Health Sciences 1002A/B Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Rudolf Virchow, Reductionism, Fatalism
8 Feb 2018
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Imagining health problems as social issues chapter 1 textbook. Our personal experience of illness means that we tend to view it in an individualistic way as a product of bad luck, poor lifestyle, or genetic fate. The living conditions of the country in which you live can have a significant influence on your chances of enjoying a long and healthy life. Hale health-adjusted life expectancy represe(cid:374)ts the (cid:374)u(cid:373)(cid:271)er of years(cid:859) people (cid:272)a(cid:374) expect to live without chronic illness or disability. Life expectancy figures are crude indicators of population health and actually mask significant health inequalities among social groups within a country. Health sociology concerns the study of social patterns of health and illness the social, economic, cultural, and political features of society that influence why some groups of people get sicker and die sooner than others. To understand why such health inequalities exist, we need to look beyond the individual and investigate the social origins of illness.
