Table of Contents

List of Contributors viii

Preface xix

Part I Introduction 1

1 Medical Sociology and Its Changing Subfields 3
Terrence D. Hill, William C. Cockerham, Jane D. McLeod, and Frederic W. Hafferty

2 Medical Sociology and Sociological Theory 22
William C. Cockerham and Graham Scambler

3 Research Methods in Medical Sociology 45
Joseph D. Wolfe, Shawn Bauldry, and Cindy L. Cain

4 Health and Culture in the Global Context 62
Stella Quah

5 Bioethics: A Study in Sociology 82
Kristina Orfali and Raymond De Vries

Part II Theoretical Approaches 103

6 The Sociology of the Body 105
Sarah Nettleton

7 Biomedicalization Revisited 125
Adele E. Clarke, Melanie Jeske, Laura Mamo, and Janet K. Shim

8 Health Lifestyles: Bringing Structure Back 150
William C. Cockerham

9 The Life Course Perspective 171
Kim M. Shuey and Andrea E. Willson

10 Social Capital and Health 192
Lijun Song and Yvonne Chen

Part III Health and Social Inequality 215

11 Health and Social Class 217
Jarron M. Saint Onge and Patrick M. Krueger

12 Health and Gender 237
Ellen Annandale

13 Health, Ethnicity, and Race 258
Hannah Bradby and James Y. Nazroo

14 African American Health 279
Christy L. Erving and Lacee A. Satcher

15 Latinos and Equity in Health Care Access in the US 303
Ronald J. Angel and Jacqueline L. Angel

16 Social Policies and Health Inequalities 322
Amélie Quesnel-Vallée, Jaunathan Bilodeau, and Kaitlin Conway

Part IV Health and Social Relationships 347

17 Health and the Family 349
Mieke Beth Thomeer and Kirsten Ostergren Clark

18 Health and Religion 370
Ellen Idler

19 Migration and Health 389
Elyas Bakhtiari

20 Mental Health 410
Teresa L. Scheid

Part V Health and Disease 431

21 Emerging Infectious Diseases 433
Ron Barrett

22 Beyond the Lost Self: Old Insights and New Horizons in the Sociology of Chronic Illness 447
Alexandra C. H. Nowakowski

Part VI Health Care Delivery 471

23 Health Professions and Occupations 473
Jason Adam Wasserman and Brian Philip Hinote

24 Doctor-Patient Relationship 495
Hyeyoung Oh Nelson

25 Complementary and Alternative Medicine 516
Eeva Sointu

26 American Health Care System: Reforms for Access, Outcomes, and Cost Amid Legal, Legislative, and Political Disputes 537
Bernice A. Pescosolido and Carol A. Boyer

27 The British Healthcare System 556
Jonathan Gabe

28 The Chinese Health Care System 572
Lei Jin and Chenyu Ye

Author Index 590

Subject Index 605

About the Author

WILLIAM C. COCKERHAM is Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Chair Emeritus at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, USA, and Research Scholar of Sociology at the College of William & Mary in Virginia, USA. His PhD is from the University of California at Berkeley, USA. He is past President of the Research Committee on Health Sociology of the International Sociological Association. Currently, he is Deputy Editor of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior and has served on the editorial boards of several journals, including the American Sociological Review and Society and Mental Health. Dr. Cockerham has published numerous peer-reviewed papers on medical sociology and is author or editor of nineteen books and two encyclopedias.