Question

What is the conflict perspective of health and medicine? What role does stratification and access to healthcare play in our health? What are some of the social factors that put us at increased risk for certain diseases and illnesses?

Answer 1

Health is the person's physical, mental and social well-being.

Medicine is an social institute that seeks to prevent,diagnose and treat illness and to promote health.

Inequality among people is the main conflict perspective of health and medicine.

The conflicting perspective of health and medicine are the economic and political structures. The inequities in the society like social class, race and ethnicity and gender are formed in our health and medicine system. There are also critiques efforts by physicians over decades to hold on the practice of medicine and define various social problems. They are being both good and bad at the same time. Good is that they are professionally diagnosing the health problems and bad being characterizing social problems as medical problems.

Stratification and access to healthcare again is an asset for our health. People with higher household income,with good education qualification, working in firm companies have a good access to health, where as people contrary to these socioeconomic status find it difficult to access to the services provided and end up with poor health.

Social factors that determine our health status and are high risk for certain disease and illness are:

The environment in which people are born,live,learn,play,work and age.

Poverty, unemployment, poor sanitation, poor environmental hygiene, poor transportation, poor housing etc contribute to the risk for certain illness and disease.