The Impact of Sociological Imagination on Health

This assignment provides a reflective account of how the sociological imagination has played a significant role in shaping one's understanding of health. The author draws on personal experiences, family history, and living conditions to illustrate how sociological factors interact with individual health. The essay highlights the importance of considering social dynamics, such as access to healthcare and stable living conditions, in determining one's health outcomes.

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Running Head: HEALTH SOCIO-BIOGRAPHY
Health socio-biography
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HEALTH SOCIO-BIOGRAPHY
Contents
Introduction...............................................................................................................2
Personal history.........................................................................................................2
Family medical-social history...................................................................................3
Common conditions found in the family...................................................................3
Preventive strategies used..........................................................................................4
Conclusion.................................................................................................................6

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Introduction
A health socio-biography refers to the detailed description of a person health history,
including the familial disease background and history, and their interaction with, social location,
social dynamics and their living conditions . In my health socio-biography I will give you
detailed information about my family, the diseases that affect my family members, strategies that
we have employed to prevent further occurrence and our sociologic imagination (Baron, 2016).
Personal history
I am 23 years old from Toronto; I have recently graduated from college with a
degree in sociology. I am the first born in a family of three. I do not suffer from any chronic
condition, apart from normal common colds and occasional flu as a result of allergy to pollen
and animal fur.; though some members of my family are victims to some of these conditions. My
parents are both government employees, my mother is a nurse and my father is a physiotherapist.
My grandparents on both sides of the family were all stable financially, my grandmother and
grandfather on my maternal side were entrepreneurs and they owned a bakery, my grandparents
on my paternal side were both nurses. I have never had any major surgery performed on me,
apart from stiches that I got when I was very young as a result of play accidents; I can
comfortably say that my parents belong to the middle upper class, because I lacked nothing while

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growing up, I was warmly and comfortably dressed, I had all the basic life necessities and I am
educated.
All along, since I can remember my health has been a priority to my parents, family
members and me, well since I understood the importance of being healthy, i have taken great
pride in living healthy and through research I have isolated the common health problems in my
family. I have gone to the depths of identifying what conditions ails most of my immediate and
far family members. The information I have gathered is quite disturbing but yet challenging and
interesting. It is disturbing because I found out that most of my family members have suffered
and others still suffer from conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, cancer and arthritis. The
challenging bit is these conditions seem to be genetic; however the most interesting and
encouraging part of it all is that all of my family members are aware that these conditions are
genetic and they have taken measures to prevent them.
Family medical-social history
Most of my family members reside in Toronto, which is where I have grown up and
gone to school since pre-school to high school. I decided to pursue my college education at
Washington State University Vancouver, where I majored in sociology in health sciences. In my
family most of the chronic condition that affect my immediate and far family members are
cancer, hypertension and diabetes (Codburn, 2015).
Common conditions found in the family
On my mother’s side I have lost my uncle to colon cancer and my grandfather to
prostate cancer and I have an auntie who is a colon cancer and uterine cancer survivor. Still on

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my mother’s side, my grandmother suffers from peptic ulcer disease for the last 30 years and my
auntie who is the first born in the family suffers from hypertension. My grandfather’s brother on
my mother’s side suffers from diabetes and two of his children suffer from the same condition
and the other one suffers from hypertension.
Most of these illnesses present themselves during the fifth decade of life and
onwards. There is no one in my family who is associated with drug abuse, alcoholism or chronic
smoking; however we take wine and beer on social occasions and we are not vegans, though we
alternate animal products and vegetables.
Preventive strategies used
When it comes to the chronic conditions that affect my family
members research has shown that preventive measure such as early screening and lifestyle
modifications play a very vital role in combating this illnesses; however many are as a result of
genetic mutations at the cellular level, this still does not exempt someone who is genetically
predisposed to this conditions from preventive measures because, when you adopt these
preventive measures you delay the occurrence of the condition one is predisposed to. Frequent
screening helps the health management team identify the condition at its early stages, improving
its prognosis (Bauer, p. 2014).
Most of the common conditions in my family have a genetic link, that is why
screening and lifestyle modification has been a vital part of our lives as I was growing up .he
most visible strategy that is used is lifestyle modifications and screening. My parents have used
these two strategies for a very long time; to date they still use it. Lifestyle modification is
something that I have grown up practicing and I am still practicing. I have acquired very many

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healthy behaviors which are attributed to the sociological imagination as defined by Wright
Mills. Sociological imagination refers to the awareness of one’s health and how it interacts with
the surrounding environment (Jackson, 2016).
Screening is also a big part of the preventive strategies that my family has employed in
order to detect this conditions during their early stages. My parents used to take me and my
siblings for our annual check-ups, this is a habit that is deeply rooted in me, now that I don’t live
with them any more I make sure that I have not missed any of my annual check-ups including
my cervical and breast cancer screening.
Sociologic imagination has played a key role in relation to my health since I was
a small child. My living conditions were above average (Dodd, 2015). I am a female Caucasian,
which excludes me from conditions associated with other races and males; however my race and
gender exposes me to conditions that the female Caucasians are exposed to. Understanding ones
social dynamics, living conditions and social locations determines a lot the health of the
individual (Frauley, 2016). For example a homeless person who doesn’t live in shelters, with no
access to clean food, clean water and suitable living conditions, he or she will be more exposed
to communicable diseases and frequent upper respiratory infections due to their living
conditions. Basic necessities are very vital in determining the health of anyone (Kaiser, 2015).
In my case I have not been exposed to any communicable disease, because of where I
come from, my family is stable and they can afford standard medical care for me and my
siblings. I have been fully immunized against all conditions and according to the regulations set
by the WHO.

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Social dynamics have influenced my health greatly; our country has retained
constant political, economic and social stability over the last few decades (Hogg, 2014). Our
health system is world class; Most of the chronic conditions can be easily treated in most of the
Canadian states, effectively and efficiently as a result of the availability of resources. Stable
social dynamics have contributed majorly to my health, because regardless of the chronic
conditions found in my family, I can comfortably access the screening test, because my
insurance has already covered them. I can access medications and preventive therapies if need
arises because of my social location (Bardayes, 2015).
Conclusion
Understanding your health history is very vital in determining your future health. It is
important to understand where you come from and what conditions are associated with your
family, also it is important to understand your living conditions, social location and social
dynamics and how they interact with your health (Weiss, 2015).

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Bibliography
Bardayes, V. (2015). Neoliberalism, economic radicalism and the normalization of violence.
Springer.
Baron, S. (2016). introspection in biography.
Bauer, U. (n.d.). prevention of chronic diseases in the 21st century. The lancet, 9937(384), 45-
52.
Codburn, D. (2015). Vicente Navarro Maxisms medical dominance. handbook of social theory in
health illness and medicine, 405-423.
Dodd, N. (2015). social theory and the socialogical imagination. researching sociology.
Frauley, J. (2016). CWright Mills and the criminological imagination. Prospet for creative
inquiry Routledge.
Hogg, M. (2014). social identity process in organizational context. psychology press.
Jackson, S. (2016). for a feminist sociological imagination. The anthem companion to C wright
Mill.
Kaiser, C. (2015). social dynamics within decomposer communities lead to nitrogen retention
and organic matter build up inthe soil. nature communications.

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Weiss, G. (2015). sociology of health, healing and illness. Routledge.