Sociology of Health and Illness

Catalog description

People often view illness and disease as individual issues. Individuals get sick, get diseases, and are treated by (individual) physicians. However, social contexts shape the way we view and experience illness. For experience, our social context affects our ability to obtain health insurance, our chance of contracting contagious diseases, and the type of health behaviors (e.g., cigarette smoking, healthy eating) that we practice. Topics include but are not limited to: The history of medical sociology, the subjective experience of health, the organization of health care, inequality in health care access by race, class, age, or gender, health and illness behavior, disability and mental illness, alternative medicine, birthing and midwifery, health policy, death and dying, HIV/AIDS, and medical ethics.