Sociology And Health: The term Sociology is derived from the Latin word “Societus” which means “Society” and the Greek word “logos” which means “Study or science”.
- The systemic study of Social activities, societies, and groups is called sociology.
- It involves the study of human groups and social behavior based on social relationships and how these relationships affect an individual’s behavior and relationships develop and change.
- Sociology involves the study of Social relationships, Social activities, Social structure, Behavior of humans in groups, etc.
Types Of Sociology
Table of Contents
1. Micro sociology: It is a branch of sociology that deals with the study of small units and groups within a large society.
2. Macro sociology: It is a branch of sociology that deals with the analysis and study of societies in their totality.
Socio-Cultural Factors Related To Health And Disease
- Many factors affect the health of an individual, the place where we live, we work, we learn and we play are the social determinants of health, and these conditions can affect health.
- Several factors can affect your health and it includes; education, income, access to healthcare, family, culture, environment, etc.
1. Education: Education plays an important role in a healthy life. It gives you the confidence to make better decisions regarding health issues, encourages an individual to participate in various activities like; yoga, exercise, regular health checkups, and generally educated people are aware of health issues and avoid bad habits.
2. Income: Healthy people can seek good medical supervision but in the case of wealthy people they are very lazy and inactive and more prone to various diseases like; cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity.
3. Access to health care: Educated people and working people enjoy better health, but on other hand, some people do not have access to health care due to less income or unemployment.
4. Family: Family history is a very important factor when health is concerned. Genes control the health of a person or individual from the moment of fertilization, some diseases like; mental deficiency and diabetes are heredity problems and the objective of health and family well-being services is to treat diseases, protect from illness, and promotion of health.
5. Culture: Culture means “people’s lifestyle”, behavior, friend circle and also habits, number of diseases like; cancer, diabetes, and heart diseases are associated with it.
6. Environment: Diseases are generated by changes in climatic conditions.
Impact Of Urbanization On Health And Disease
Urbanization
It is defined as the state in which society is transforming from rural to urban and it contains two things:
- Increased population living in urban accommodations.
- Increased percentage of the population busy in non-agricultural activities, living in such places.
- Urbanization is also related to change in diet and exercise that increases the chances of obesity with enhanced risk of diabetes and heart disease.
- The increased movement of population from rural to urban areas changes characteristic epidemiological disease profile of the country and at the same time, new diseases arise or old diseases reappear such as; HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, etc.
Impact of Urbanization on Health and Disease
Health inequity: Health inequity is defined as the systemic comparison in the health status of various population groups that appear from the social conditions in which, people are born, grow, work and grow older. Health inequities include; education, income level, employment status, gender, and nationality and they have a marked influence on an individual’s health.
Mental health depression: Shortage of privacy can lead to depression, stress and also disturbs mental health. Depression and stress are due to overcrowding and the fast growth of urban centers.
Health Hazards due to Poor Water Supply and Sanitation
- Water and sanitation problems due to increasing urbanization are coupled with existing sustainability factors and normal urban water management.
- There is a lack of safe and clean drinking water.
Poverty And Health
- Poverty may be defined as the lack of necessities of humans and it is due to lack of resources, both material and non-material like; health care, education, housing, nutrition, clothing, clean water, knowledge, culture, income, etc.
- It specifies a situation in which a person fails to maintain a living standard suitable for a comfortable lifestyle.
- Poverty is a major problem for a sociologist. Poverty was once examined as a social problem and sociologists researched to understand this problem and try to provide a solution to solve the problem of poverty.
- Absolute poverty: Absolute poverty may be defined as the situation where family income is inadequate to buy basic things of life.
- Relative Poverty: Relative poverty is defined as an economic imbalance in the location or society in which people live.
- The main causes behind poverty are unemployment, lack of education, rapid population growth, and moral culture.
Effects of Poverty on Health
- The main effect of poverty is reverberation through various layers of a citizen’s try to have a systematic look at them, there will be following three heads:
1. Effects on Society: Poverty applies some seriously concerning effects on the overall social health as well. These effects are observed due to homelessness, child labor, and stress conditions.
2. Effects on Health: One of the most destructive effects that poverty has is on the overall health of the country. The most important health problem stemming from poverty is malnutrition.
3. Effects on Economy: Poverty is a direct index indicating the success of the economy of the country. The number of populations living under the poverty threshold indicates whether the economy is powerful enough to generate sufficient jobs and facilities for people or not.
Important Steps to Decrease Poverty
There are some important points for decreasing the poverty and it includes:
- Increase employment opportunities.
- Encouraging self-employment plan and strategy.
- Fulfill the primary needs of the individuals like food and clean drinking water.
- Improve subsidy rates on commodities and the Public Distribution System should be made.
- All facilities of health centers should be provided by the government.
- Free educational facilities should be provided by the government.
- Promoting awareness regarding birth control.
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