Bioethics Journal
Year:2012 | Volume:2 | Issue:5|Papers Count:7

Introduction: Today, HIV/AIDS is not merely a disease and its carriers are not merely considered as patients. Since the transmission modes of HIV/AIDS are for the most part related to the deviant behavior of human being, a stigma has been developed against this disease. This study is aimed at examining the effect of this stigmatization in the curing of these patients and the interaction of the doctor and HIV positive patients.Method: A qualitative research method has been used in this study. Data collection has been carried out through interviews. Depth interview and semi-structured interviews have been employed for the patients and doctors respectively. This study was done in the consultation center and infectious disease ward of Imam Khomeini hospital. Six clients of the consultation center and seven infectious disease specialists were selected.Findings: AIDS stigma has resulted in inappropriate fears in the medical community, such that the interaction of the patients and doctors are affected by this phenomenon, and some curing discriminations occur against these patients.Conclusion: Based on the results obtained in this study, AIDS stigma has undesirable effects on our medical community, such that HIV/AIDS patients can hardly have access to the same curing rights as other patients. The results indicate that this stigma plays a significant role in introducing this disease as a social and cultural phenomenon. Doctors like other individuals of the society are likely to be affected with the values, norms, and constructions of the society.

Introduction: The high rate of elderly population increase in developed countries has shifted the focus of attention to the issues related to this age group. One of the approaches adopted in recent decades for tackling the problems associated with the elderly and other age groups is community-based rehabilitation programs. Practicing such programs in different countries such as Iran is in its initial stages. The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of these programs on the elderly and the quality of their life.Method: In this study, a case-control study is undertaken. Some 100 old people at or over the age of 60 years from Kahrizak nursing home (Karaj branch) were sampled randomly. These individuals were divided into two groups of 50 individuals; test group and control group. The principal characteristic of this categorization is participation or no participation in community-based rehabilitation programs. The needed information is extracted through a questionnaire and interview technique.Findings: The results indicate that there is a difference between the control and test groups, such that those elderly people who took part in the community-based rehabilitation program and were provided with significant services had a superior quality of life.Conclusion: Despite community-based rehabilitation programs have only recently been adopted in Kahrizak, the participants could regain their social and personal identity once they returned to the society had a better quality of life in comparison to the other aged people.

Introduction: Extensive studies on the problems and different dimensions of the life of women in charge of the family have already been carried out, all of which showed the undesirable condition of this group of women. However, there have been few sociological studies on the health of women in charge of the family. The present research is a comparative study on the attention to health and medical care among women in charge of the family and other women.Method: The research method is quantitative and the statistical population includes 19 to 75 women of Tehran participating in the “pastime statistical survey” plan in 1388. In this respect, the number of subjects is 227 women in charge of the family and 2122 married women.Findings: The results of the comparison of the two groups of women shows that married women enjoy the health and medical care and receive private cares more than others.Conclusion: Due to inappropriate and critical conditions of women in charge of the family, their health is substantially emphasized.

Introduction: HIV considerably weakens the immune system of the body, and the person suffering from it can no longer tackle infectious diseases. Characteristics of this disease such as its quick transmission and propagation fear of disclosure, and attempting to hide it has changed it to a social problem. From the outset of the introduction of AIDS, women have been labeled accordingly so much and have experienced considerable discriminations.Method: The present study examines the social consequences of the stigma and labeling on the women suffering from HIV positive infection, using a qualitative approach. Through semi-structured interviews, it has been tried to describe the interviewees’ mental world. From Tehran Positive Club, ten women aged between 20 and 50, living in Tehran, willing to cooperate with the researcher, and no mental involvement with the issue were selected.Findings: The women suffering from HIV positive were infected with the acquired immune deficiency syndrome mainly through two ways; direct acquisition and indirect acquisition. All of the women took adverse consequences of the stigma and labeling from the society.Conclusion: Considering the women suffering from HIV as criminals can be thought of as a label that society associates with them due to lack of awareness. This in turn results in social rejection of these women, who based on their personal experience, try to hide their problem.

Introduction: Enjoying a degree of affective commitment can heavily contribute to job motivation and an outstanding job quality for doctors. In the present research, some of the social factors known in relevant practical and theoretical basics as parameters touching the affective commitment, such as professional sociability and internalization of social norms, job obligation and commitment, long-term investment in the job, and job satisfaction are studied.Method: Using a survey research method, some 396 doctors (general doctors, specialists, and dentists) were selected out of 44202 doctors of Tehran through a cluster sampling method, and the needed data were collected using a researcher made demographic questionnaire. The resulting data were processed and analyzed by SPSS software.Findings: According to the results of the research, job satisfaction, internalization of the norms, professional socialization, job obligation and commitment, and long-term investment in the job bear a significant relationship to the affective commitment of doctors, yet the amount of affective commitment does not change with age and sex. The affective commitment bears the highest correlation with satisfaction, job obligation and commitment, professional sociability, and internalization of social norms respectively. The results of the multiple regression analysis indicate that the independent parameters of the study are responsible for 41 percent of the changes related to the affective commitment of the doctors.Conclusion: The level of satisfaction of the doctors is in direct proportion to their affective commitment. The associates of the doctors, social conditions, and the specific characteristics of the profession are among the sources promoting satisfaction.

Introduction: The importance and the effect of social relationship between doctors and patients on clinical, psychological-social, and behavioral consequences of consultation has resulted in considerable attention towards the forms and factors which are decisive in this relationship. The main purpose of this study is to examine the biopsychosocial model of doctor-patient relationship as a transition over the biomedical model. Method: The method adopted in this study is a documentary research method. English articles dating from 1980 to 2011 were obtained from Proquest, Wiley, and Springer databases, and words like doctor-patient relationship, biomedical model, and bio-psycho-social model were among their keywords. Some Persian articles have also been included.Findings: In developed countries, information exchange is the governing relationship model, and health consuming movement has led to the widespread utilization of the model of cooperative decision making and patient-based relationship, in which the necessity of a holistic approach to the multidimensional human increasingly arises, a human composed of bio-psycho-social dimensions. This complexity exerts a phenomenal change in the doctor-patient relationship; a transition from linear biomedical model to circular bio-psycho-social model with many interactions.Conclusion: In order to search for more effective and humane health care, the sociological study of the doctor-patient relationship can accentuate the social contexts which have been neglected in the curing process of the patients. Thus teaching the communicative skills, creating suitable bonds in the fields of research and instruction between faculties of human sciences and medical sciences, and replacing patient-based relationship models can be considered as suitable ways for the transition from the conventional concept of biomedical model to the multidimensional concept of bio-psycho-social model.