Health

What Health covers

Health is one of the optional topics on Paper 2. It treats health, illness and disability as socially constructed, then works through the unequal distribution of health chances, access to care, mental illness, and the power of medicine.

The 5 subtopics

Each one has its own page. AQA AS Sociology students sit this topic in the first year.

• The social construction of health and models of illnessThe biomedical and social models, and the distinction between impairment and disability.Open →
• Class and gender inequalities in healthThe material, cultural, artefact and social selection explanations, and the gender pattern of morbidity and mortality.Open →
• Ethnic and regional inequality, and access to health careEthnic and regional health patterns, the inverse care law, and the barriers different groups face.Open →
• Mental illness and the power of the medical professionThe social construction of mental illness, labelling theory, medicalisation, and Illich on iatrogenesis.Open →
• The sick role and the globalised health industryParsons' sick role and its critics, pharmaceutical power, medical tourism, and the migration of health workers.Open →

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Take Health further

The same content, four other ways.

Commonly confused

Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.

• Impairment vs Disability

  Impairment: a physical or mental limitation. Disability: social barriers and discrimination restricting people with limitations.

• Morbidity vs Mortality

  Morbidity: the rate of illness and disease within a population. Mortality: the rate of death within a population.

• Artefact explanation vs Social selection explanation

  Artefact explanation: the argument that class health differences are a statistical illusion of measurement. Social selection explanation: the argument that poor health causes downward mobility rather than the reverse.

Questions from this topic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   What does the social construction of health mean?

   Model answer

   It means that definitions of health and illness are not purely biological but are shaped by cultural, historical and social factors.

2. 2

   Why do sociologists argue that illness is socially constructed?

   Model answer

   Because what counts as an illness varies between societies and over time, reflecting social norms and power relations rather than objective medical criteria alone.

3. 3

   In the social construction of disability, what is the distinction between impairment and disability?

   Model answer

   Impairment refers to physical or mental limitation, while disability refers to the social barriers and discrimination that disable people with impairments.

4. 4

   What does the social construction of the body refer to?

   Model answer

   It refers to how bodily ideals, norms and practices are shaped by culture, gender expectations, media and social institutions rather than being purely natural.

5. 5

   How does the biomedical model define health?

   Model answer

   As the absence of disease.

6. 6

   What does the biomedical model emphasise regarding the causes of illness?

   Model answer

   It focuses on biological causation of disease.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

Health revision questions

Is Health examined at AS in AQA Sociology?

Yes. It sits in Paper 2, which you take in the first year, so it is on the AS paper as well as counting towards the full A level.

What does Health cover in AQA AS-Level Sociology?

5 subtopics: the social construction of health and models of illness, class and gender inequalities in health, ethnic and regional inequality, and access to health care, mental illness and the power of the medical profession and the sick role and the globalised health industry. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.

How is Health organised?

By the AQA 7192 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.