Transcript 21_Health

Health & Medicine
 Medical
Sociology
What are some general trends?
 Cultural
patterns define what is or is
not healthy
◦ 2/3 of U.S. adults are overweight
 Social
inequality
 Technology
◦ PET scans & CAT scans
What are some group differences?
 Women VS
 Women
longer
men
are healthier and live
What are the major causes of
deaths in high income countries?
 Heart
disease
 Cancer
 Stroke
What are young Americans
most apt to die from?
 Accidents
Do you remember?
What are some general trends effecting
your health?
 How is gender related to health?
 What are you most apt to die from in the
U.S. if you are older?
 What are you most apt to die from if you
die young?

How does smoking effect you?
 Effects
◦ Physically & Psychologically
addictive
◦ Frequent minor illnesses
◦ Increased prenatal death
Smoking (cont.)
Greatest preventable cause of death
 440,000 die prematurely
 More than deaths from:
◦ Alcohol, Cocaine, Heroin
◦ Homicides, suicides, car accidents
◦ AIDS
◦ Combined

Sexually transmitted diseases
 Genital
herpes
◦ Infects 1 in 6 adults
◦ (24 Million U.S. adults)
Where is AIDS worldwide?
 Highest
number of cases?
◦ Sub-Saharan Africa
 Most rapidly
◦ Thailand
 U.S. rate
rising rate?
is declining
What high risk behaviors should you
avoid?
 IV
drug use (Sharing needles)
 Using drugs that impair judgment
 Anal Sex
Do you remember?
What is the greatest preventable cause of
death?
 In a classroom of 30 students, how many
will have herpes (statistically)?
 Where is the largest number of AIDS
cases in the world?
 What high risk behaviors should you
avoid?

How can human genetics
research help?
 Stop
disease before it develops
 Information about their future
medical condition
 Health profile of a future child
What is social epidemiology?
 Study
of the distribution of health
and illness in a population
Medical technology in poor
countries
◦ What happens as medical
technology attacks infectious
diseases in poor countries?
◦ Populations increase rapidly
What is euthanasia?
 Assisting
in the death of a person
suffering from a terminal illness.
Do you remember?
How can human genetics research help?
 If I study the distribution of illness in the
U.S., what am I?
 What could be a latent function of
increasing medical technology in poor
countries?
 What is euthanasia?
