Last semester I took a course with Professor Christakis in which we discussed at length the Health Transition Pattern], illustrated below:
Essentially depicting the general trends that characterize societies as they move through pre-modern to industrial to post-industrial status, the model illustrates how health concerns transition from acute, infectious diseases to more chronic and mental conditions. While there is a lot of effort to increase awareness of the growing prevalence of chronic diseases in developing countries, there is a fairly pervasive understanding that the spread infectious diseases such as tuberculosis and AIDS is ramped. This cartoon] poignantly depicts how developed countries take for granted some of the issues that we have the luxury of placing as top concerns such as obesity and depression, which, all be them important concerns, do not pose as immediate and undeniable threats to one’s live as do many infectious diseases.
But the preceding inequalities are not only present on a global scale—there are obvious disparities within our country. The positive correlation of higher socioeconomic status and improved health outcomes is one that characterizes the realities around a number of diseases. Professor Nelson briefly mentioned in lecture one day how the rich tend to be germaphobic not to mention they tend to live in less cramped, populous areas according to Paul Fussell. There is also the fact that the higher one’s class, the more in tune one is with the latest information on healthy behaviors such as nutritional concerns and screenings as well as the more able one is to act on that information. The fact that unhealthy food is often more affordable and convenient for burdened families not to mention the tendency for concentrated areas of poor people tend to lead to undesirable contexts for being outside and engaging in physical activities are part of the reason. There is also the issues concerning personal agency, particularly when considering Oscar Lewis’s points about strong present-time orientation and other things that likely influence individuals’ predisposition towards preventative measures that seem constraining in the moment. (Nelson, Lecture 12 “The Culture of Poverty Thesis”)
Over the summer I worked for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, whose philanthropic activities focus on improving the health and health care of Americans. It was there that I learned more about the relationships between class as well as residential status, race, and other factors on health outcomes concerning anything from domestic violence to substance abuse. I also learned how initiatives could be framed to challenge health disparities, which are distinct from health inequalities in that they account for differences in personal agency, by address some of the issues linked to class such as access to certain material goods, which can lead to low cultural capital taste for fast food and the like. (Nelson, Lecture 15 ” Bourdieu and American Consumption) As an aspiring physician, I strive to be cultural competent, which makes a lot of what I am learning in Sociology 155 all the more relevant.
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Martha’s Tangential Cartoon Pick!
