Social Epidemiology: Modern Illness

• Unit 2 is about the social causes of modern illness, for the first semester of 2023-2024.

Introduction to Epidemiology

• Disease refers to biological problems within organisms
• Illness refers to the social experience and consequences of living with a disease
• Epidemiology studies the distribution of disease within a population
• Social epidemiology studies how social behaviors and factors affect the distribution of disease

Rates, Incidence, and Prevalence

• Rate refers to the proportion of a specified population experiencing a given circumstance
• Incidence refers to the number of new occurrences of an event within a population during a period
• Prevalence refers to the total number of cases within a population at a specific time

Morbidity, Mortality and Life Expectancy

• Morbidity refers to symptoms, illnesses, and impairments
• Mortality refers to deaths
• Epidemiologists calculate rates of serious morbidity, infant mortality, and maternal mortaility
• Life expectancy is the average number of years individuals born in a certain year are likely to live

Understanding Raw Numbers

• Raw numbers can be hard to interpret, as an event with 10,000 incidents is less scary if the event is possible for a population of 300 million, but horrifying if only 100,000
• Incidence rates provide an overview of the increase or decrease of diseases by showing how many new cases have been identified
• Prevalence rates provide an overview of the magnitude of a disease by showing how many people have it, regardless of when they got it

Modern Disease Profile

• People no longer die of infectious diseases, they die of diseases of old age and chronic illnesses

Globalization

• Globalization is the process through which ideas, resources, people, and trade operate in a world wide rather than local scope
• Globalization results in a rise of infectious diseases and allows diseases to affect humans which only affected animals (deforestation)

Leading Causes of Death

• Globally, communicable diseases are decreasing as a cause of death, and noncommunicable diseases are on the rise, as well as injuries

Ten Causes of Premature Death

• Tobacco
• Medical Errors
• Diet or Activity Patterns
• Alcohol
• Bacteria and Viruses
• Toxic agents
• Motor Vehicles
• Firearms
• Sexual Behavior
• Illicit use of Drugs

Medical Errors

• Medical errors cause more preventable deaths than anything else besides tobacco
• Examples of medical errors include surgery and the the wrong patient or misdiagnosing and mistreating a patient
• Errors are due to problematic systems, rather than individual errors

Medicare and Alcohol

• Medicare is the federally funded insurance program for the elderly and permantently disabled
• Heavy alcohol use causes irreversible brain damage, hepatitis, heart disease, cirrhosis, and reduces the body's ability to fight infections
• Alcohol kills more people than all illegal drugs combined

Illegal Drugs and Obesity

• Illegal drugs can kill through overdose, sucide, motor vehicle accidents, HIV, pneumonia, hepatitis and endocarditis
• Common illegal drugs are Cocaine and Heroine
• Making drugs illegal increases risk of shared needles, raising the rates of HIV and hepatitis
• High fat diets and sedentary lifestyles cause premature deaths due to cardiovascular disease, strokes, cancers and diabetes

Health Belief Model

• It explains why healthy individuals adopt healthy behaviors
• Four factors affect these decisions:
  • Individuals are susceptible to a health issue
  • The health issue is serious
  • Preventive measures reduces risks significantly
  • There aren't any significant barriers to prevent individuals from adopting

Compliance and Agency

• Compliance refers to individuals willingness to follow medical advice
• Agency refers to an individuals' free will
• Structure refers to social forces that limit an individuals' realistic choices
• Agency over structure, live choices versus life chances
• Health lifestyles acknowledge both agency and structure, but emphasize that group behaviors offer a more comprehensive analysis of why healthy behaviors are or are not adopted

Habitual Dispositions and Social Stress

• Habitual dispositions are routine/instinctual ways of thinking about whether certain behaviors are or are not with adopting, with lifestyles and dispositions affecting each other mutually
• Situations that make individuals feel anxious and imbalanced
• The emotions that result from exposure to such situations
• The bodily changes that occur in response to these situations and emotions
  • Stress can be acute (death of a loved one)
  • Stress can be chronic (financial burden or loneliness)

Explore the social causes of modern illness, including the perspectives of disease versus illness. Learn about key concepts in epidemiology like rates, incidence, prevalence, morbidity, and mortality. Calculating rates of serious morbidity, infant mortality, and maternal mortaility is also covered.