Chapter 17

HEALTH AND ILLNESS

Learning Outcomes
At the end of this chapter you should be able to:
 describe key sociological perspectives and approaches to health and illness
explain the relationship between health and wellness, poverty and inequality
provide a feminist critique on health and illness
discuss the social determinants of health.
 HEALTH AND ILLNESS
relate to how individuals and groups are
affected by physical and psycho-social
Core concept 1 wellbeing.

This also relates to questions of mortality

rates and life expectancy.
 THE FUNCTIONALIST PERSPECTIVE
Core concept 2 focuses on how health functions to affect
the individual’s ability to contribute to
society. It sees illness as deviant as it
disallows the individual from contributing to
society’s function.
 THE INTERACTIONISTS
are interested in the relations between
individuals and how everyday interactions
are, in sense, negotiations of relations. As a
Core concept 3 result certain ideas of health can influence
positively or negatively.
 THE MARXIST PERSPECTIVE
Core concept 4 focuses on how the capitalist system is
structured in a way that benefits the
dominant group. Health systems in such a
system will not necessarily be for the benefit
of the working class.
 THE FEMINIST PERSPECTIVE
focuses on the unequal position that women
occupy in broader society and therefore how
Core concept 5 their lack of access to societal resources
negatively affects their health outcomes.
 HEALTH INEQUALITIES
are a result of inequalities over gender,
racial and class differences among groups
Core concept 6 and the individual. These differences are
socially determined. They affect access to
health of minority groups and thus lead to
negative health outcomes for these groups.
Chapter 17: Health and illness
With emphasis on South Africa
 Key terms
Antiretroviral Inequality Sick role
Deviance Life expectancy Social determinants of health
Excluded Masculinity Stereotyping
Feminisation of poverty Paradigms or theories Stigma
Gini coefficient Patriarchy Theories
Health Race Traditional medicine
Health inequalities Ruling Value-laden