12 + 1 key words for Medical Sociology Antonio Maturo Universita` di Bologna Roots • • • • • Engels Durkheim Parsons Foucault Illich relatives • • • • • • Anthropology Epidemiology / public health Psychology Economics Organization studies Bioethics WHO (1948) • Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. 1. Inequality • • • • • Money Education Life expectancy Morbidy Access to care 2. Social determinants of health 3. Social capital • • • • • Networks Associations Access to information Social support Trust 4. Social construction of health and illness • Social representations of normality and pathology • If men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences. (Thomas, 1928) • Stigma • Social exclusion • Self-fulfilling prophecy 5. Disease, illness, sickness (Twaddle, Mechanic, Kleinman) • Disease can be considered as the bio-medical definition of a pathology; • illness coincides with subjective feelings of pain or anxiety and on the subjective interpretation of the pathological state • sickness as the way by which society interprets a personal condition. 6. Disability • • • • • • Chronic diseases Stigma Normality-pathology Aging (ageism) Social construction of disability Welfare state…. 7. Health care organization • • • • • • Welfare state Taxes Providers of care Role of the State Private/public providers / finance Health expenditure 8. Patient-physician relationship • • • • • Asymmetry - Power Communication Information Compliance Health literacy 9.Medicalization • ‘Once upon a time, plenty of children were unruly, some adults were shy, and bald men wore hats. Now all of these descriptions might be attributed to diseases – entities with names, diagnostic criteria, and an increasing array of therapeutic options’. McLellan (2007, p.627). • the process through which a non-medical problem is defined as a disease or a disorder” (Conrad, 2007, p. 4). 10.Brain-Neuroscience 11. Body • • • • • Disability Human enhancement Eating disorders Cosmetic surgery Cyborg 12. Medicine • • • • • Power Extension and expansion of borders Health industrial complex Big pharma Bigger role in our life + 1: Internet • Apps • Social network • Telemedicine