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Models of Health : Assignment

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Added on  2021-03-16

Models of Health : Assignment

   Added on 2021-03-16

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This assignment will evaluate the differences between sociological and biological definitions of Health and Illness by comparing the two and showing the strengths and weaknesses. It will also evaluate the differential distribution of health chances and related theories in relation to factors such as social class, ethnicity and gender. Health and illness can be defined by two areas; sociological and biological. Sociological defines it as a conceptual "framework which improvements in health and wellbeing are achieved by directing effort towards addressing the social economic and environmental determinants of health. The model is based on the understanding that in order for health gains to occur, social, economic and environmental determinants much be addressed." (Jkonoroth. 2013)Biological defines health and illness by focusing “on the physical or biological aspects of disease and illness. It is a medical model of care practiced by doctors and/or health professional and is associated with the diagnosis cure and treatment of disease." (Jkonoroth. 2013)The sociological model (SM) takes into account social class, gender, cultural and economic factors of an individual to have a better understanding of their health andillness. This model considers wider factors such as policies, education and health
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and is dependent on the community to help prevent illness. For example, in recent dates - April 2015- there was a global epidemic of Zika virus. (Jkonoroth. 2013)The advantage of this model is that it educates people so they have a better understanding of how they can prevent illness, unlike the BM were they provide a cure but offer no knowledge to help the individual to prevent it in the future. (Jkonoroth. 2013)The sociological model aids in improving everyone's health by creating awareness of global epidemics , thus beneficial for the Economy of each government/State byreducing financial aid that would be required for treatment and supports individuals to take responsibility to lead a healthier lifestyle, improving quality of life. (Jkonoroth. 2013)The fall back of the SM is that it is too idealistic, too utopian and ignores the BM; this decreases personal responsibility by blaming others for their issues. For example, diet or lifestyle choices made by an individual should subsequently only affect the person in hand and not the tax payers. Therefore financially unrealistic for the government to fund or encourage choices made by individuals. The Biomedical model (BM) has two stages: firstly, diagnoses to help pinpoint what illness or disease is affecting the individual. Secondly, intervention where
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they try to find a cure for the illness by creating medication, treatment plan or hospitalisation. (Jkonoroth. 2013)The health services and specialist medical service look at the biological reason to help sick people by looking into medical reasons of their underlying health issue. For example if a patient goes to the doctor because they are feeling pins and needles, the doctor will conclude that there might be something wrong with the nervous system and not go beyond that. Whereas the SM will ask questions to get abetter understanding of their environment/background information and then offer them support. (Jkonoroth. 2013)The BM attempts to treat temporarily problems by giving medication and can advise but not physically help as health services have limitations and can not give advise on wider factors such as environment. By not looking at the whole picture, which should include the SM, it doesn't get to the root of the cause which can help eliminate issues. (Jkonoroth. 2013)In my opinion both models will benefit by working together to have a better success in achieving higher rates of health as they will look at genetics and the environment of each individual. This hypothetical data would be stored with your local doctor, thus aids in better treatment.
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To have a better understanding of the effects of health and illness, sociological theories show us different perspective of how society and human social behaviour influence health. Functionalism, Marxism and Feminism all have different views on how improving our social environment can have a direct effect on our health. The Feminist approach to health and illness is based on their belief that dominations in the medical health sector is majority by men and that it is having animpact on women. They believe that rather then women's needs to be seen as natural process such as pregnancy or childbirth, it is consider to be an illness or medical problem. Another issue that has been shown is that women suffer from depression, stress and anxiety compared to men due to their natural processes such as giving birth etc., (Roberts. 2013) The Black Report (1980) supports this as they provide evidence by showing the difference in women and men and how long they live, what sort of health state theyare in etc. (Public Health Action Support Team (PHAST), 2011)This approach has successfully brought awareness to inequalities to women by exposing their roles at home or jobs that are widely available to them and providing evidence to show their influences their health. However there are disadvantages to this approach such as; they neglect to consider the men who also
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