The most comprehensive major academic textbook available on its topic, this classic text presents the most important research studies in the field. The author integrates engaging first-person accounts from patients, physicians, and other health-care providers throughout the text. Since the book’s inception, its principal goal has been to introduce students to the field of medical sociology and serve as a reference for faculty by presenting the most current ideas, issues, concepts, themes, ...

This 2nd edition provides readers with an updated single source reviewing and updating sociological theory in medical or health sociology. The book not only addresses the major theoretical approaches in the field today, it also identifies the future directions these theories are likely to take in explaining the social processes affecting health and disease. Many of the chapters are written by leading medical sociologists who feature the use of theory in their everyday work, including contr...

Across the globe, patients are no longer passive recipients of care — they are active participants, decision-makers and collaborators.This timely volume explores the evolving landscape of patient and public involvement (PPI) in healthcare, focusing on its intersection with the healthcare professions. Drawing on international perspectives, the book examines how patients and professionals navigate changing roles, peer support networks and complex healthcare systems. It considers the ...

This masterful guide to the social determinants of health has become a go-to text for understanding the role that social factors play in the experience of health and many diseases. In this updated edition, preeminent medical sociologist William C. Cockerham offers the most compelling case yet that stress, poverty, unhealthy lifestyles, and adverse living and working conditions can all be directly associated with illness.Looking beyond individual explanations for health and disease,...

Sociological Theories of Health and Illness reviews the evolution of theory in medical sociology beginning with the field’s origins in medicine and extending to its present-day standing as a major sociological subdiscipline. Sociological theory has an especially important role in the practice of medical sociology because its theories distinguish the subdiscipline from virtually all other scientific fields engaged in the study of health and illness. The focus is on contemp...

The twelfth edition of the Sociology of Mental Disorder presents the major issues and research findings on the influence of race, social class, gender, and age on the incidence and prevalence of mental disorders. The text also examines the institutions that help those with mental disorders, mental health law, and public policy.Many important updates are new to this edition:The mental health effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are examined.Aging and men...

THE WILEY BLACKWELL COMPANION TO Medical SociologyThe Wiley Blackwell Companion to Medical Sociology is an authoritative overview of the most recent research, major theoretical approaches, and central issues and debates within the field. Bringing together contributions from an international team of leading scholars, this wide-ranging volume summarizes significant new developments and discusses a broad range of globally-relevant topics. The Companion

This book provides readers with a single source reviewing and updating sociological theory in medical or health sociology. The book not only addresses the major theoretical approaches in the field today, it also identifies the future directions these theories are likely to take in explaining the social processes affecting health and disease. Many of the chapters are written by leading medical sociologists who feature the use of theory in their everyday work, including contributions from th...

For the first time, life expectancy is declining in an industrialized society. In this pioneering work, William C. Cockerham examines the social causes of the decline in life expectancy beginning in the 1960s including:*Russia*Poland*Hungary*Romania*Bulgaria*the Czech Republic*and East Germany.Health and Social Change in Russia and Eastern Europe argues that the roots of this change are mainly social rather than biomedical - ...

A "powerful and provocative" inquiry into the relationship between societies' inequality and their citizens' health, happiness and well-being (Lisa Berkman, Harvard School of Public Health).Comparing the United States with other market democracies, and one American state with another, this book presents irrefutable evidence that inequality is a driver of poor health, social conflict, and violence. Pioneering social scientist Richard Wilkinson addresses the growing ...

The need for informed analyses of health policy is now greater than ever. The twelve essays in this volume show that public debates routinely bypass complex ethical, sociocultural, historical, and political questions about how we should address ideals of justice and equality in health care. Integrating perspectives from the humanities, social sciences, medicine, and public health, this volume illuminates the relationships between justice and health inequalities to enrich debates.

A Companion to Medical Anthropology examines the current issues, controversies, and state of the field in medical anthropology today.Provides an expert view of the major topics and themes to concern the discipline since its founding in the 1960sWritten by leading international scholars in medical anthropologyCovers environmental health, global health, biotechnology, syndemics, nutrition, substance abuse, infectious disease, and sexuality and repro...