An Outline of Sociology as Applied to Medicine, Third Edition provides an understanding of the origins, nature, and context of illness in society. This book discusses the relationship between health care and the society in which it occurs.
Organized into 15 chapters, this edition begins with an overview of some deficiencies of the biomedical model of illness. This text then explores the traditional medical model, which holds that disease is a lesion inside the human body that produces two types of indicator of its presence, namely, the signs and symptoms. Other chapters consider the difference of perspectives between doctor and patients. This book discusses as well the presence of various biological causes of illness that is strongly influenced by social factors. The final chapter deals with the social significance of medicine.
This book is a valuable resource for sociologists. Primary care physicians and specialists will also find this book extremely useful.

Contenu

Preface to the Third Edition
1 Introduction
2 Going to the Doctor
The Experience of Symptoms
Illness Behavior
Importance of Illness Behavior for the Doctor
Illness Behavior and the Medical Model
3 Measuring Health and Illness
Mortality
Morbidity Prevalence Studies
Sickness Absence Rates
Caseload
Measures of Functioning
Self-Report Measures
Subjective Health Measures
Quality of Life Measures
4 Social Causes of Illness
Causal Models
Establishing a Causal Relationship
Social Factors
Social Integration
Social Support
Life Events
5 Labeling Behavior
Primary Deviance
Secondary Deviance
Stigma
Disability and Handicap
Labeling and Psychiatric Disease
6 Social Patterns of Illness: I
Explaining Illness Patterns
Historical Changes
Geography
Occupation
Gender
Ethnicity
Unemployment
7 Social Patterns of Illness: II
Age
Social Class
8 Coping with Illness
Managing Labels
Coping with Chronic Illness
Carers
9 Models of Illness
Exploring Abdominal Pain
Symptoms and Pathology
Biographical Medicine
Alternative Models of Illness
Models of the Doctor-Patient Relationship
10 Types of Health Care
Self-Care
Family Care
Community Care
Self-Help Groups
Professional Care
11 Clinical Autonomy
Controlling Information
Controlling Costs
Paying the Doctor
Evaluating Doctors' Decisions
12 Delivering Health Care
Allocating Scarce Resources
The Market for Health Care in the USA
Government Provision of Health Care in the UK
Towards a National Health Service
13 Evaluating Health Care
Is the Health Care System Effective/Efficient?
Does the Health Care System Meet the 'Real'
Needs of Its Consumers?
Is the Health Care System Fair?
Is the Health Care System Iatrogenic?
14 The Social Basis of Disease
Defining Disease
Normality in Medicine
The Biological Basis of Disease
15 The Social Role of Medicine
Illness as a Deviance
The Doctor as Agent of Social Control
Explaining the Place of Medicine
Bibliography
Index