This week the topic of discussion at the meeting was quite vague. From the case I did, an important point that I understood is that besides medical factors, social factors are equally more important determinants of outcomes for the patient.
I had a 62 yo F with h/o COPD who had been smoking for 50 years. She had a lot of stressors in her personal life. As she took care of those, she was able to more focus on herself. We discussed extensively various aspects of smoking cessation, and I was glad to know that during this visit she was finally able to quit. This small victory for the patient was highly gratifying. We discussed how smoking behavior is triggered by social stressors (or any stressors for that matter), and various mechanisms to cope with them.
This highlighted how social factors, indirectly effects various aspects of the health.
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