Sociocultural determinants of health and illness: a theoretical inquiry

This article articulates the hypothesis that people do not perceive health as a single dimensional phenomenon of a physical absence of disease. In contrast, health can be determined by multi-dimensional factors that include people’s lifestyle, their perception of health and illness, and their heal...

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Main Authors: Vivien Yew, Wong Chin, Noor Azlan Mohd Noor
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, UKM,Bangi 2014
Online Access:http://journalarticle.ukm.my/6942/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/6942/1/5ok.geografia-jan-2014-vivien-edam.pdf
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author Vivien Yew, Wong Chin
Noor Azlan Mohd Noor,
author_facet Vivien Yew, Wong Chin
Noor Azlan Mohd Noor,
author_sort Vivien Yew, Wong Chin
building UKM Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description This article articulates the hypothesis that people do not perceive health as a single dimensional phenomenon of a physical absence of disease. In contrast, health can be determined by multi-dimensional factors that include people’s lifestyle, their perception of health and illness, and their health-seeking behaviour. By exploring available literature it highlights some of the studies which have generated mixed results and describes various social and cultural factors learnt across the research processes including the evidence that effective communication between doctors and patients can improve health outcomes such as patient satisfaction, patient adherence to treatment, and disease outcomes. Social support generally shows a favourable impact on the maintenance of health and coping with stress and illness. Patients who obtained social support from family members and friends were found to be more cooperative with their attending doctors and nurses in learning about their future and in understanding the meaning of life.
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spelling oai:generic.eprints.org:69422016-12-14T06:42:39Z http://journalarticle.ukm.my/6942/ Sociocultural determinants of health and illness: a theoretical inquiry Vivien Yew, Wong Chin Noor Azlan Mohd Noor, This article articulates the hypothesis that people do not perceive health as a single dimensional phenomenon of a physical absence of disease. In contrast, health can be determined by multi-dimensional factors that include people’s lifestyle, their perception of health and illness, and their health-seeking behaviour. By exploring available literature it highlights some of the studies which have generated mixed results and describes various social and cultural factors learnt across the research processes including the evidence that effective communication between doctors and patients can improve health outcomes such as patient satisfaction, patient adherence to treatment, and disease outcomes. Social support generally shows a favourable impact on the maintenance of health and coping with stress and illness. Patients who obtained social support from family members and friends were found to be more cooperative with their attending doctors and nurses in learning about their future and in understanding the meaning of life. Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, UKM,Bangi 2014-01 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://journalarticle.ukm.my/6942/1/5ok.geografia-jan-2014-vivien-edam.pdf Vivien Yew, Wong Chin and Noor Azlan Mohd Noor, (2014) Sociocultural determinants of health and illness: a theoretical inquiry. Geografia : Malaysian Journal of Society and Space, 10 (1). pp. 49-59. ISSN 2180-2491 http://www.ukm.my/geografia/v2/index.php
spellingShingle Vivien Yew, Wong Chin
Noor Azlan Mohd Noor,
Sociocultural determinants of health and illness: a theoretical inquiry
title Sociocultural determinants of health and illness: a theoretical inquiry
title_full Sociocultural determinants of health and illness: a theoretical inquiry
title_fullStr Sociocultural determinants of health and illness: a theoretical inquiry
title_full_unstemmed Sociocultural determinants of health and illness: a theoretical inquiry
title_short Sociocultural determinants of health and illness: a theoretical inquiry
title_sort sociocultural determinants of health and illness: a theoretical inquiry
url http://journalarticle.ukm.my/6942/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/6942/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/6942/1/5ok.geografia-jan-2014-vivien-edam.pdf