Deck 12: Health, Illness, and Medicine

Question 1

Which of the following is not an example of complementary and alternative medicine?

A) A bypass surgery to allow blood to flow to the heart
B) Yoga
C) Acupuncture
D) Bio

Answer 1

A

Question 2

Health demography is the study of the

A) distribution of disease in a population
B) birth rate of different groups in a society
C) percentage of a population that refuses to use conventional medicine
D) effectiveness of experimental medical treatments to treat diseases

Answer 2

A

Question 3

People in ___________ nations live, on average, more than 30 years longer than people in ___________ nations.

A) rich, poor
B) poor, rich
C) hot, cold
D) highly unequal, relatively equal

Answer 3

A

Question 4

In general, people in nations marked by ___________ have shorter life expectancies.

A) robust democratic institutions
B) violent conflict
C) accessible social services
D) high levels of education

Question 5

In every society, ____________, on average, live longer than ___________.

A) the poorly educated, the well-educated
B) the poor, the rich
C) women…, men
D) Men, women

Question 6

WHO is an acronym that stands for

A) Wealth and Health Outcomes
B) Women's Health Options
C) Worldwide Health Opportunities
D) World Health Organization

Question 7

Which group is most likely to develop cancer?

A) African American men
B) African American women
C) White men
D) White women

Question 8

Death by suicide is four times more likely among _________ than among _________.

A) people of color, white people
B) white people, people of color
C) men, women
D) women, men

Question 9

While there is no question that genetic inheritance shapes the demography of health,

A) social context always matters more
B) genetics continue to deny the legitimacy of epigenetics as a field of study
C) research remains unclear about whether social context is a significant contributor to health
D) it is also true that social context always matters

Question 10

The study of how genes function in the biological system is called

A) eugenics
B) epigenetics
C) genetics
D) health demography

Question 11

The study of how genes interact with wider natural and social environments is called

A) eugenics
B) epigenetics
C) genetics
D) health demography

Question 12

What question might a doctor ask an elderly patient during a medical exam that would help them understand how social factors might impact that person's health?

A) "At what age did you first start wearing glasses?"
B) "What brand of toothpaste do you use?"
C) "Which of your siblings was your favorite?"
D) "Do you feel safe going outside for a walk in your neighborhood?"

Question 13

Who is most likely to have a high allostatic load?

A) A refugee fleeing violence in her home nation who walks 1,000 miles a bordering nation only to be placed in a squalid detention center
B) A baby just born yesterday who had a healthy birth and delivery
C) An affluent woman who has not worked in paid employment but instead spends her time volunteering for causes she supports
D) A man who enjoys his low-stress job as a dog walker

Question 14

A doctor who adopts an intersectional health perspective will

A) treat each element of a patient's identity-such as their race, sex and gender, religion, etc.-as distinctly different things to be addressed and will not consider how they influence each other
B) reject the use of all Western remedies and instead use only complementary and alternative medicine
C) give attention to the concrete, historical contexts and actual lived experiences of the kinds of people they serve
D) only see patients who are willing to make lifestyle changes to manage their illnesses

Question 15

Typically, doctors have more epistemic privilege than patients. This is because they

A) went to medical school
B) are older
C) have a busy schedule
D) have many people who work under them

Question 16

What is the thesis of Corey Abramson's The End Game: How Inequality Shapes Our Final Years (2017)?

A) Social factors such as poverty and exposure to stress and violence shorten the lives of poor people.
B) By the time they die, most people are psychologically prepared to do so.
C) If poor people make it to old age, they are actually more likely than rich people to make it to very old age (over 100 years).
D) Poor old people age with less difficulty and pain compared to wealthy old people, because they have developed resiliency and grit in the face of obstacles over the course of their lives.

Question 17

In the U.S., the average age of people is

A) staying the same because people are dying younger but fewer babies are being born
B) staying the same because life expectancy is not changing
C) increasing as people live longer
D) decreasing as people die younger

Question 18

Why, according to research by ethnographer Corey Abramson, do many older people fear and dislike the physical deterioration that often accompanies aging?

A) A functioning body allows a person to be independent and thus have more opportunities.
B) Pain management becomes harder as a person ages since we have no conducted good research on the impact of pain medication on older people.
C) They are vain and do not want to be seen as "old" because they think that old people are unattractive.
D) They fear being unable to spend all their money before they die and worry that ungrateful relatives will inherit it instead.

Question 19

Which perspective on health, illness, and medicine focuses on the need for policy and medical interventions that address the interlocking systems of power at the structural and cultural level as well as at the level of individual patients?

A) Health demography
B) CAM
C) Epigenetics
D) Intersectional approach

Question 20

Which of the following statements about the place of complementary and alternative medicine in the U.S. health system is accurate?

A) Americans spend more money on complementary and alternative medicine than on traditional medicine.
B) While Americans spend significant amounts of money on complementary and alternative medicine, this is just a small percentage of the total amount of money spent on healthcare each year.
C) Complementary and alternative medicine is illegal in the U.S. in most cases; when it is practiced, it must be done as part of a legitimate medical experiment overseen by scholarly researchers.
D) Complementary and alternative medicine is far more expensive than traditional medicine, but users report higher rates of satisfaction with it than do people who rely on traditional medicine.

Question 21

The goal of patients with chronic disease is typically

A) pain relief but not symptom management
B) full recovery
C) management, not cure
D) cure (and end to the disease) but not full recovery

Question 22

Which of the following statements about disease is accurate?

A) The labeling of something as a disease is always performed by disinterested scientists who have no financial motivation for this choice.
B) What is considered a disease varies from culture to culture.
C) What is considered a disease is consistent from culture to culture.
D) The physical condition labeled as "diseased" is stable within a culture, even though they vary across cultures.

Question 23

Which of the following is an example of a medical risk?

A) Having a parent who died in war
B) Having a parent who died of breast cancer
C) Having a parent who died of cancer of the throat caused by chewing tobacco
D) Having a parent who died in an auto accident

Question 24

Why were the physicians who were treating Lia Lee in Anne Fadiman's The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down (1997) frustrated with her parents?

A) The parents did not speak English.
B) The parents did not view their daughter's condition as something that should be treated with Western medicine.
C) The parents were willing to support treatment for their son but not their daughter because of sexist attitudes.
D) The parents refused to pay the outrageous costs of medical care in the U.S.

Question 25

In sociological terms, what is the difference between disease and the illness experience?

A) The illness experience is irreversible and incurable and can only be managed, but diseases are short term and typically result in a full recovery.
B) Disease is irreversible and incurable and can only be managed, but the illness experience is short term and typically results in a full recovery.
C) Disease happens within the physical body, but the illness experience is the way that physical reality is understood and managed by the people experiencing it.
D) The illness experience happens within the physical body, but disease is the way that physical reality is understood and managed by the people experiencing it.

Question 26

Why might a physician choose to achieve cultural competence?

A) Because they can bill insurance at a higher rate if they are culturally competent
B) To serve patients with respect
C) Because it is required in order to achieve entrance into medical school
D) Because it is required to pass the medical board exams, which are a necessary step in becoming a physician

Question 27

At what point in the illness experience do you become a patient?

A) When your body first experiences disease, even before you mentally recognize it
B) When you pay for your healthcare
C) When you first notice a symptom and recognize it as a sign of disease
D) When you seek healthcare

Question 28

Which of the following is NOT a common reason why people reject the sick role?

A) They use home remedies because they rely on tradition more than medical authority.
B) They wish to remain ill or see their condition worsen.
C) They are suspicious of mainstream medical advice.
D) They fear being mistreated by doctors and so aggressively advocate for treatments of their own choosing.

Question 29

A mammogram (a scan of the breasts) recently revealed that Lorraine has a small breast lump. She will have to return for further testing to determine if it is benign (harmless) or malignant (cancerous and dangerous). When she calls to tell her elderly mother the news, her mother responds by saying, "I told you that you eat too much sugar and refined carbohydrates!" In attempting to blame Lorraine's diet for her possible disease, Lorraine's mother is trying to

A) medicalize Lorraine's breast lump
B) force her daughter into the sick role
C) stigmatize her daughter
D) label her daughter as disabled

Question 30

The HIV/AIDS crisis occurred in the U.S. during the tenure of which president?

A) Ronald Reagan
B) George W. Bush
C) Jimmy Carter
D) Richard Nixon

Question 31

What is the central argument of Abigail C. Saguy's 2013 book What's Wrong with Fat?

A) Fat in the U.S. is framed in a way that pathologizes fat bodies-which is to say, people who weigh more than is deemed appropriate by the medical industry.
B) The increased weight of the average American over the last few years is a result of poor nutrition options for America's poor.
C) Policy decisions to subsidize meat rather than vegetables has led to a health crisis in the U.S.
D) Fat is beautiful!

Question 32

In the medical model, a disability is

A) physical or mental defects located in the individual
B) a way that a body deviates from a set standard ("norm") of what a society calls healthy
C) a way to define a body so that the person with this body can use health insurance to receive healthcare
D) a difference in bodily function that cannot be compensated with affordable and widely available technology, such as eyeglasses

Question 33

While the medical model of disability sees certain bodies as defective, a sociological model

A) argues that social, economic, and environmental factors-like whether a society makes it possible for people who use wheelchairs to be mobile in the public sphere-are part of the creation of a disability
B) ignores bodily differences because calling attention to them is hurtful
C) says that medicine could "fix" all disabilities if only all people had access to it
D) desires to end the disability through genetic testing and abortion

Question 34

What does ADA stand for?

A) Alliance for the Defense of Autism
B) Accessibility of Diagnosis Act
C) Americans with Disabilities Act
D) AIDS Defiance Association

Question 35

The neurodiversity movement argues that

A) the rise in the number of cases of autism is due to vaccinations
B) a range of neurological conditions are a normal part of human variation
C) genetic testing should be used to identify children with atypical brain structures and mental processes early in order to provide intervention at a young age
D) more diagnoses should be added to the official list of mental health disorders in order to spur health insurance to cover their treatment in the medical model

Question 36

When what was previously considered an inconvenience, a normal variation of human biology, an individual quirk, or a social problem is redefined as a medical problem, it has undergone the process of

A) institutionalization
B) professionalization
C) medicalization
D) marginalization

Question 37

The DSM-V

A) describes those mental illnesses with their origins in brain chemistry and structure, such as schizophrenia, but not in individual experiences, such as post-traumatic stress disorder
B) is not subject to revision
C) is the product of the pharmaceutical industry
D) defines a variety of mental disorders

Question 38

According to Paul Starr's analysis in The Transformation of American Medicine ([1987] 2017), the American Medical Association is

A) an advocacy group for doctors who utilize complementary and alternative medicine rather than conventional medicine
B) a legal defense fund for doctors defending themselves from malpractice charges
C) a fraternal organization promoting camaraderie among physicians and the development of rituals that signal group membership
D) a lobbying group that seeks to restrict the practice of medicine to its stakeholders and prevent potential competitors from encroaching on its markets

Question 39

Which of the following statements about the place of physicians in U.S. society is NOT accurate?

A) Physicians have always been among the most respected professionals in American society.
B) Physicians are among the best-paid, most influential, and most well-educated groups of professionals in the U.S.
C) Social trust in physicians has declined, in general, as more information and misinformation about health has become broadly available online.
D) Physicians were not well respected until the early 1900s, in part because their training was not standardized and so many doctors practiced medicine dangerously.

Question 40

The social response to illness that attempts to identify, prevent, and cure disease is termed

A) medicine
B) medicalization
C) institutionalization
D) health demography

Question 41

Which of the following is NOT a medical institution?

A) A mental hospital
B) A skilled rehabilitation center for people recovering from serious wounds and injuries
C) A hair salon
D) A memory care center for people with dementia

Question 42

Contractual connections between medical organizations create

A) preventative medical care
B) public health policy
C) complementary and alternative medicine
D) healthcare systems

Question 43

Hazing in medicine might look like

A) physicians deliberately making patients wait for care because they resent what they judge to be the patient's refusal to take their previous advice
B) pharmacists abusing painkillers that they have relatively easy access to
C) nurses being physically attacked by patients who have been denied drugs for recreational use
D) supervising physicians forcing medical students to stay awake for long hours unnecessarily in order to prove their "toughness"

Question 44

What is one example of the power of physicians in the social sphere?

A) Physicians often work long shifts.
B) Physicians are required to pass not only medical school but also a standardized exam ("boards") to be awarded the status of "board certified."
C) Doctors are required to carry very high insurance coverage in case of malpractice.
D) A doctor's note can excuse an ill child from school.

Question 45

Which organization monitors the immediate healthy and safety of the U.S. population?

A) The WHO
B) The CDC
C) The NIH
D) The ADA

Question 46

The National Institute of Health

A) conducts biomedical research
B) approves new pharmaceutical medications for public sale
C) tracks outbreaks of diseases
D) reviews ethical complaints against physicians and nurses

Question 47

Epidemiology studies

A) how to communicate health information to the public effectively
B) the reasons why people resist acting in their own best health interests
C) the biological evolution of the germs that cause diseases to become resistant to known treatments
D) the social dimensions of disease patterns to discover how diseases spread

Question 48

Efforts to keep the entire population healthy are termed

A) public health
B) epidemiology
C) palliative care
D) national healthcare

Question 49

The WHO considers the likelihood of future epidemics and pandemics to be

A) virtually non-existent
B) relatively low
C) moderate
D) very high

Question 50

________________ is ____________ spread over a large geographic area.

A) A pandemic, an epidemic
B) An epidemic, a pandemic
C) A medical risk, medicalization
D) Medicalization, a medical risk

Question 51

Efforts to prevent disease, promote healthy behaviors, and pre-empt unhealthy ones through teaching are called

A) public health education
B) epidemiology
C) health demography
D) palliative care

Question 52

While visiting your favorite restaurant, you notice a sign in the restroom that says, "Handwashing prevents the spread of disease." It then illustrates the steps of careful handwashing, including using soap and hot water, washing between fingers and under rings, and rinsing thoroughly and drying hands on a disposable paper towel. This sign is an example of

A) public health education
B) epidemiology
C) health demography
D) palliative care

Question 53

Many anti-smoking campaigns are funded by

A) taxes on tobacco products
B) donations from wealthy donors
C) gifts from people who have died from smoking-related causes
D) state lotteries

Question 54

People are most likely to follow the medical advice given in a pamphlet if

A) its benefits are not immediately clear to them but extend their life over the long run
B) it asks them to make a long-term change
C) it focuses on one specific, one-time thing they can do, like get a mammogram or a flu shot
D) it introduces them to a new procedure or behavioral change that they had never heard about before

Question 55

What explains the higher rate of HIV infection among educated women in Kenya as compared to uneducated women, according to Sanyu Mojola's book Love, Money, and HIV (2014)?

A) Education in Kenya does not include sex education-but it does provide women with more contact with more men because they are attending colleges where men also attend. In comparison, uneducated women are more likely to live in sex-segregated social spheres.
B) Educated women have already risen above their uneducated peers and believe that they can also "rise above" the risk of infection even if they have sex with partners who are HIV positive.
C) Educated women have few well-paying job prospects and so turn to sex work to support their consumer habits.
D) Women are educated in urban areas and do not wish to return to rural areas. They often become the mistresses of married men in urban areas in order to pay for apartments in the city.

Question 56

Public health policy consists of

A) taxpayer spending to prevent the spread of communicable diseases
B) publicly funded research on hard-to-treat diseases
C) medical experimentation on prisoners in order to test new and promising treatments for diseases
D) the norms, rules, and laws that shape public health behavior

Question 57

Rates of infection of diseases that could be prevented with vaccinations are

A) higher in counties and school districts with lower vaccination rates.
B) lower in counties and school districts with lower vaccination rates
C) higher in counties and school districts with higher vaccination rates
D) the same in counties and school districts regardless of vaccination rates

Question 58

Demand for organ donation is

A) higher than the availability of donated organs
B) lower than the availability of donated organs
C) about the same as the availability of donated organs
D) sometimes higher and sometimes lower than the availability of donated organs, depending on the time of year

Question 59

______________ focuses on ending a disease in a person's life and supporting their recovery to their pre-disease state, while ________________ seeks to stop a disease from occurring in the first place and _______ provides pain relief and psychological and social support for a person suffering from a disease.

A) Curative medical care, preventative medical care, palliative medical care
B) Palliative medical care, curative medical care, preventative medical care
C) Preventative medical care, palliative medical care, curative medical care
D) Palliative medical care, preventative medical care, curative medical care

Question 60

Genetic testing is

A) only available through government-run agencies
B) available through private companies
C) only available through physicians' offices.
D) only available for medically necessary reasons