History

Health Studies, David Obeng, 25th March, 2011. Choose a current health topic and discuss how sociological and Psychological factors impact upon it. The health topic to discuss today is Asthma. It is a chronic, severe and inflammatory breathing disorder affecting the small air tubes that carry air in and out of the lungs. People with asthma get irritable when they come into contact with an asthma trigger. The muscles of the walls of the airways tighten so as to narrow the airways and the airways lining becomes inflamed and starts to swell. Sometimes, sticky mucus (phlegm) builds up which further closes the airways. All these reactions narrow and irritate the airways making breathing difficult, leading to symptoms of asthma. Currently, 5.4 million people in the UK are receiving treatment for asthma. 1.1 million Children in the UK are currently being treated for asthma and there is at least one person with asthma in one in five households in the UK. Research shows that pregnancy and smoking significantly increases the risk of a child developing asthma and Children whose parents smoke are more likely to develop asthma. Although asthma cannot be cured yet, there are some excellent medicines available to help sufferers to control their asthma so that life is not too complicated. Steroids tablets, preventer inhalers and nebulisers are just a few examples of the available treatments. Coughing, wheezing, shortness of breath and tightness in the chest are the common symptoms of asthma. Asthma UK is a charity dedicated to improve the health and well-being of the 5.4 million asthmatic people in the UK whose lives have been affected by asthma. The charity has a small, friendly and specialist nurses to provide independent, confidential advice and support to people with asthma, their families, friends and carers. They also provide advice and support to healthcare professionals through phones and emails. Asthma UK also funds research into all aspects of asthma from scientific studies into biology of the lungs to investigate the causes and to develop drugs and awards grants to local communities to identify and develop and promote good practice to improve the lives of people with asthma. The charity podcasts research updates, events information, advice and fund raising ideas online which is also downloadable. Asthma UK and the Government meet together regularly with members of Parliament, Ministers, Assemblies, Peers, Civil Servants and Dr Howard Stoate (MP,) to the all party parliamentary groups on asthma at Westminster. Asthma UK works with Parents with asthmatic Children and schools to make the Schools aware if Children are asthmatic and if there are any allergies. Sociologically, there are great inequalities in health. The lower class you are in society the more likely you are to suffer from illness throughout your life. Lower class babies are more likely to be born prematurely with lower birth weights. They are more likely to go through ranges of health disadvantages such as obesity, respiratory problems, hearing and visual impairments, decaying and missing teeth and accidents. Whitehead said that Children living in deprived areas of Glasgow (Scotland) were nine times more likely to be admitted into a hospital than Children in non deprived districts (Whitehead, 1992). Social class differences continue in adulthood. The working class is more likely to suffer more acute (short- term) illness. The gap is greatest between classes for a whole range of chronic (long- term, debilitating), illnesses such as bronchitis, arthritis, rheumatism, hypertension and headaches. They have very little chance of surviving cancer. Additionally, they are mentally instable as they are at risk of developing depression, psychotic disorders and alcoholism. The working-class, are also, perceiving their health as poor. Health has a number of factors. Individual factors such as age, gender, ethnicity, environment and work affect health. Asthma is more prevalent in children because of their age and boys suffer more than girls. Asthma also kills 54% more women than 23% men in the US alone. Again, women with asthma will be hospitalised three times more often than men and have longer stays in hospitals. Asthma in women increases to 4.43% during pregnancy. British Minority Ethnic groups tend to be affected most than whites. A team of researchers at Edinburg University found that South Asian patients with asthma are three times more likely and black people two times as likely to be hospitalised for treatment. Researchers studied data on 22, 350 people with asthma from 1981-2002 and came up with this conclusion. A further studies on 13 other data showed 15 % blacks had asthma compared to 11 % among whites and 8 % of South Asian people. Marxists argue that the drug companies are medicating conditions to make money. (Psychologically), the biological approach explains that asthma maybe hereditary. A person is more likely to suffer from asthma if his/her parents have it or any other members of the family have it. Children also learn from adults and other people around them. Children tend to copy the life style of those they admire, adore and look up to or want to be like. It could be their parents, peers, stars, actors, actresses with smoking behaviours. A number of Children and teenagers today are smoking for all sorts of reasons influenced by the media, peer pressure and also watching their parents smoke and there is strong statistical evidence on this. About 450 Children have taken up this new hobby to smoke everyday in the UK and one in every five fifteen year olds smoke in England (Smoking Trend, page1). Sigmund Freud used the Psychodynamic approach to explain why people maybe addicted to smoking by saying that Children pass through three stages of Psychosexual development, these are oral, anal and phallic stages commonly called Oedipal conflict at the oral stage, could be the reason why they smoke to ease oral fixation and smoking is the mind’s answer to diverting the unresolved issue onto an object, which is tobacco in this case which also increases the causes of asthma. Cognitively, people’s belief, attitudes, and thoughts are making them prone to illnesses such as depression. Cognitive behaviour escalates damaging the Psychological states of depression and self-harming. Self-harmers usually have problems dealing with feelings like self hate, anger, depression, frustration, isolation and a feeling of disconnection with the outside world around them. The self-empowerment approach aims at promoting health to give power to individuals to make healthy choices. Individuals participate in learning techniques allowing them to examine their own values and beliefs and it is popular within health education for young people to develop their psychological resources to resist peer pressure, the so called ‘say no’ technique. The collective action aims at improving health by addressing socio -economic and environmental causes of health within the community. Individuals work collectively to make their environment better rather than for themselves like one German City consulted their local butchers to request low fat sausage to help fight obesity (Conner, 1994). The Black Report (1980) was conducted by Sir Douglas Black to research into why there are inequalities in health. The then Labour Government of 1974-79 commissioned Sir Douglas Black to carry out this study. When the report was published in 1980, Mrs Thatcher suppressed it as she didn’t like it. The Report was never printed only 260 photocopies were given out on a bank holiday afternoon in August. Mr Black recommended four areas of explanations. These are the Artefact Approach, Social Selection Approach, Cultural Approach and the Structural Approach. The Social Class inequalities only exist because of statistical methodology that researchers use. Researchers use extreme measures to differentiate between the lowest and the highest social groups which only look at a small group which has attracted some criticisms. This is the Artefact Approach explanation. The Social Selection Approach implies that if one is ill, then he/she will go down the social scale while the strong and healthy will experience upward mobility. The 1946 British cohort discovered that seriously ill children were more likely to go downwardly mobile than healthy children (Wadsworth, 1987) but there are criticisms to it. Culturally the choices people make affect their health for instance, smoking, binge-drinking, dieting and exercising as observed by Mildred Blaxter (1990). The Achenson report also recommended policies to reduce inequalities in BME groups in considering planning and providing healthcare needs. The past and present governments blame poor health on individuals (victim-blaming). Sir Richard Peto in his recent study in the Lancet (2006) finalised that half of the death rates between top and bottom social classes is caused by smoking. While only 18% and 16% of professional men and women smoke, 33% and 30% of men and women who are un-skilled smoke. The Structural approach was very much welcomed. This approach highlights living standards and working environments as the main causes of working class poor health. For example accidents in the agricultural and construction fields amounted to 46% in 2006-7. Employees also get exposed to harmful chemicals, dangerous situations and long hours. The report concluded that the NHS remains a marked class gradient in standards of health despite committed to offering equal care for all in 30 years but the biggest problem is outside of its scope. Sociological, Psychological, biological and environmental factors therefore impact upon asthma as the above discussion has shown. The Black Report as well as Margaret Whitehead and the Achenson Report all prove that Sociological, Psychological, biological and the environment, affects health particularly asthma. References: Health Studies Unit 2, Written and typed by David Bown, Third Edition c 2010. http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/dci/Diseases/Asthma/Asthma_SignsAndSymptoms.html