Deck 21: Health and Medicine

Question 1

If you were to visit a low-income nation to study its high death rates, what would you suspect to be the most common causes of death?

A) cancer and heart disease
B) infectious diseases
C) accidents
D) old age

Answer 1

B

Question 2

In poor nations around the world, about what share of all children die before they reach their first birthday?

A) 1 percent
B) 10 percent
C) 50 percent
D) 90 percent

Answer 2

B

Question 3

Society shapes human health because:

A) cultural patterns define what is or is not healthy.
B) social inequality affects a population's health.
C) society's technology affects people's health.
D) All of the above are correct.

Answer 3

D

Question 4

The greatest cause of death among young people in the United States today is which of the following?

A) cancer
B) stroke
C) accidents
D) kidney disease

Question 5

In Western Europe and North America, scientists began to understand the causes of infectious diseases at about what point in history?

A) 1700
B) 1775
C) 1850
D) 1950

Question 6

After the Industrial Revolution, there was an increase in the share of deaths caused by which of the following types of diseases?

A) infectious diseases such as influenza and pneumonia
B) chronic diseases such as heart disease and cancer
C) Both (a) and (b) are correct.
D) Neither (a) nor (b) is correct.

Question 7

Which of the following diseases is the biggest killer in today's high-income nations?

A) heart disease
B) influenza
C) pneumonia
D) cholera

Question 8

According to the World Health Organization, about how many of the world's people suffer from serious illness caused by poverty?

A) 1 million
B) 10 million
C) 1 billion
D) 10 billion

Question 9

In the world's poorest nations today, most people die before reaching:

A) their teens.
B) the age of thirty.
C) the age of fifty.
D) the age of seventy.

Question 10

Social epidemiology is the study of:

A) the biological basis of disease.
B) the availability of doctors around the world.
C) the age at which people die.
D) the distribution of health and illness in a population.

Question 11

Which of the following is an example of a chronic illness?

A) influenza
B) cancer
C) accidents
D) pneumonia

Question 12

Advancing medical technology has attacked infectious disease in poor countries with what result?

A) Almost nothing: This technology has had little effect.
B) Populations have increased rapidly.
C) Death rates have dropped to near zero.
D) Most children die earlier in life than ever before.

Question 13

Ideas about health can serve as a type of social control, as illustrated by the notion that:

A) women would risk their health by going to college.
B) a competitive way of life is "healthy."
C) homosexuality is "sick," even though it is biologically natural.
D) All of the above are correct.

Question 14

Which of the following factors has a strong link to life expectancy?

A) race
B) gender
C) social class
D) All of the above are correct.

Question 15

Applying the sociological perspective, we see that the high rate of obesity in the United States reflects:

A) bad personal choices people make about their lives.
B) cultural forces that encourage people to eat large amounts of unhealthy fast food.
C) our long history as a nation of people with poor health.
D) All of the above are correct.

Question 16

During the early decades of the Industrial Revolution:

A) rapidly growing cities had poor sanitation.
B) factories fouled the air with smoke.
C) workplace accidents were common.
D) All of the above are correct.

Question 17

Research shows that masculinity is linked to health because:

A) our culture's definition of masculinity encourages stress and heart disease.
B) men learn to be strong and avoid illness.
C) men avoid many of the lifestyle dangers common to women.
D) None of the above is correct.

Question 18

Poor health in low-income nations reflects which of the following factors?

A) the lack of safe drinking water
B) the lack of access to medical personnel
C) the lack of a nutritious diet
D) All of the above are correct.

Question 19

Approximately what share of U.S. adults is overweight?

A) one-fifth
B) one-third
C) two-thirds
D) nine-tenths

Question 20

Looking across the life course, which of the following statements is correct?

A) Women have a higher suicide rate than men.
B) Men have fewer accidents than women.
C) Women generally have better health than men.
D) Old people generally have better health than young people.

Question 21

What is the approximate death toll in the United States each year caused by disease related to being overweight?

A) 3,000 people
B) 30,000 people
C) 300,000 people
D) 3 million people

Question 22

Upon infection, people with HIV:

A) display obvious symptoms.
B) get very sick right away.
C) display no symptoms at all.
D) get mildly sick from time to time.

Question 23

The concept "euthanasia" refers to:

A) assisting in the death of a person suffering from a terminal illness.
B) people's legal "right to die."
C) providing medical treatment to seriously ill people.
D) providing medical assistance to those who cannot afford it.

Question 24

In the United States, how does life expectancy of white people compare to that of black people?

A) It is five years longer.
B) It is about the same.
C) It is two years shorter.
D) It is five years shorter.

Question 25

The greatest preventable cause of death in the United States is:

A) sexually transmitted diseases.
B) automobile accidents.
C) cigarette smoking.
D) drinking alcohol.

Question 26

Which of the following is a factor contributing to widespread obesity in U.S. society?

A) fewer of today's jobs involve the physical labor common in the past
B) more work around the house is done by machines
C) the typical diet involves more both food and more salty and fatty food
D) All of the above are correct.

Question 27

Which sexually transmitted disease infects 45 million U.S. adults (about one in five)?

A) syphilis
B) genital herpes
C) gonorrhea
D) AIDS

Question 28

In the United States, the most widespread health problem related to eating is which of the following?

A) anorexia
B) bulimia
C) obesity
D) None of the above are correct.

Question 29

Research shows that college women believe that:

A) physical looks are less important than "what's inside."
B) being thin is key to being attractive.
C) they are thinner than men would like them to be.
D) All of the above are correct.

Question 30

Which of the following categories of the U.S. population has the highest life-expectancy?

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

Question 31

Which of the following statements is True?

A) Voters in Oregon approved a physician-assisted suicide law.
B) The U.S. Supreme Court has stated that there is no "right to die."
C) Physician-assisted suicide is legal in the Netherlands.
D) All of the above are correct.

Question 32

Scientific medicine typically develops in:

A) pastoral societies.
B) agrarian societies.
C) industrial societies.
D) postindustrial societies.

Question 33

Which of the following is considered a behavior placing people at high risk of HIV infection?

A) anal sex
B) sharing needles
C) using drugs that impair judgment
D) All of the above are correct.

Question 34

Read the following statements about health in the United States. Which of the statement is correct?

A) The children of rich families have the best health in the world.
B) Children in poor families are as vulnerable as children in some low-income nations.
C) High-income people assess their own health more positively than low-income people.
D) All of the above are correct.

Question 35

It is correct to say that the medical establishment in the United States is oriented towards which of the following?

A) holistic treatment
B) herbal healing
C) traditional healing arts
D) scientific medicine

Question 36

An exception to the general decline of infectious diseases in the United States is the increase in ______ after 1960.

A) cancer
B) obesity
C) flu
D) sexually transmitted diseases

Question 37

The rise of scientific medicine in the United States began about when?

A) 1960, with advances in computer technology
B) 1917, about the time of World War I
C) 1890, as the rate immigration increased
D) 1847, with the founding of the American Medical Association

Question 38

Which of the following world regions is experiencing the most severe epidemic of AIDS?

A) Latin America
B) sub-Saharan Africa
C) the Middle East
D) eastern Asia

Question 39

In which region of the United States is the problem of obesity most widespread?

A) the West Coast
B) the Southwest
C) the Southeast
D) the Northern Plains

Question 40

Which of the following categories of people in the United States is especially likely to smoke cigarettes?

A) married people
B) divorced people
C) people with college degrees
D) people in the labor force

Question 41

Cultural patterns define what is or is not healthy.

Question 42

Fifty years ago, on average, few people in the United States understood the dangers of cigarette smoking or excessive sun exposure.

Question 43

The most common way people in the United States pay for medical care is which of the following?

A) private insurance programs
B) the government's universal health care program
C) HMOs
D) Medicare and Medicaid

Question 44

Social inequality affects a society's patterns of health.

Question 45

From a sociological point of view, health may be a matter of having the same diseases as one's neighbors.

Question 46

A criticism of Talcott Parsons's approach to health and medicine is that it:

A) says little about the issue of prevention.
B) places doctors rather than people in charge of health.
C) assumes sick people can afford to take time off from work.
D) All of the above are correct.

Question 47

In the United States, an important medical issue is:

A) a surplus of nurses.
B) a shortage of nurses.
C) the fact that many hospitals are going bankrupt.
D) doctors making less and less money.

Question 48

Following the social-conflict approach, patterns of health and illness are seen largely as a product of:

A) technology.
B) how people define the situation they experience.
C) how culture defines health and illness.
D) social inequality.

Question 49

Diseases such as heart disease and cancer are the leading killers in low-income nations.

Question 50

A symbolic-interaction approach to health and medicine emphasizes:

A) the meanings people attach to health and illness.
B) social inequality in terms of health.
C) how societies must excuse ill people from most responsibilities.
D) All of the above are correct.

Question 51

Of all high-income nations, which country relies the most on a direct-fee market system to pay for medical treatment?

A) Great Britain
B) Sweden
C) the United States
D) Japan

Question 52

Talcott Parsons described the physician-patient relationship as which of the following?

A) permanent
B) egalitarian
C) unpleasant
D) hierarchical

Question 53

In which of the following nations is almost all medical care under the control of government?

A) China
B) Great Britain
C) Japan
D) the United States

Question 54

The topic of psychosomatic disorders is of greatest interest to sociologists guided by which theoretical approach?

A) the structural-functional approach
B) the symbolic-interaction approach
C) the social-conflict approach
D) the sociobiological approach

Question 55

Holistic medicine asserts that:

A) the most important task is treating symptoms of disease.
B) patients should rely on themselves-not just physicians-to ensure their health.
C) treatment of patients should be impersonal.
D) All of the above are correct.

Question 56

Current research on human genetics promises to:

A) not just treat disease, but stop it before it develops.
B) give people information about their future medical condition.
C) allow parents to assess the health profile of a future child.
D) All of the above are correct.

Question 57

The World Health Organization claims half of all humanity suffers from illness caused by poverty.

Question 58

From a social-conflict point of view, capitalism fails to support human health because:

A) it does not encourage development of new medical techniques and technologies.
B) physicians have little financial incentive to work.
C) it makes quality of care dependent on income.
D) All of the above are correct.

Question 59

The concept "socialized medicine" refers to which of the following?

A) government insurance programs that pay for medical care
B) a medical system mostly owned and operated by the government
C) programs to improve health by giving people support groups
D) All of the following are correct.

Question 60

In his structural-functional analysis, Talcott Parsons claimed that society responds to illness by:

A) punishing ill people.
B) withholding treatment to those who need it most.
C) using the "sick role" to relieve ill people of many daily responsibilities.
D) forcing people, sick or not, to perform important work.

Question 61

AIDS kills more people in the United States each year than diseases resulting from cigarette smoking.

Question 62

Social epidemiology is the study of how health and disease are distributed throughout a society's population.

Question 63

Because of so many auto accidents, death rates among young people are much higher than they were a century ago.

Question 64

Genital herpes is a curable sexually transmitted disease.

Question 65

Today's advanced medical technology has made the definition of death much clearer.

Question 66

About 20 percent of U.S. adults are overweight.

Question 67

Over the course of the last century, an important health trend in the United States has been a rising death rate from infectious diseases.

Question 68

Heterosexual sex cannot transmit AIDS.

Question 69

"Type A personalities," which are linked to masculinity, are harmful to human health.

Question 70

Industrialization gradually led to dramatic improvements in human health.

Question 71

About one month after being infected, most people with HIV begin to display symptoms.

Question 72

In the United States, people with higher incomes have a more positive assessment of their personal health than people with low incomes.

Question 73

In much of the world, illness and poverty form a vicious circle, with each increasing the other.

Question 74

Gonorrhea and syphilis can be cured with penicillin.

Question 75

As a result of cigarette smoking, some 440,000 people in the United States die prematurely every year.

Question 76

People with more money to spend are more likely to become obese.

Question 77

AIDS cannot be spread through sneezing.

Question 78

The world region with the highest rate of HIV infection is the Middle East.

Question 79

In the United States, the infant mortality rate among low-income children is about the same as the rate for the children of the wealthy.

Question 80

Eating disorders have much to do with how our society defines femininity.