INTRODUCTION TO MEDICAL SOCIOLOGY
1.1. Definition of the Nature and Scope of Medical Sociology
Sociology is the scientific study of human social life, groups and societies. It is interested in analyzing how human beings interact with one another and the forces that determine social order or harmony in human interactions.
Social life refers to an individual's interpersonal relationships with people within their immediate surroundings or general public.
Social group consists of two or more people who identify and interact with each other. Two essentials of a social group are social interaction and consciousness of membership.
Society is a group of people who share a culture and a territory.
Territory is a location or logical space which someone owns or controls.
Culture is people’s way of life. It is their pattern of behavior, which has been created by human beings.
Some Specific Features of Culture:
• Universality: It is universal. There is no society without culture. As part of the cultures there are many aspects that are found in almost all the societies. For example the institutions like marriage and family, religion, education, polity, economy, and sports are found all over the world.
• Variability: There is variability in the universals of culture. There are a lot of variations in terms of marriage, leadership, religion across the globe.
• Learned: It is learned through the process of interaction with others. It is not inherited through the biological process. We learn to talk, to walk, and to act as our elders train us.
• Shared: Culture is not the property of one individual or of a group. It is shared with other members of society.
• Transmitted: individual or group tries to pass on its culture to the future generation.
• Changing: it is continuously changing. The patterns of behavior transmitted by one generation to another are continuously in the process of modification for catering to the changing needs of time and demands of people.
Factors that led to the Development of Sociology:
Industrial revolution
Imperialism
Success of the natural sciences using the scientific method to the study of human behaviour
Medical Sociology is defined as the study of the relationship between health phenomena and social factors. It is describes as the scientific study of the social, emotional, and cultural elements in human illness and human health. It also discusses health and illness in relation to social institutions such as family, employment, and school.
Scope of Medical Sociology
Medical sociology covers a large area of investigation in the field of health and medicine which include:
The aetiology of disease and illness that is not restricted to biological factors alone
Factors that determine illness behaviour and health-seeking behaviour
The delivery of health services and access to them
The pattern of disease and mortality as caused by the complex dynamic nature of social settings which gives rise to:
Old disease new stress
New disease new stress
Emerging diseases/ re-emerging diseases
Medicine as a profession
1.2. Relationship between Medical Sociology and Social Medicine
Both medical sociology and social medicine are related in that the thrust of medical sociology tends to overlap with the field of social medicine. Both of them deal with the role of social factors in the aetiology, course and management of illnesses.