Sociology of Health and Medicine

Patients and Alternative Healers

• Many patients of alternative healers continue to receive care from medical doctors, using different healers for different problems depending on what has worked best in the past.
• Back problems are the most often reported reason for using an alternative healer.
• Spiritual healing has received the least vigorous opposition by organized medicine.

Alternative Healing Practices

• Chiropractic practice believes that most human illness is caused by a blockage of the body's vital energy by malalignments in the vertebrae.

Physician-Patient Relationship

• The physician-patient relationship is inevitably asymmetrical, with physicians in the dominant position, according to Talcott Parsons.
• The activity-passivity model most closely resembles Parsons' view of the physician-patient relationship.

Models of Health

• The biomedical model has dominated physician care in the United States for the last century.
• The biopsychosocial model is more likely to engage physicians in discussion about patients' psychosocial concerns and use interpersonal skills.

Patient Psychosocial Concerns

• Research has found that most patients presenting themselves to a physician do not have a serious physical disorder but many have psychosocial concerns.
• Physicians are more likely to recognize psychosocial problems in patients and assess patient health.

Therapeutic Communication

• Genuine therapeutic communication involves all aspects of communication.
• Patients must often endure much red tape in order to see a physician, which is a barrier to therapeutic communication.
• Female and male physicians are very similar in the likelihood of recognizing psychosocial problems in patients, assessing patient health, and being available after the death of a family member.

Confidentiality

• Medical codes, including the Hippocratic Oath, include strong statements supporting confidentiality.
• Protecting patient confidentiality has benefits, including building trust and promoting open communication.

Medical Imaging and Technology

• Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is an important recent advance in medical imaging.
• A dystopian view of technology suggests that technology can have negative consequences.

Organ Donation and Health Care Policy

• Protecting the voluntary nature of donation is an important objective in organ donation policy in the United States.
• The percentage of the GDP spent on health care in the United States is higher than in any other country.

Medicare and Medicaid

• All of the above are true concerning Medicare.
• Only a and c are correct concerning Medicaid.
• Efforts to contain health care costs in the United States include only b and c.

Ambulatory Care

• Ambulatory care refers to outpatient services provided to individuals who are not bedridden.
• Office-based practice is the most common mode of delivering ambulatory care services today.

Hospitals

• The number of hospitals increased until the late 1970s but has declined since then.
• Research is inconclusive about the size of hospitals; important differences are sometimes found but patterns are unclear.

Patient Satisfaction

• All of these statements are accurate concerning factors that influence patient satisfaction.

Compliance with Medical Regimens

• All of these factors predict compliance with medical regimens.

Lying and Deception

• While recent ethical codes stipulate truth-telling, most codes historically (even the Hippocratic Oath) did not mention truth-telling.
• Patients are often unable to comprehend the full truth, which is sometimes cited as justification for lying to or deceiving patients.
• Studies show that an overwhelming percentage of people want their physician to give them full and honest information.
• Most physicians are disposed to telling patients the truth but sometimes lie or deceive.
• Japanese physicians typically communicate the diagnosis and prognosis to family members but not to the patient when dealing with a patient who has a terminal illness.