Sociology 2246A/B Chapter 1: Chapter 1 - Imagining Health Problems as Social Issues
21 Jan 2019
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Chapter 1 - imagining health problems as social issues. Introduction: the social context of health and illness. Our personal experience of illness means that we view health in an individualistic manner and want quick cures leading us to turn to medicine. Health and illness can also be perceived as social experiences - an example is the act of suicide which varied b/w social groups and countries. When we compare the life expectancy (le)of various countries we can see the social context - while the benefits of gains in le have been distributed unevenly. Le in lower developed countries is lower - while living conditions can significantly impact your life expectancy. Canada is near the top of le and health-adjusted life expectancy (hale) - not due to biological reasons but because of the working and living conditions in canada. There are two reasons for this: le can change in a short amount of time.
