SOC101: Introduction to Sociology

Read this chapter for a review of health and medicine. As you read each section, consider the following topics:

• Should parents be forced to immunize their children?
• What might sociologists make of the fact that most of the families who chose not to vaccinate were of a higher socioeconomic group?
• How does this story of vaccines in a high-income region compare to that in a low-income region, like sub-Saharan Africa, where populations are often eagerly seeking vaccines rather than refusing them?
• Take note of the term medical sociology as well as the difference between the cultural meaning of illness, the social construction of illness, and the social construction of medical knowledge
• Take notes of social epidemiology and various theories of social epidemiology used to understand global health issues. What are some of the differences between high-income and low-income nations?
• Take note of the application of social epidemiology to health in the United States. Also focus on the disparities of health based on gender, socioeconomic status, race, and ethnicity. Lastly, be able to define the terms stigma and medicalization.
• Take note of the different types of health care in the United States. How do these health care systems compare with those of other countries?
• Explore health care issues through conflict, interactionist, and functionalist perspectives.