Defining Health And Disease Of World Health Organization

Sociological aspect of health and illness

Discuss about the Defining Health and Disease of World Health Organization.

The “World Health Organization” defines health as a state with fully mental, physical and social well-being but not absence of disease and any other infirmity. Health in the other words can be evaluated as the extent of the efficiency of a living body to perform metabolism and other functions. The health is that dynamic condition resulted from consistent responses to various forms and adaptation in responding stress.

The primary motive of discussion in this essay the sociological aspect of health and illness will be discussed, and the extent of social control exercised by the medical profession will also be illustrated. Furthermore, there will be an explanation of the relation of doctors and the patients with the control in the social structure. Apart from the mentioned clauses in the discussion, there will be an inclusion of other health related studies as the necessity for the analysis.

The sick role is the medical sociology term used for the description of the condition of the sickness and the rights as well as obligations that are affected by the sick person (Higgins et al. 2014). Talcott Persons first coined the concept in the year 1951. According to the “sick role theory” every person is expected to be productive and should contribute something in the benefit of the society. However, in certain situations when a person falls sick, his or her incapability to work is regarded as deviance and is also accepted by the society.

The health defines a physical condition of a person. The health is also a definition of the state explaining an individual being free from illness. In order to approve the deviance of a person, it is important to get a certification from a medical professional since such a process legitimates the illness of the concerned person. There is a unique relationship between the doctor and the patient in order to address the sick role. There exist two responsibilities and two duties of a patient. First of all, a person has the right for which that person cannot be blamed for his or her sickness and secondly the right to provide any leeway for someone else as normal obligations. The two responsibilities involved are prioritizing to get well fast and secondly, seeking medical assistance to improve the health condition.

The biomedical and social health has two distinctive concepts. The biomedical health model describes the condition of physical functioning of a person during the presence of disease or any such symptoms. The social health model outlines the looks of health and how does it affect the everyday life of an individual (Frank 2013). The motive of focus in the concepts is to account for the inequality of the health that persists in a human being. The explanation argues that the people with low health fall in the bottom of the society and that is affecting an individual in an adverse way.

Relation between doctors and patients

Talcott Parsons was a sociologist who examined the relationship between a doctor and a patient. He analyzed the response of the society and its smooth functioning to the issues of deviance. “According to him the roles and responsibilities of a doctor and his patient is represented as an “ideal model.” He stated that the role of an ill person includes four normal expectations. First of they might need to give up certain normal activities, secondly, they are considered to be one who needs care. Thirdly, the desire to get well as soon as possible and lastly, seeking clinical advice from the doctor by maintaining a healthy relationship are the roles of a patient.”

In the second edition of his book Health there is a thorough explanation of the materials related to health. She discusses that in the modern definition of health, it is necessary for the description of health and should be well constructed well experienced and must have input from the developed and contemporary society. She identified the fact the new concept of health must include the description of sociology and genetics required to build a health of an individual. She put a relation of being healthy by following a good lifestyle (McIntire 2014). She emphasized on the fact that it is more important to put significance on what and how an individual will choose their life and comprises the description requiring to exercise rather than smoking. It is important to provide firm evidence related to health and lifestyle for being healthy.

According to the Marxism theory, there are four models, which describe the doctor- patient relationship and these interactions are based on the different understandings on both people. These are the goals of the doctor-patient relationship, of patients and ligations of the doctors, roles and values of the idea of autonomy.

In terms of the roles of a doctor the role is quite complementary to the role of the patient. As the patients need to cooperate with the medical professionals, the role of the doctors is to provide their knowledge and skills in order to serve their patient and also act in regards to the welfare of the community rather than working for their own interest. One significant feature that is expected from a medical practitioner is that he or she should not be emotionally attached to his or her patient rather he or she should be objective about his work and should be completely guided by the set of rules of the medical practices. An important determinant of the nature of doctor patient relationship is the clinical practices of the doctor. In the present days it has been observed that due to the elevation in the general practice number along with the involvement of the nurses, counselors, health visitors, etc. in the primary care have introduced complications and challenges in achieving a good inter-professional communication to maintain the quality of care.

Concept of sick role

The term “social control” has come from the concept of sociological adaptation put forwarded by the Darwin. There have been several theories given on social control. With the advent and growth in the field of the medicine, it is considered that there is a specific medical treatment for all types of illness whether it is a physical or mental illness. Therefore, a person who fails to put himself or herself in the hands of a right medical professional is considered to be guilty. Report states the medical or the paramedical professionals are more immune to corruption than the judicial professionals. (Pellow and Nyseth Brehm 2013).

Supporting those different scholars have come up with some extensive work one for the exclusion of women from medicine. The factor required for the effect of increasing numbers of female doctors and their growing relationship with the physician- the patient. It is the tendency of the female doctors to choose some primary care place with an inadequate payment. The male-oriented physicians specialized in the surgical field accepts some lucrative amount paying care fields and like to stay as employed in those units opposing the private practice (Cockerham 2013). The male physicians even remain in the position of the authority that makes them pay a high amount for what they get in the lower ranked or primary care unit jobs. A recent study even says that the women even can be a better communicator even if they tend to choose some primary care units as their basis of treatment giving to the person.

The aim of a medical professional should be provide best of the medical treatment to their patients by applying their clinical skills and best of their knowledge. “Poor medical care” is similarly dysfunctional for civilization, as public those who are ill countenance greater complexity in becoming healthy and individual who are well are more probable to fall ill. According to Parson’s theory on sick role, sickness is a state which can be exploited but patient themselves sometimes allow them to get exploited. For example the medical practitioners, health insurance companies, etc. bring about the exploitation.

The establishments of the medical have raised the threat upon health in recent times. The professional control in the current time showed some disability from the past time reaching a proportion to the epidemic. Limitations in the professional care have grown into a political issue and the fact that rose, explains the height of applicability of such limitation which will work and vary from person to person. It is seen that the medical professionals have intended to make the profession a monopoly sector where the public has altered to the perplexity and is uncertain to the caretakers of hygienic. Illich’s theory on the medical nemesis argues with the growing lack of confidence in the medical science upon the people of recent times (Davis 2015). He argues that a layman and not any physician have the potential to stop the increasing epidemic and lack of growing confidence within the society. He believes that the recoveries of the society are the task of political and not of the professionals. During recent times the medical monopolies have increased without any check encroached the liberty of the ordinary people. In his book, the medical nemesis he concentrates on the recommendation as well as the remedy for the healing technique.

Biomedical and social health models

The field of medicine has been has been a boon to the society. Within the few years the society has experienced diversity in the clinical field and new therapies, tools and medicines has been invented to treat diseases that had no answer in the past. In the present generation, the doctors provide best medical treatments to the patients in partnership with the medical agencies. The inequality that existed previously is no more in terms of profession or social status which was evident in the history of British welfare state. The circumstances have changed, and the medical profession has proved to be successful for various accomplishments. The weakness of this discussion is that the statement highly criticized although, in some places, it is true. Many countries are working towards the betterment of the medical condition and are quite popular.

The medical contribution of the ill health to the society termed as Iatrogenesis. The term is coined from Greece meaning physician origins. The factor only takes place when any sound treatment and recommendation is not provided to the victim (Burns et al. 2015). Upon such cases, the patients have the right to sue against the therapist, if the recommendations do not match with the requirements. Iatrogenesis even arises from the fact that if recommended medicine makes them sicker and the patient is unable to have a proper lifestyle.

Three types of Iatrogenesis are there, which are clinical, social, and structural Iatrogenesis. The clinical Iatrogenesis is the disease comprising of the clinical conditions were the remedies; physicians have acted as the sickening agents. Example: The fact or condition can also be termed as a therapeutic side effect because of the effect they received worked in an adverse manner to the treatment.

Social Iatrogenesis is the situation where the medical practice sponsors to the sickening effect by enforcing a morbid effect on the society. Example: It is an exception or expression to the various symptoms to the social medicalization. When people are willing to place themselves at the mercy of medical professionals, it is an example of social iatrogenesis.

The cultural iatrogenesis depicts that societies weaken the willing of the society members and paralyses their healthy responses towards impairment, suffering and death and the entire culture becomes overmedicalized, as here, doctors assumes themselves as priest. For an example, the society will be like; we have to take a pill for every medical issue, whether it is minor like an ache to major like an accident.

Role of social control in medicine

The strength of the Iatrogenesis is that it is required to determine the condition of the patient whether curable or not. The concept helps specify the various medical method and the assumptions that are required, which implies whether the condition occurred due to negligence or naturally. It helps the physician to better understand the condition of the patients and accordingly prescribed them the cure.

The weakness of the Iatrogenesis principle is that sometimes viewing the concept may provide wrong assumptions of any medical conditions. Moreover, the Iatrogenesis only determines the medical condition, but Iatrogenesis is not a treatment. This principle states that only the doctor could see the medical condition but no permanent cure is applicable for it.

While analyzing the political economy for the health industry, it is essential to understand the concept of co-modification. The term is known as the transformations of the goods and the services and not transforming any individual to commodities. The person gets co-modified on that moment when they start selling the labor in a market or to any employer for their use. The transformation may include anything from becoming a slave, trading with the animal, or transplanting the organs.

Karl Marx understanding of the concept of the commodity is different from Karl Marx concept of business. He considered commodity as a starting point of politico-economic system analyze. The political economy criticized by Karl Marx states the relation between perceptions of the social relationship must remain within the production and among the people. Hence, the commodity fetishism converts the aspect of the subjective and economic view of the product.

The political economy of the health also refers to the analysis of the body with the perspective of policies related to health (Jackson and Neely 2015). The political economists recognize various ranges of dynamics that described as the growth through the productivity. The concept applied in those areas where there is a possibility of the better production of things which is not happening in reality (Iphu.org 2016).

The “political economy” of one’s health refers to an organism’s body of examination and a viewpoint on health policy that seeks to appreciate the circumstances which form populace health and service growth within the broader macro economic and political framework. The economic growth leads to development and elevation of the resources for health and vice-versa. The existing health care financing system, a community accustomed to instant access to experts and skill, and our communal eagerness for technical novelty as the major evaluate of development for the health system may guide to inertia and chunk change. 

Male and female doctors in medicine

The economic growth contributes to better recourses to health, and even the health improvement provides an excellent contribution to the economic life. The political economy refers to the health and analysis of the body by health policies. The conception seeks to understand the condition required to shape health population and development of the service.

The health has become an important issue in today’s life. The purpose of the report is to put emphasis on the various aspect of the health and how different mediums are contributing to the fact of being unhealthy (Omadjohwoefe 2016). People are choosing unhealthy methods over suitable methods providing a long-lasting being sick condition. Recently the medical issues even contributed to the declining health either by converting the treatment to any less able person or by giving such death-defying drugs to any patients contributing to the worsening of the condition. The situation goes to such level that makes the patients unable to respond with any alternative.

The relation of commodity and the individual even put an adverse effect on the concept of health lowering the value of their life. So, it is necessary to make challenges against the measures as the dispute can be solved by a sociological aspect of individual and not surrendering them to the adverse effect of health.

References:

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