Social Factors in Illness Behavior

Abstract

The field of public health has long been aware of the greater resistance to modern medical science and technology among the lower socioeconomic and ethnic minority groups. The nature and underlying causes of this resistance, however, are in general not precisely formulated. The present paper attempts to study the nature of such resistance by analyzing variations in reactions to modern medical care in terms of two major social factors: (1) the structure of the social group to which the individual belongs; and (2) the health orientation or value system to which he adheres.