MEDICAL EDU SOCIAL CONTEXT OF MEDICINE.ppt

•The seeds that medicine is a social science
INTRODUCTION
were sown late in the 19th
century by
pioneers such as Neumann and Virchow.
•Development in the field of social sciences
discovered that disease has
-Social causes
-Social consequences
-Social therapy

This topic deals with the importance
of Social knowledge in the field of
Medicine.
Health cannot be isolated from its social
.
Context.
. Successful application of medicine to
Individuals and groups involves more
than mere scientific or biological
Knowledge.

 It involves an understanding of
the behaviour of individuals and
groups who live together and
share certain values of life.
•Concepts of sociology are increasingly
being used in the study of diseases in
human societies
The effect of social changes on health
of people is shown in the following Fig.

Social factors Predisposing factors Health outcome
CURRENT CIRCUMSTANCES
INDIVIDUAL PREDISPOSITIONS
ECOLOGICAL PREDISPOSITIONS
OPPURTUNITIES
HEALTH
ECONOMIC
POLITICAL
RELIGIOUS
EDUCATIONAL
DEMOGRAPHIC
MIGRATION
URBANISATION
MARRIAGE
FERTILITY
OTHERS

Specialists in community health,
clinical medicine, epidemiology are
all seeking the cooperation and
help of social scientists in
understanding problems such as
social component of health, “illness
behavior” of people, etc.
•The health status of an individual in
a community is mainly determined by
his social class in the community.

•Educational characteristics-literacy level,etc
Social scientists have used occupation
widely as a means of determining the level
of social standing of an individual in a
Community.
•Occupation is a major determinant of
1.Economic rewards
2.Extent of authority
3.Degree of status
4.Values and life styles.

1.COMMUNITY HEALTH
Community health workers are
often faced with the problem of
why people who need a particular
service do not use it or fail to
secure the total benefit which is
expected.
a) For example, immunization against
communicable diseases can be
considered.

SOCIAL CLASS
People in a community are differentiated
by certain characteristics which they bear.
They may be
•Personal characteristics-age, sex,
marital status, etc.
•Economic characteristics-occupation
•Cultural characteristics-language,
religion, caste, etc.

Although there is a wide range of
prophylactic vaccines,
immunization has not gained
universal acceptance.
b)The family planning programme in
India is a recent example of a
health service of which people are
not making use to the extent desired.

Similarly, health programmes
relating to mother and child health
care services, improvement of
water supplies, installation of
sanitary latrines have all proved
abortive or only partly successful.
The central question in community
health is :why do people behave as
they do?

Social scientists in India are
asked to explain this failure of
health measures.
The theme common to
community health and social
sciences is human behavior.

2.CLINICAL MEDICINE
The present day clinicians believe that
“psycho physiological stress reactions”
are involved in cases of rheumatoid
arthritis, obesity, g.i.t ulcers, constipation,
diarrhoea and epilepsy.
Control of these diseases involves not
merely medical care but basic changes
in the behaviour and habits of the
patients.

The social scientists are asked to
investigate the life situations of the
patients in a view to discover linkages
between specific life situations and
specific cases of illness.
“ILLNESS BEHAVIOUR”
Why different people react in different ways
to the same disease progress or treatment
regimen.

Medical sociology deals with the following:
1)Doctor-patient relationship
2)Patient care management
3)Hospital management
4)Cultural practices

For a physician to serve the patient and
the community, he needs two kinds of
Knowledge:
1.Medical knowledge
2.Social knowledge
The present day medical sciences (e.g.,
Anatomy, pathology) are insufficient to train
the physician to cope with social aspects
of medicine.

3.EPIDEMIOLOGY
Epidemiologists also have a close alliance
with social scientists in studying the disease
distribution in human population.
Disease as a whole is studied in relationship
to factors such as
•Social status
•income

•occupation
•housing
•over crowding
•social customs
•Habits and behaviour
The health standards of an individual in
a community are determined mostly by
his social class in the community.

•Social class and health
Income, occupation and education which
are the major components of most
measures of social class are generally
positively correlated with health status.
Individuals in upper social class have a
longer life expectancy, less mortality and
a better health and nutritional status than
those in the lower class.

Diseases like coronary heart disease,
Hypertension, diabetes all have been
shown to have a high incidence in
Social class 1.
Diseases of skin, eye and ears, diarrhoea
and dysentery have shown a higher
in lower class, which can be ascribed to
The poor status of physical environment
In which they live.

MEDICAL EDU SOCIAL CONTEXT OF MEDICINE.ppt

MEDICAL EDU SOCIAL CONTEXT OF MEDICINE.ppt

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