Healthcare is not simply a medical problem, but also an social and economic problem. Fatima’s case is an illustration of this. As stated in the assignment, Fatima is a struggling single mother with two children and a greulling job. Her financial problems prevented her from seeking luxuries in life or even meeting some of the basic needs (like healthcare), and forced her to indulge in unhealthy behaviours such as regularly eating fast food. The result is that she collasped and was diagnosed with hypertension. This paper will argue that her social circumstances were the defining factor in her eventual illness, through stress that indirectly lead to her illness, beliefs and hopes that substituted proper and qualified health care, and a variety
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As Banerjee and Duflo suggested in their book, hope is necesary for the poor in the case where they couldn’t afford treatments – especially life-threatening conditions (Banerjee & Duflo, 2011). In Fatima’s case, because the chest pains would come and go, Fatima would rely on the hope that they were nothing serious and could be taken care of later. Time-inconsistency could also explain this situation, as Fatima would postpone self care to the future (Banerjee & Duflo, 2011) as she focus on her work and family in the present. Alternatively, Fatima would also rely on cheap alternative medicine to fuel her …show more content…
Economic necessity forced Fatima and her family to consume unhealthy fast food which are high in sodium and fats. For instance, one cup serving of boxed macaroni and cheese approximately contains 786 mg of salt (“Sodium in Macaroni and Cheese, n.d.) which is at least 34% of the 2300 mg recommended by the American Heart Association (“Why Should I Limit Sodium”, n.d.). Higher sodium intake leads to increased unwanted fluids in the system as the kidney could not filter them out, which in turn lead to higher blood presssure over time (Heart and Vascular Team, 2017). Similary, pizza and other fast food high in fats can lead to heart diseases and obesity (“Eating Fast Food”, 2017). Fatima probably knew about the unhealthy effects of her daily diet, but as the biopsychosocial model in Health psychology explains (Ogden, n.d.), her socioeconomic status prevented her from healthy practices and eventually lead to her
As Banerjee and Duflo suggested in their book, hope is necesary for the poor in the case where they couldn’t afford treatments – especially life-threatening conditions (Banerjee & Duflo, 2011). In Fatima’s case, because the chest pains would come and go, Fatima would rely on the hope that they were nothing serious and could be taken care of later. Time-inconsistency could also explain this situation, as Fatima would postpone self care to the future (Banerjee & Duflo, 2011) as she focus on her work and family in the present. Alternatively, Fatima would also rely on cheap alternative medicine to fuel her …show more content…
Economic necessity forced Fatima and her family to consume unhealthy fast food which are high in sodium and fats. For instance, one cup serving of boxed macaroni and cheese approximately contains 786 mg of salt (“Sodium in Macaroni and Cheese, n.d.) which is at least 34% of the 2300 mg recommended by the American Heart Association (“Why Should I Limit Sodium”, n.d.). Higher sodium intake leads to increased unwanted fluids in the system as the kidney could not filter them out, which in turn lead to higher blood presssure over time (Heart and Vascular Team, 2017). Similary, pizza and other fast food high in fats can lead to heart diseases and obesity (“Eating Fast Food”, 2017). Fatima probably knew about the unhealthy effects of her daily diet, but as the biopsychosocial model in Health psychology explains (Ogden, n.d.), her socioeconomic status prevented her from healthy practices and eventually lead to her