The Perils of Medicalization for Population Health and Health Equity |
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| Authors: | PAULA M. LANTZ DANIEL S. GOLDBERG SARAH E. GOLLUST |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Ford School of Public Policy and School of Public Health, University of Michigan;2. University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus;3. School of Public Health, Center for the Study of Political Psychology, and Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Minnesota |
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| Abstract: | Policy Points - Medicalization is a historical process by which personal, behavioral, and social issues are increasingly viewed through a biomedical lens and “diagnosed and treated” as individual pathologies and problems by medical authorities.
- Medicalization in the United States has led to a conflation of “health” and “health care” and a confusion between individual social needs versus the social, political, and economic determinants of health.
- The essential and important work of population health science, public health practice, and health policy writ large is being thwarted by a medicalized view of health and an overemphasis on personal health services and the health care delivery system as the major focal point for addressing societal health issues and health inequality.
- Increased recognition of the negative consequences of a medicalized view of health is essential, with a focus on education and training of clinicians and health care managers, journalists, and policymakers.
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