Read Chapter 1 of Weitz and Summarize.
- Answer the following questions:
- What is the sociological perspective?
- How do the questions sociologists ask differ from the questions asked by psychologists or by health care workers?
- What does the textbook mean by critical approach?
- Read Chapter 2 ofWeitzand Summarize.
- Answer the following questions:
- What is the difference between morbidity/mortality, incidence/prevalence and acute/chronic illnesses?
- What is the epidemiological transition?
- What factors caused the decline in mortality between the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries?
- Think of someone you know who smokes or engages in another unhealthy behavior. Use the health belief model to explain what would have to change for him or her to change their behavior. Then, Use health lifestyle theory to explain why you yourself do or do not have a generally healthy lifestyle.
Read Chapter 3 ofWeitzand Summarize.
- Read Trice article
- Answer the following questions:
- What are the health care consequences of an aging population and of the feminization of aging?
- How and why does social class affect people's health?
- How does ethnicity affect health separately from social class? How does social class affect health separately from ethnicity? How can you tell which is the more powerful factor?
- What is environmental racism?
Read Chapter 4 ofWeitzand Summarize.
- Read Suleiman article
- Answer the following questions:
- How do social conditions limit the effectiveness of modern medicine in developing nations?
- How do social factors contribute to illness in developing nations?
- How do international politics and multinational corporations contribute to illness in developing nations?
- How do the role and status of women contribute to illness in developing nations?
Read Chapter 5 ofWeitzand Summarize.
- Answer the following questions:
- What does it mean to say that illness is a social construction and a moral status?
- How have explanations for illness changed over time, and how have explanations for illness blamed ill people for their illnesses?
- What is the medical model of illness? What is the social model of illness? Compare/contrast
- What is medicalization, why does it occur, and what are some of its consequences?
- What is the sick role model, and what are some of the problems with it?
Read Chapter 6 ofWeitzand Summarize.
- Read Bayton article
- Answer the following questions:
- How do the medical and sociological models of disability differ?
- Are disabled people a minority group?
- What is illness behavior?
- Why do individuals sometimes ignore medical advice?
- What is the Bayton's main point regarding why disability discrimination persists quietly while other forms are recognized and fought against (racial, gender, sexual orientation etc...)?
Read Chapter 8 of Weitz and Summarize.
- Read Moon Article
- Answer the following questions:
- Why did the originators of health maintenance organizations believe HMOs would provide better health care at lower costs than would traditional insurers?
- What is managed care? How can it restrain health care costs, and how can it hamr individuals' health?
- Explain what Medicare and Medicaid are
- Why have health care costs in the United States risen?
- Explain the rate spiral
Read Chapter 10 of Weitz and Summarize.
- Read Jenkins article
- Answer the following questions:
- In what ways were nineteenth-century hospitals total institutions?
- What led to the development of voluntary hospitals? Veterans' hospitals? Public hospitals? The modern hospital as we know it?
- What was the original philosophy of hospices, and why and in what ways has it changed (cooptation)?
- What is patient dumping, and why does it occur?
- How does the process of commodification affect nursing assistants and nursing-home residents?
- What is the social construction of technology? What does it mean to say that this is a political process?
Read Leape article, Studdert article, and the Pierluissi article
- Answer the following questions:
- Leape, L and Berwick, DM. 2005. "Five years after To Err Is Human: What have we learned?" JAMA 293(19)2384-2390.
- ·Think of ways that our medical community could change to break down the barriers suggested in the article.
- Why is it more important to focus on system errors over blaming the individual?
Pierluissi, E, Fischer, MA, Campbell, AR, and Landefeld, CS. 2003. "Discussion of Medical Errors in Morbidity and Mortality Conferences." JAMA 290:2838-2842
- What are the findings of the author's research?
- What do the authors suggest about their findings?
- What do the authors say about system errors?
Studdert, DM and Brennen, TA. 2001. "No-Fault Compensation for Medical Injuries: The Prospect for Error Prevention." JAMA 286(2):217-223.
- Briefly explain the articles main points
- Would going to a non-tort based system help error prevention?
- What do the authors say about system errors?
Read Chapter 9 of Weitz and Summarize.
- Answer the following questions:
- Define the eight measures of health care systems and explain why each is important
- What is convergence hypothesis? What evidence of convergence can be found in the histories of health care in Great Britain and China?
- How does access to primary and hospital care in Canada compare with access to care in the United States?
- What aspects of the health care systems in Canada and Great Britain have helped them to restrain costs? What aspects have kept costs high?