Alexander Segall and Christopher J. Fries
Note: each chapter includes:
- Chapter summary
- Study questions
- Recommended readings
- Recommended websites
- Recommended audiovisual sources
Part One: Understanding Health and Wellness Sociologically
1. Introducing Health Sociology
Introduction:
The Mystery of Good Health
Health as a Social Construction
Health Consciousness: Producing Health versus Consuming Health Care
The Origins of Medical Sociology
The Scope of Medical Sociology
From Medical Sociology Toward Health Sociology
Health Sociology in Canada
- The
Social Determinants of Health
- Health and Illness Behaviour
- The Health-Care System
2. Applying the Sociological Imagination to Health and Illness
Applying Sociological Paradigms to Theorize Health and Illness
Health and Illness as "Social Roles" - The Structural
Functionalist Paradigm
Health and Illness as "Professional Constructs" - The Conflict Paradigm
Health and Illness as "Interpersonal Meanings" - The Symbolic Interactionist Paradigm
Health and Illness as "Gendered Experiences" - The Feminist Paradigm
Health and Illness as "Embodied
Cultural Facts" - The Sociology of the Body Paradigm
Health and Illness as "Unfolding Across Time" - The Importance of Adopting an Intersectional Life Course Perspective
3. Measuring the Dimensions of Health
The Meaning and Measurement of Health
Differentiating Personal and
Population Health
Adopting a Salutogenic Approach for Understanding the Dimensions of Health
The Meaning of Ill Health (Sickness) and Good Health (Wellness)
- Sickness: The Presence of Disease and the Experience of Illness
- Wellness: More Than the Absence of Disease and
Illness
- The Process of Health Status Designation: Separating the Dimensions of Health
Understanding the Difference between Health Inputs and Health Outcomes
Health Status Indicators
- Single-Item Measures: Global Self-Rated Health
- Composite Measures: The Health Utilities
Index
Indicators of Ill Health: Limits to the Standard Approach
- Morbidity and Mortality
- Disability and Utilization of Health Services
- What Can We Learn about Health from Disease and Death Rates?
Indicators of Good Health: The Challenge of Measuring Wellness
- Sense of
Coherence
- Canadian Index of Wellbeing
- Health Expectancy: Estimating Future Health Status and Quality of Life
The Need for a Mixed-Methods Approach to Measuring Health: Surveys, Statistics, and Stories
- Population Health Surveys: The Canadian Experience
- Health Diary Studies
and Illness Narrative Accounts: The Importance of Digging Deeper
Part Two: Exploring the Factors That Shape Health and Wellness
4. Making People Healthy: General Determinants of Health and Wellness
What Makes People Healthy? Two Different Answers
Personal and
Structural Health Determinants
The Major Determinants of Population Health: An Overview of the Four Key Factors
- Biology
- Lifestyle Behaviour
- Environment
- Use of Formal Health-Care Services
The Relative Importance of Health Determinants
- Upstream and Downstream
Health Determinants: Jason's Story
- Primary and Secondary Determinants: Moving Upstream
- Understanding the Cumulative Effects of Health Determinants: A Life Course Approach
- Estimating the Health Benefits of Major Determinants
The Determinants of Good Health and Ill
Health
5. Addressing Sources of Inequality and Health Disparities: Socioeconomic Status
Understanding Social Inequality
Social Determinants of Health Disparities: Income, Occupation, and Education
- Income
- Occupation
- Education
The Social Gradient of
Health
Explanations of the Social Gradient in Health
- Materialist and Neo-materialist Explanations
- Cultural Behavioural Explanations
- Psychosocial Explanations
Income Inequality and Population Health: More to the Story
Reducing Social Differences in Health: Is It Possible
to Close the Gap?
Toward an Intersectional Theory of Health and Socioeconomic Status across the Life Course
6. Addressing Sources of Inequality and Health Disparities: Gender
Health and Gender
The Importance of Sex- and Gender-Based Analysis in Health Research
Gender
Differences in Health
- Women Live Longer Than Men
- The Genders Differ in Major Causes of Death
- Women Are Diagnosed as Suffering from More Ill Health Than Men
- Women Make More Frequent Use of Formal Health Care Than Men
- Gender Differences in the Social Determinants of
Health
Explanations of Gender Differences in Health and Illness
- The Role Accumulation Hypothesis
- The Role Strain Hypothesis
- The Social Acceptability Hypothesis
- The Risk-Taking Hypothesis
Toward an Intersectional Theory of Health and Gender across the Life
Course
7. Addressing Sources of Inequality and Health Disparities: Ethnicity
Health and Ethnicity
Ethnic Differences in Health
- Aboriginal Peoples Have Poorer Health Outcomes Because of Social Exclusion and Racism
- The Healthy Immigrant Effect Deteriorates over
Time
- Ethnic Differences in the Perception and Understanding of Symptoms
- Ethnic Differences in Health-Care Behaviour
- Ethnic Differences in the Social Determinants of Health
Explanations of Ethnic Differences in Health and Illness
- Biological Determinist Explanations
-
Cultural Behavioural Explanations
- Socioeconomic Explanations
- Ethnicity, Religion, and Health
Toward an Intersectional Theory of Health and Ethnicity across the Life Course
8. Unravelling the Mystery of Health: An Intersectional Model of Health across the Life
Course
Intersectionality and Health Disparities
Lifestyle Behaviours and Health
Individualized Health Promotion
- The Individualization of Health Lifestyles
- Health Lifestyles or Health Behaviours?
Theorizing the Intersectionality of Health
- Health Lifestyles and
the Structure-Agency Issue
- Pierre Bourdieu and a Relational Theory of Health Lifestyles
An Intersectional Model of Health and Health Lifestyles across the Life Course
9. Discovering the Hidden Depths of Health Care: Lay Beliefs, Social Support, and Informal Care
The Iceberg
of Health Care
Hidden Components of the Health-Care System
- Lay Beliefs about Health Maintenance and Illness Management
- Popular and Professional Health Belief Systems
- Self-Care Beliefs and Behaviour
- Social Support, Helping Networks, and Health
Informal Care and Illness
as Embodied Experience: Making Sense of Sickness and Maintaining a Healthy Self-Identity
- A Narrative Account: The Meaning and Management of Pain
- Chronic Illness Work
10. Medicalizing Beings and Bodies: The Link between Population Health and Biomedical Care
The Origins of
the Biomedical Model
- Bedside Medicine
- Hospital Medicine
- Laboratory Medicine
Basic Ideas of the Biomedical Model
- Mind-Body Dualism
- Physical Reductionism
- Specific Etiology
- The Machine Metaphor
- Therapeutic Focus on Individualized Regimen and
Control
Medical Dominance of the Health-Care System
Medicalizing Beings and Bodies
- Explanations for Medicalization
11. Moving beyond Biomedicine: Medical Pluralism
The Social Construction of Healing: A Sociological Perspective on Medical Pluralism
- The Historical
Persistence of Medical Pluralism
- Avoiding the "Stereotypes of Marginality" in Social Studies of Alternative Medicine
- Labelling Alternative Medicine
- Three Streams of Complementary Alternative Medicine Research
Explanations for the Revival of Medical Pluralism
- The
Demographic Transition and Population Aging
- Dissatisfaction with Biomedicine
- The Postmodern Condition
- Individualization and Consumerism
Crossing Cultures in Pursuit of Health and Wellness: Choosing Healing Practices
- Medical Consumerism, the Marketing of Ethnicity, and
Revival of Medical Pluralism
Integrative Medicine: Prospects for a New Medicine
12. Achieving Healthy Futures
Toward a Sociological Understanding of Healthy Societies and Healthy People
- Studying Health: Alternative Sociological Paradigms
- Developing an Intersectional
Model of Health across the Life Course
- Measuring the Dimensions of Health: A Mixed-Methods Approach
Social Determinants of Health: Reflections on What We Have Learned
- Structural and Personal Determinants of Health
- Sources of Social Inequality and Health Disparities:
Intersections of Socioeconomic Status, Gender, and Ethnicity
- Adopting a Life Course Perspective on the Pursuit of Health and Wellness
- Life Chances and Health Choices: The Structure-Agency Question
Shared Responsibility for Making Societies and People Healthy
- Personal
Responsibility: Informal Care and Health
- Professional Responsibility: Formal Care and Health
- Public Responsibility: The Governance of Health
- Health Policy Initiatives: Lalonde and Beyond
The Ongoing Pursuit of Health and Wellness: Some Unanswered Questions
- How Does the
Vision of a Healthy Society Differ from the Reality of Health-Care Reform?
- Is It Possible to Redress Social Inequalities in Health?
- Why Is It So Difficult to Implement Healthy Public Policy?
- Is Wellness Always Good for Your Health?
- What Is Required to Remake the Medicalized
Society into a Salutogenic Society
Index
Instructor's Manual:
For each chapter:
- Learning objectives
- Chapter summaries
- Suggestions for lecture topics
- Suggestions for class discussion/debate
- Student activities
- Essay questions
- Suggested readings and websites
PowerPoint
slides:
- More than 20 lecture outline slides per chapter
Test Bank:
For each chapter:
- 20-25 multiple choice questions
- 10-15 true-or-false questions
- 5 short answer questions
- 3 essay questions
- Answers and page references
Online Appendix
-
Covers research methods in health sociology
Student Study Guide:
- Learning objectives
- Chapter summaries
- Key terms list
For each chapter:
- 5-10 study questions
- 3-5 discussion questions
- 3-5 exploration and debate questions
- 10 additional sources
(readings, films, websites)
E-Book (ISBN 9780199014347)
Alexander Segall is a professor emeritus and a senior scholar of sociology in the Faculty of Arts and a research affiliate at the Centre of Aging at the University of Manitoba. In his 40-year career as a health sociologist, his research has focused on the social determinants of health,
population health assessment, self-health management, and healthy aging. He was the principal investigator on a longitudinal population health promotion research program at the University of Manitoba titled the Wellness Institute Service Evaluation Research (WISER) Program, whose objective was to
better understand the social determinants of population health and the factors that keep Canadians healthy across the life course. Segall has published extensively; his articles have appeared in a wide range of journals, including Social Science and Medicine, Journal of Aging and Health, and the
Canadian Journal on Aging. He has also authored several book chapters and co-authored Health and Health Care in Canada with Neena Chappell in 2000.
Christopher J. Fries is an assistant professor of sociology in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Manitoba. His research interests
centre on health and lifestyles behaviour, critical public health, social determinants of health, and medical pluralism. A mixed-methods research design specialist, Fries's work, using both qualitative and quantitative data-collection methods, has appeared in Health Sociology Review, Refuge:
Canada's Journal on Refugees, Journal of Mixed-Methods Research, and Canadian Ethnic Studies. Fries has also authored several book chapters, written on sociological matters for public consumption (for the Huffington Post and Winnipeg Free Press), and was recently given a Faculty Access Award for
providing outstanding service in accommodations on campus for students with disabilities.
Social Determinants of Health - Alan Davidson
Health, Illness, and Medicine in Canada - Juanne Nancarrow Clarke
Health and Society - Edited by James Gillett, Gavin J. Andrews and Mat Savelli
Second Opinion - John Germov and Jennie Hornosty
Making Sense in the Social Sciences - Margot Northey, Lorne Tepperman and Patrizia Albanese
Understanding Health, Health Care, and Health Policy In Canada - Neena L. Chappell and Margaret J. Penning
