Social scientists choose a difference between disease & illness:

Illness is the personal, social, & cultural influences on experience of impairment, pathology, & disease

Disease is the physiological process of pathology

•Example:

–Cultural factors such as early marriage contribute to the health problem of women, particularly in rural area

– Social factors such as education and literacy also influence health outcomes

•The role of a healthcare provider is to alleviate suffering. Yet, it is difficult to address suffering if you don’t understand the many factors contributing to it .

•Suffering is a distressing psychological condition that may causes by physical symptoms such as pain, shortness of breath, or hunger.

•It may also be caused by nonphysical sources such as how people define quality of life, the meanings they attach to relationships, the anxiety that uncertainty can cause in an individual or family’s life.

•Suffering may be mitigated by someone’s religious explanation for why they are experiencing an illness or their hope for the future during and after treatment

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•How suffering is expressed also differs greatly from culture to culture. Some peoples place a high value on suppressing expressions of pain, for example, while others actually encourage such expressions. Norms for men and women may also differ