This document describes how different illnesses affect social groupings. this explanation also looks at the relationship between social class and health and suggests that individuals from social groups where their infant mortality is greater and average life expectancy is worse don’t have enough ...
P3 -explain patterns and trends in health and illness among different social
groupings
Understanding patterns and trends in health and illness among different
social grouping:
Measurement of health:
The government provides information on the mortality (number of people who
died) and morbidity rates (number of people who have an illness in a population
in one year) and often the government links the trends of these rates over period
of time. They check whether rates have increased on decrease and are checked
by sex, age and social class. Morbidity is measured by death prevalence (cases of
diseases over period of time) and death incidence (number of new incidents of
diseases over a period of time). Infant mortality are also looked at and if infant
mortality rate is higher in one location it may be that the health and well being in
the location is decreasing and this may be because of poverty or economic
difficulties. Mortality rates are taken from hospital registers and registration of
diseases.
Difficulties in measuring health:
- Statistics that gather information may not provide valid and reliable
results and provide an accurate picture of health and illness. E.g. some
people may be sick and visit the doctors while others may not be sick but
still visit the doctors
- Also, if two doctors are used symptoms may be similar but diagnoses may
be different. For example, if a person is fatigue and has no interest in life
may regard to one doctor as depressed and to another doctor as a
timewaster who does not want to work. This means results may not be
valid and consistent.
- Also, reasons for death, which are recorded in in death certificates, may
not be accurate or reflect to the real cause of death. For example, a person
who has AIDS may die of liver failure but it is probably AIDS that gave the
person a liver condition. (REF: UNIT 7 LEVEL 3 TEXTBOOK
SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE OF HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE).
Patterns and trends according to:
- Social class- employment and social class are compatible. Social class links
with income, an individuals housing and working conditions. Health care
differs in terms of how rich an individual is in order to afford healthcare
and wellbeing for themselves.
- Gender- mean and women have different illnesses and diseases that may
occur to them. For example, breast cancer can only happen to women and
not men. Sociologists believe that women live longer then men and
women visit medical professionals more often them men. Statistics for the
UK show that average life expectancy for men is 78.4 and for women 88.2
years.
- Age- as people become older there immune systems become weak and
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