- anxiety disorders
- feelings of worry and fearfulness that last for months at a time
- commodification
- the changing of something not generally thought of as a commodity into something that can be bought and sold in a marketplace
- contested illnesses
- illnesses that are questioned or considered questionable by some medical professionals
- demedicalization
- the social process that normalizes “sick” behavior
- disability
- a reduction in one’s ability to perform everyday tasks; the World Health Organization notes that this is a social limitation
- epidemiology
- the study of the incidence, distribution, and possible control of diseases
- impairment
- the physical limitations a less-able person faces
- individual mandate
- a government rule that requires everyone to have insurance coverage or they will have to pay a penalty
- legitimation
- the act of a physician certifying that an illness is genuine
- medical sociology
- the systematic study of how humans manage issues of health and illness, disease and disorders, and healthcare for both the sick and the healthy
- medicalization
- the process by which aspects of life that were considered bad or deviant are redefined as sickness and needing medical attention to remedy
- medicalization of deviance
- the process that changes “bad” behavior into “sick” behavior
- mood disorders
- long-term, debilitating illnesses like depression and bipolar disorder
- morbidity
- the incidence of disease
- mortality
- the number of deaths in a given time or place
- personality disorders
- disorders that cause people to behave in ways that are seen as abnormal to society but seem normal to them
- private healthcare
- health insurance that a person buys from a private company; private healthcare can either be employer-sponsored or direct-purchase
- public healthcare
- health insurance that is funded or provided by the government
- sick role
- the pattern of expectations that define appropriate behavior for the sick and for those who take care of them
- social epidemiology
- the study of the causes and distribution of diseases
- socialized medicine
- when the government owns and runs the entire healthcare system
- stereotype interchangeability
- stereotypes that don’t change and that get recycled for application to a new subordinate group
- stigmatization
- the act of spoiling someone's identity; they are labeled as different, discriminated against, and sometimes even shunned due to an illness or disability
- stigmatization of illness
- illnesses that are discriminated against and whose sufferers are looked down upon or even shunned by society
- underinsured
- people who spend at least 10 percent of their income on healthcare costs that are not covered by insurance
- universal healthcare
- a system that guarantees healthcare coverage for everyone