Advantages And Disadvantages Of The Biomedical Model Of Health

Critically discuss the biomedical model and social model of health and how they relate to lay perspective on health and illness.

For this essay I will be analytically examining the models of health; the biomedical model and social model. I will explain the advantages and disadvantages of these models and how they relate to the lay person’s viewpoint on health and illness.

Models of health are ‘conceptual frameworks’ or another method of thinking about health.
The biomedical model of health has been around since the mid-nineteenth century that is mainly focusing on the physical or biological characteristics of disease and illness. It is a medical model of care applied by doctors and or health professionals and is also linked with the diagnosis,
The disadvantage of the biomedical model of health is that it relies on health professionals and technology, which is therefore costly, and the professionals with specialist knowledge needed are quite expensive to train and the technology, equipment and the technological development are also too costly. Also, this model does not incite people to live a healthier lifestyle as they are treated to remedy complications as they happen. The attention is on the illness and not the determinants that caused it and not every illness can be treated. For example; Cancer – improvements have been made but the treatments are not always effective. Most of all, the affordability of the biomedical model is expensive which means not all countries have enough money for the medical technologies and resources that are part of the model of health which is a significant factor contributing to dissimilarity experienced in health
It encourages individuals to take responsibility and lead a much healthier lifestyle and improving the quality of life. There is also a community approach that involves all levels of government and non-government organisation and also an increase on economic development of the country as the population is in good health and lead productive lives. However, the disadvantage of this model is that there is a lack of education for the whole population and some people do not get the message and people are not motivated enough, for example, smoking obesity and unhealthy eating. Another disadvantage is that most people find changing their lifestyle very hard to do and the fact that not all diseases can be cured. Also, the results of this method of health are not evident until after a long period of time and it is difficult to measure its