Which term refers to expanding medical categories to include more behaviors as illness?

• A. Medicalization
• B. Pharmaceuticalization
• C. Risk discourse
• D. Health literacy

Answer: (B)

Expanding medical categories to include more behaviors as illness is medicalization. It describes the process by which society, medicine, and institutions come to label a wider range of human experiences and behaviors as medical problems that require treatment. This shift can change who is considered sick, what counts as a need for care, and how resources are allocated. While pharmaceuticalization involves drugs becoming the main way we address health issues, medicalization is about redefining problems as medical from the start; drugs may follow as treatments, but the focus is on the label and scope of illness itself. Other terms like risk discourse and health literacy refer to different concepts: risk discourse looks at how health risks are framed in talk and policy, and health literacy concerns individuals' ability to understand health information.