Sociology of Health and Medicine

Sociologyindex

Books on Sociology of Health

Sociology Books 2008

Health and Social Behavior and the Sociological Concepts of Health.

Methods to the understanding of health and medicine in their social context of health, illness, and health care. Subjective experience of health and illness; political, economic, and environmental circumstances that threaten health; and societal forces that impact on the medical care system and on people's responses to illness.

Sociological approaches to health and health care have a long history. Many of the current preoccupations within the field of study of what for many years has been known as 'medical sociology', but now which has increasingly been redesignated as 'the sociology of health and illness', can be traced back to the founding figures of the discipline of sociology in the 19th Century. These concerns relate on the one hand to the extent to which social and economic structures determine people's life chances and possibilities, including their possibilities of health. On the other hand they relate to the extent to which people through individual or collective actions may have some control over their lives, including in relation to their health. There continues to be a debate within medical sociology about the extent to which structures determine health, compared to the degree to which people have the capacity to control (to use their agency over) their health.
Currently there is considerable research in medical sociology on the precise effects of a range of inequalities - economic, class, gender, age and ethnicity for example - on specific patterns of illhealth and disease. Further there is complementary research on the degree to which the remedy to the differential distribution of health and illness should be addressed mainly at a structural level (particularly by lessening economic inequalities in populations), or at an individual level - through an individual's own lifestyle decisions and actions. However the basic thrust of recent sociological findings is that whilst lifestyle changes can be made at an individual level, they generally have a far smaller effect on the health status of populations compared to more structural changes. brunel.ac.uk/research/cshsd/Medical%20Sociological.htm
The study of medicine and health policy is a central concern of sociology. This is evidenced by the very active medical sociology sections within national sociological associations and the abundance of literature in the field. Research in social and cultural factors on health and upon comparative medical sociology and health policy - ESA Research Networks - Research Network 'Medical Sociology and Health Policy' - http://www.valt.helsinki.fi/esa/medsoc.htm
ASA - The Medical Sociology Section, one of the ASA's largest sections, brings together social and behavioral scientists from a variety of backgrounds who share an interest in the social contexts of health, illness, and health care. Central topics include the subjective experience of health and illness; political, economic, and environmental circumstances that threaten health; and societal forces that impact on the medical care system and on people's responses to illness. Drawing from many perspectives, the field of medical sociology is concerned with basic sociological research and its implications for public policy and practice. - dept.kent.edu/sociology/asamedsoc/