Health Practices as a Sociocultural Process in Indonesia: Prevention, Illness Behavior, and the Role of the Sick
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15575/socio-politica.v16i1.54036Keywords:
Sociology of health, health culture and practices, medical pluralism, health-seeking behavior, illness behaviorAbstract
This study aims to describe the dynamics of transitions between stages of health behavior as a social process occurring in the daily practices of Indonesians, while also exploring the mechanisms that most consistently explain these transitions based on the reviewed literature. Using a literature review and document analysis approach, various empirical findings regarding health practices were analyzed thematically. Stella Quah's conceptual framework was utilized to categorize the results into three main domains: preventive behavior, illness behavior, and sick-role behavior. The results indicate three recurring social mechanisms. First, the meaning of health, which is based on the ability to perform social functions, creates a certain threshold of seriousness, which influences decisions about when preventive action is deemed necessary and when symptoms are deemed to require further treatment. Second, the flow of knowledge circulating within families, community networks, and digital media acts as an interpretive filter in understanding symptoms and determining what steps are considered rational at the sick-role stage. Third, experiences interacting with health services and barriers to access contribute to shaping patterns of care-seeking at the sick-role stage, including the process of negotiating therapy within the context of medical pluralism. In some situations, religious practices serve as both emotional support and daily discipline, helping to stabilize treatment choices across these stages. This research is limited to consistent patterns within the analyzed corpus of literature and is not intended to be generalized to the entire Indonesian social context. This research expands the body of knowledge on the sociology of health in Indonesia by reformulating the linkages between the three stages of health behavior and recurring social mechanisms, and synthesizing the diverse health practices documented in the reviewed literature.
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