenic biological agents in an individual host organism.
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HIV/AIDS is a major health problem in many parts of the world.
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Health insurance is insurance against the risk of incurring personal medical expenses.
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Preventive medicine, or preventive care, refers to measures taken to prevent diseases, rather than curing them or treating their symptoms.