This stimulating book has become a go-to text for understanding the role that social factors play in the experience of health and many diseases. This extensively revised and updated third edition offers the most compelling case yet that stress, poverty, unhealthy lifestyles, and unpleasant living and working conditions can all be directly associated with illness. The book continues to build on the paradigm shift that has been emerging in twenty-first-century medical sociology, which looks beyond individual explanations for health and disease. As the field has headed toward a fundamentally different orientation, William Cockerham's work has been at the forefront of these changes, and he here marshals evidence and theory for those seeking a clear and authoritative guide to the realities of the social determinants of health. Of particular note in the latest edition is new material on the relationship between gender and health, implications of the life course for health behavior, the health effects of social capital, and the emergence of COVID-19. This engaging introduction to social epidemiology will be indispensable reading for all students and scholars of medical sociology, especially those with the courage to confront the possibility that society really does make people sick.

This stimulating book has become a go-to text for understanding the role that social factors play in the experience of health and many diseases. This extensively revised and updated third edition offers the most compelling case yet that stress, poverty, unhealthy lifestyles, and unpleasant living and working conditions can all be directly associated with illness. The book continues to build on the paradigm shift that has been emerging in twenty-first-century medical sociology, which looks beyond individual explanations for health and disease. As the field has headed toward a fundamentally different orientation, William Cockerham's work has been at the forefront of these changes, and he here marshals evidence and theory for those seeking a clear and authoritative guide to the realities of the social determinants of health. Of particular note in the latest edition is new material on the relationship between gender and health, implications of the life course for health behavior, the health effects of social capital, and the emergence of COVID-19. This engaging introduction to social epidemiology will be indispensable reading for all students and scholars of medical sociology, especially those with the courage to confront the possibility that society really does make people sick.

This accessible book examines the multidimensional influence of globalization on human health and disease. The acceleration of globalization since the end of the Cold War has had numerous far-reaching impacts on health-related issues, both social and political, and as this book shows, globalization continues to present both positive and negative implications for the state of human health.In "Health and Globalization," Geoffrey and William Cockerham focus on the relationships between globalization and a variety of health-related topics including the spread of Western medicine, the rise of medical tourism, and adverse effects on the environment. Particular attention is paid to issues of contemporary urgency such as the spread of pandemics and the role of global health governance, as well as reviewing changes in health care delivery systems in the United States, United Kingdom, Japan, China, Russia, and selected developing countries. The book provides a readable account of the many actors involved in global health, analyzing the interactions of national governments, governmental and nongovernmental organizations, and multinational corporations in addressing global health issues. "Health and Globalization" will be illuminating reading for students on a wide range of courses including public health, globalization, the sociology of medicine, and development.