Session 3
Objective for this session: Students will be able discuss the issue of equity in the distribution of health services using the contrasting theories of market justice and social justice in U.S. Health Care Delivery.
Focus on:
- Health
- Determinants of health
- Strategies to Improve Health
- Organization of health care
Terms you should know:
- Activities of daily living (ADLs) measure a person's ability to function independently, especially in reference to one's ability to perform six basic activities: eating, bathing, dressing, toileting, maintaining continence, and getting into or out of a bed or chair.
- An acute condition is relatively severe, of short duration, and often treatable.
- An agent, one of the factors of the epidemiology triangle, must be present in order for an infectious disease to occur. In other words, an infectious disease cannot occur without an agent.
- The term cases refers to individuals who acquire a certain disease or condition.
- A chronic condition is less severe than an acute condition but of long and continuous duration. The patient may not fully recover.
- Community health assessment is a method used for conducting broad assessments of populations at a local or state level.
- Demand-side rationing refers to barriers to obtaining healthcare faced by individuals who do not have sufficient income to pay for services or purchase health insurance.
- Deontology is an individualistic principle of ethics that underscores the individual's duty to do what is right, such as the mutual responsibilities of physicians and patients. Deontology does not place responsibility on society to provide health care services. The principle is used to support the concept of market justice.
- \Disease is based on professional evaluation as opposed to self-evaluation.
- Environment, one of the f actors of the epidemiology triangle, is external to the host. It includes the physical, social, cultural, and economic aspects of the environment.
- An epidemic occurs when a large number of people get a specific disease from a common source.
- Health care refers to the treatment of illness and the maintenance of health.
- Health risk appraisal refers to the evaluation of risk factors and their health consequences for individuals. Health risk appraisal is an important aspect of health promotion and disease prevention because it can be instrumental in developing avenues for motivating individuals to alter their behaviors to more healthful patterns.
- Holistic health emphasizes the well-being of every aspect of what makes a person whole and complete.
- Holistic medicine seeks to treat the individual as a whole person.
- A host, one of the factors of the epidemiology triangle, is an organism, generally a human, who receives the agent. The host is the organism that becomes sick.
- Iatrogenic illnesses (or injuries) are caused by the process of health care.
- Illness is recognized by means of a person's own perceptions and evaluation of how he or she feels. For example, an individual may feel pain, discomfort, weakness, depression, or anxiety, but a disease may or may not be present.
- Incidence counts the number of new cases occur ring in the population at risk within a certain time period, such as a month or a year.
- Instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs) are used in reference to a person's ability to perform activities that are necessary for living independently in the community, such as preparing meals, shopping for routine items, managing money, and housekeeping.
- Life expectancy is the prediction of how long a person will live.
- Market justice ascribes the fair distribution of health care to the market forces in a free economy. Medical care and its benefits are distributed on the basis of people' s willingness and ability to pay.
- The medical model of health care delivery presupposes the existence of sickness. In other words, health care is delivered only when a person is sick. The model emphasizes diagnosis and treatment of disease as opposed to health promotion and disease prevention.
- Morbidity means disease or disability.
- Mortality is the term used in the measurement of death rates.
- Natality refers to the birth rate.
- The population at risk includes all the people in the same community or population group who are susceptible to acquiring a disease or a negative health condition.
- Prevalence measures the total number of cases (of death, disability, or disease) at a specific point in time in the population at risk.
- Public health deals with broad societal concerns about ensuring conditions that promote optimum health for society as a whole by influencing the social, economic, political, and medical care factors that affect health and illness. The objective of public health is to prevent disease, prolong life, and promote health through organized community effort.
- Quality of life refers to overall satisfaction with life during and following a person's encounter with the health delivery system. Some of the life domains germane to quality of life are comfort factors, security, degree of independence, decision-making autonomy, and attention to personal preferences.
- Risk factors are attributes that increase the likelihood of developing a particular disease or negative health condition at some time in the future. Risk f actors can be traced to the agent, the host, and/or the environment.
- Social contacts are evaluated in terms of the number of social contacts or social activities a person engages in within a specified period of time. Examples are visits with friends and relatives and attendance at social events, such as conferences, picnics, or other outings.
- Social justice regards health care as a social good that should be collectively financed through general taxes, and made available to all citizens regardless of the individual's ability to pay.
- Social resources refer to social contacts that can be relied upon for support, such as family, relatives, friends, neighbors, and members of a religious congregation. They are indicative of adequacy of social relationships.
- A sub acute condition is between acute and chronic, but with some acute features.
- Supply-side rationing is also called planned rationing because the government, faced with limited resources, makes deliberate attempts, often referred to as "health planning," to limit the availability of health care services, particularly those beyond the basic level of care.
- Utilitarianism is a principle of ethics that emphasizes happiness and welfare for the masses, while ignoring the individual. Its main motto is "the greatest good for the greatest number of people."
- Utilization refers to the extent to which health care services are used.
- The wellness model views health as a positive concept. The model emphasizes efforts and programs geared toward prevention of disease and maintenance of an optimum state of well-being.