Health, Illness, and Society: An Introduction to Medical Sociology

This engaging text provides a sociological perspective on health, illness, and health care. Serving as an introduction to medical sociology for undergraduate and graduate students, it also presents a summary of the field for medical sociologists and for public health scholars and practitioners. A highlight of the text is its emphasis on the social roots of health and disease and on the impact of social inequality on health disparities and the quality of health care. The book also critically examines health care in the United States and around the world and evaluates the achievements and limitations of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) and other recent health care reform efforts. Pedagogical aids including chapter-opening Learning Questions and Health and Illness in the News vignettes and chapter-ending Summary and Key Terms sections. Most chapters also end with a Giving It Some Thought vignette in which students are presented with a hypothetical situation involving a health and society issue and asked to reflect on how they would respond in the situation.