This volume of Research in the Sociology of Health Care analyses a variety of important social factors and their relationship to health and health care inequities in both the United States and the rest of the world. With distinct sections for vaccination and other related topics, the chapters unveil the health care inequities that exist across a broad range of scenarios such as residential segregation, rurality, caregiving during COVID-19, the effects of stress on patients of color with chronic illnesses, cochlear implants in children, community health centers and viral load testing. Employing a sociological and broader social sciences approach, Social Factors, Health Care Inequities and Vaccination draws on a variety of contexts, including the COVID-19 pandemic, to explore wider trends in healthcare and the impact they may have on historically disadvantaged communities.

This next volume in Research in the Sociology of Health Care covers a variety of important social factors and their relationship to health and health care inequities both in the United States and the rest of the world. The authors of this volume explore issues related to infectious diseases and various chronic health problems. One section focuses on Covid 19 and issues of kidney disease, face masks and social values, pandemic experiences in rural parts of the United States, and in urban India. Other topics that are discussed focus on issues outside the United States such as in Nepal, Ecuador, and broader cross-national comparisons. Several papers focus on health care system issues within the United States including micro hospitals in Texas, evidence-based medicine, and trends in health disparities in the Latina population in the United States. Written from a sociological and broader social science approach, the papers provide important information both about broad trends in the US and other countries and some specific considerations of issues from a social perspective as linked to Covid 19.

The contributors to this latest volume of Research in the Sociology of Health Care investigate macro-level system issues and micro-level issues involving the socially disadvantaged and underserved. Looking specifically at the factors impacting on health and health care differentials, this book is an examination of the health and health care issues of both patients and providers of care in the United States and around the globe. Chapters focus on linkages to policy, population concerns and patients and providers of care as ways to meet health care needs.

This volume of Research in the Sociology of Health Care analyses micro-level gender issues and other social factors impacting macro-level health care systems. Examining the health and health care issues of patients and providers of care both in the United States and in other countries, chapters focus on linkages to policy and population concerns as ways to meet global health care needs.

This volume provides a unique sociological focus on education, social factors and health beliefs in health and health care, including a review of the literature to date. Beliefs and health beliefs are considered, including one study evaluating cross-national differences in public beliefs about the causes of health and the role of these beliefs in shaping attitudes to health policy. Another study focuses on the complexity and variation of health care system distrust across neighborhoods in one US city. The topic of education is addressed, including a focus on the importance of identification and intervention in low health literacy. Mental health issues are considered in the context of help-seeking, connections, transitions and utilization of care among adolescents. Social factors are reflected upon including race and ethnicity, literacy and socioeconomic status. Coverage also includes special and traditionally less visible populations, including the health of prisoners and carers of people with autism.

This volume includes papers related to issues of technology, communication, health disparities and government options in health and health care services. It fills an existing gap by providing a clear sociological overview and focus on these topics. Technology is considered from the perspectives of providing healthcare equity, health disparities and the impact on doctor-patient relationships. The topic of communication is addressed in the format of public health messages and the use of internet chat rooms for discussions about health care services. Government roles and responsibilities are reflected upon in terms of health promotion, marketing and sales of health-related products and improving long-term care programs. Particular mention is made to learning lessons from the experiences and perspectives of other countries. Finally, health disparities are considered in socioeconomic terms, with particular reference to aging, depression, measures of health and healthcare in rural locations.

This volume looks at the key links between social determinants, health disparities and health and health care. There is a particular focus on macro-level systems and micro-level issues, including the examination of issues for patients, carers and providers of care. Coverage includes papers on geographical and place factors and disparities, SES and race/ethnicity factors, chronic care and serious health problems such as HIV/AIDs and kidney transplantation, comparative aspects and perceptions of health disparities. Starting with an introduction that reviews the crucial sociological literature on social determinants and health disparities, papers in this volume go on to cover key themes including ageing, barriers to care, ethnicity, social inequalities, the views of parents on their children's care, and doctor/patient relationships.

The 30th Anniversary volume of Research in the Sociology of Health Care looks at the important links between major social factors and health and health care. The four main factors examined in the book are race/ethnicity, immigration, Socioeconomic Status (SES) and gender. Starting with an introductory chapter which reviews some of the important sociological literature on these social factors as linked to health, the book goes on to cover various key issues, including obesity, ageing, immigration and racial segregation.

This volume in the highly-regarded "Research in the Sociology of Health Care" series, deals with both macro-level system issues and micro-level issues involving access to care, factors that impact access, patients as partners in care and changing roles of health providers. It includes: an examination of factors that impact access to care such as racial/ethnic, social, demographic and structural sources, a discussion of changing patterns of care and changing patterns of interaction between patients and providers of care, and an investigation of changing roles of health care providers within the health care delivery system. Key contributions focus on linkages to policy, population concerns and patients and/or providers of care as ways to meet health care needs of people both in the US and in other countries. This volume relates to issues of consumers of health care services, providers of such services and policy perspectives. It also raises issues of the availability of services, access to those services, quality of services and the role of government in services provision.

This volume focuses on differences in health and health care as linked to important social factors. The first section reviews basic material on the topic. The second section on racial and ethnic factors in differences in health and health care is the largest section of the book, and includes six articles looking at racial disparities on a variety of topics such as: knowledge of hepatitis C Virus; health services received and patients' experiences in seeking health care; use of CAM (complementary and alternative medicine) services; and, the role of social capital in class and race health disparities in health information seeking behaviour. Further sections include articles focused on geographic and community factors, gender and age, gender and language, and lifecourse issues such as maternal depression and hospice care. "Research in the Sociology of Health Care, Volume 28" is essential reading for medical sociologists and people working in other social science disciplines studying health-related issues. It provides vital information for health services researchers, policy analysts and public health researchers.

"Volume 27, Research in the Sociology of Health Care" deals with Social Sources of Disparities in Health and Health Care. The first section, Disparities in Health and Health Care: Basic Perspectives, reviews basic material on the topic. The second section on Racial and Ethnic Factors in Disparities in Health and Health Care Utilization includes five articles, three focused on racial and ethnic factors in disparities and two on those factors and other social factors such as SES. The next section focuses on Income, SES, and Cultural Capital in Disparities in Health and Health Care Delivery and includes an article that focuses on the role of education, one on the impact of childhood poverty on later life health and one on the role of cultural capital in health outcomes. The fourth section includes two papers on Providers, Facilities and Health Disparities. The last section, Part 5, deals with Locally Oriented Studies in Health Disparities and includes three papers looking at community approaches for eliminating health disparities, the effects of household assets upon rural residents' self-reported physical and emotional well-being and disparities in health care among Vietnamese Americans in New Orleans and the impacts of Hurricane Katrina.

This volume is about gender, health and medicine broadly defined. From the essays in it, it is abundantly clear that medicine is a gendered and class-structured institution. Taken as a whole the volume offers a critique of exclusively biomedical approaches to personal and public health and calls for more sociological input, qualitative research and an intersectional approach to help us understand various aspects of health and illness. Among the recurrent themes in the seven essays are the medicalization of personal and social problems, the commodification of healthcare, and questions of agency, responsibility and control on the parts of recipients and dispensers of healthcare. Six of the seven essays deal with Western medicine exclusively, the seventh examines a situation where women have a choice between Western and traditional treatment. Timely topics such as somatic distress among women with breast cancer, drug company funding of research on women's sexual problems, and racial and ethnic health disparities are represented. A companion volume will focus on conventional and unconventional approaches to managing pregnancy and childbirth. The intended audience is the social science community, especially those who are interested in the social scientific study of medicine or of gender including those who may not be familiar with the areas in which the two overlap.

This volume features papers on the theme of issues in health and health care for special groups, social factors and disparities. This includes papers dealing with macro-level system issues and micro-level issues involving special groups, social factors and disparities linked to issues in health and health care. The volume also contains an examination of health and health care issues of patients and providers of care especially those related to special groups and social factors including education, family, income, government, neighborhoods, social networks, health beliefs and attitudes. This includes a focus on links to policy, population concerns and patients and providers of care as ways to meet health care needs of people both in the US and in other countries.

This volume covers macro-level system issues and micro-level issues involving health and health care concerns for women, and racial and ethnic minorities. Topics covered include examination of health and health care issues of patients or of providers of care especially those related to concerns for women and for racial and ethnic minorities in different countries. This volume is divided into four sections. The first section introduces the volume. The second section covers women and reproductive related health and health care concerns, using data sources from the United States and the UK. The third section examines health care practitioners, health and health care, relating to issues of women or racial and ethnic minorities, using data sources from the US and Canada. The last section relates specifically to racial and ethnic minorities and health and health care. Chapters focus on Black men, on Asian Americans, on Mexican Americans, and across racial and/or ethnic differences.

The contributors to this latest volume of Research in the Sociology of Health Care investigate race, ethnicity and gender as factors in health and health care disparities. Looking specifically at the factors that impact race and ethnicity in a US context, gender issues, hospitals and health care spending, and research from India. Chapters focus on linkages to health disparities among races, health experiences for incarcerated women and issues of hospital and health care spending.

This volume deals with the topic of health inequalities and health disparities. The volume is divided into five sections. The first section includes an introductory look at the issue of health care inequalities and disparities and also an introduction to the volume. One of the backdrops to this topic in the United States was The National Healthcare Disparities Report and its focus on the ability of Americans to access health care and variation in the quality of care. Disparities related to socioeconomic status were included, as were disparities linked to race and ethnicity and the report also tried to explore the relationship between race/ethnicity and socioeconomic position, as explained in more detail in the first article in the book. The second article discusses a newer overall approach to issues related to health inequalities and health disparities.
The remaining four sections of the book address more specific topics relating to inequalities and disparities. The second section examines racial and ethnic inequalities and disparities. The third section includes articles that address the issue from the perspective of research about health care providers and health care facilities. The last two sections of the book focus on consumers and topics of health care disparities, with Section 4 focused on issues related to substance abuse, mental health and related concerns. Section 5 includes articles looking at issues of vulnerable women, women with breast cancer and people with colorectal cancer.
Inequalities and Disparities in Health Care and Health is important reading for medical sociologists and people working in other social science disciplines studying health-related issues. Thevolume also provides vital information for health services researchers, policy analysts and public health researchers.
*Chapters focus on the topics of health inequalities and health disparities
*Essential for medical sociologists and others in social science industries studying health-related issues

Traditionally in health services research, cost, quality and access to care have been viewed as the three major issues of health care delivery and have been important in the development of health services research as a multidisciplinary way to examine issues in health care and health care delivery. Satisfaction is often viewed as a specialized aspect of access to care. Given the sociological focus of this volume, costs are less of a focus, but access, quality and satisfaction are important sociological aspects of health services delivery concerns and have been for more than 30 years. This volume explores a variety of those issues in todays health care system, with a strong sociological focus.
Besides the introductory section of the volume, the other sections of the volume focus on articles that are about patients and special types of care, elderly care issues, issues of access, quality and satisfaction with care from the perspective of foreign health care systems, and these issues in public systems of care. Some of the specific chapters look at issues of care for Vietnam veterans, patients with myocardial infarctions, and dental care and maternity care, elderly care issues, and what can be learned from explorations of some aspects of the health care systems of Canada and Hungary.
Access, Quality and Satisfaction with Care is essential reading for medical sociologists and people working in other social science disciplines studying health-related issues. The volume also provides vital information for health services researchers, policy analysts and public health researchers.
*Looks at health care from a sociological perspective that is more focused on access, quality andsatisfaction than cost
*Chapters focus on specialized forms of care and specific issues (i.e. Vietnam Veterans, dental and maternity care, elderly care issues, health care systems in different countries, etc.)
*Essential for medical sociologists and others in social science industries studying health-related issues

The theme of this volume is Health Care Services, Racial and Ethnic Minorities and Underserved Populations: Patient and Provider Perspectives. The volume is divided into five sections. The first section discusses the overall issue of health care disparities and underserved populations and also provides introductory material about the rest of the volume. The next section focuses on issues that relate to gender. The third section provides papers on some other specific examples of underserved populations: those with mental health concerns, those with concerns related to emotional well being, the elderly population and sex workers. The fourth section includes papers that discuss treatment disparities and providers of care. The final section includes papers that relate to policy concerns.

The topic of health care services and underserved populations is one of growing importance within the US health care system and one of importance in health care systems across the world. Concern about equity in health care is not new. There is a long tradition in medical sociology of studies of inequities in health status and use of health care services. Over the past ten to twenty years, there have been many studies that have documented that race and socioeconomic status (SES) influence the use of health care services. Within the US in the past decade, this area of concern is often described as studies of health disparities and this volume is a contribution to that research. This volume examines the issue more broadly, by including some issues in countries besides the US and examining the role of providers in treatment disparities and important policy concerns.

The theme of this volume is chronic care, health care systems and services integration. The volume is divided into three sections. The first section focuses on issues that relate to health care providers. The second section contains papers that deal with home and community based services for the elderly and those who need chronic care. The third section provides lessons from countries outside the United States related to the overall themes of chronic care, systems integration and services integration.

These are themes of growing importance in the US health care system as well as in health care systems in most other developed nations. The aging of populations, already underway, and expected to increase in the coming decades will bring changes and challenges to the health care system. Many of these challenges relate to chronic care needs, since chronic care needs are more important in the elderly than in other population groups, although chronic care problems are not limited to the elderly. Once people reach their 40s and 50s, they begin to develop chronic problems. Chronic problems often require both more health care services and more complicated health care services, and thus place an emphasis on services integration.

This volume offers feminist perspectives on the social, cultural and medical aspects of women as sexual beings and of their fertility, pregnancy and child bearing. It serves as a companion to "Advances in Gender Research volume 7, Gender perspectives on Health and Medicine: Key Themes". As in the previous volume, the authors critique and transcend conventional biomedical approaches to the subject matter. The seven essays raise questions about control and agency asking who decides if, when and how fertility should be controlled and the circumstances under which child birth takes place. They address decision-making on multiple levels from the individual to the national and transnational and grapple with such controversial matters as genital cutting, self-help menstrual extraction and direct-entry midwifery. They interrogate the policies and practices of states and transnational agencies that have a bearing on sexuality and reproductive health, the ways in which womens genitalia have been objectified and manipulated by practices that purport to be both traditional and modern, and the motivations of those who provide alternative forms of fertility control and birthing methods. The intended audience is the social science community, especially those who are interested in the study of gender, sexuality and reproductive health, medicine and alternative medicine, and the areas where these interface.

This volume deals with the reorganizing of health care delivery systems: problems of managed care and other models of health care delivery. Issues of how to best organize a health care delivery system are not new, but the amount of interest in this topic in the US (as well as in other countries) has grown in recent decades. Reorganizing health care delivery systems is a concern of many systems of the world, and this volume contains some papers from countries other than the US, although the majority of the papers do relate issues to the US health care delivery system. While most papers relate to structural and organizational factors, the impact of individual patients is not neglected. The volume contains 11 papers, organized into four sections. The sections cover managed care issues and organizational features, special groups of patients and health issues, lessons from other countries, and broader policy concerns and health insurance reform. This book addresses important themes in medical sociology, with papers that range from those with an explicit policy point of view to narrower papers on more specific issues in health care delivery. It aims to contribute to improving our understanding of these issues and provides a sociological focus for the exploration of them. This should make the volume essential reading for medical sociologists and other social scientists studying health care delivery issues. The information should be also helpful to health services researchers, policy analysts and public health researchers.

Research on social inequalities has a very long tradition in sociological research, and discussion of the impact of social inequalities on health and health care delivery has long been one of the more important topics covered by medical sociologists. The research presented in this volume varies in its coverage and its approach to issues of social inequality in health and health care delivery. This volume includes both theoretical and quantitative papers, and deals with complex understandings of macro system issues, the impact of the patient and individual factors on health and health care and the impact of the provider and interaction between providers and patients. The first section focuses on macro system issues and includes both theoretical approaches to the topic and quantitative approaches. The second section includes articles with a greater focus on patient characteristics. These articles vary greatly in their coverage, with some focusing on the US as a whole, and others on specific sections of the US or subgroups within the population such as African American women or the elderly. The third section focuses on providers and issues of social inequality and health care delivery. These papers examine issues of gender, race and poverty as examples of sources of inequality in modern societies. In contrast to the second section these papers pay more attention to individual factors and the focus of the chapters is on aspects of health care providers. Research on providers of care is another long, important research tradition within medical sociology. Social Inequalities, Health and Health Care Delivery should be useful reading for medical sociologists and people working in other social science disciplines studying health-related issues. The volume also provides information for health services researchers, policy analysts and public health researchers.

This text deals with issues of growing importance in both the US health care system and health care systems across the world. Such systems need to respond to changes in technology within health care, shifting technologies not specific to health care, and changes in the way patients and physicians view health and the use of health services in society. Chapters focus on how technologies and programs apply to either general groups within the health care system or more specialized groups, such as people with a certain health care problem. Papers deal with a variety of topics, from a focus on consumers and the varying roles the play in the emerging and changing US health care system, to the examination of specific principles such as social network approaches.

Hardbound. Volume 18 in this series explores the impact of social factors on health, illness and the use of care. Contributors examine a number of social factors including sex, gender and socio-economic status on the healthcare experience and focus on both patients within the care process and the providers of care.Health, Illness and Use of Care also presents papers employing a variety of methodological approaches. In the range of illnesses discussed, the social factors under consideration, and the variety of methodological approaches, this volume represents the current diversity within the field of Medical Sociology.

Hardbound. This volume explores issues connected with health care providers, institutions, and patients. The focus of many of the articles is on changing patterns of care delivery and provision of care, as it affects these important groups of actors within the health care system. The articles range from those that focus on more specialized groups of patients, such as the elderly, to those that focus on people who deliver health care services to those that deal with more general issues of the restructuring of the US health care system.