Medical Sociology

The Medical Sociology Section of the American Sociological Association was established in 1959. Since that time, sociologists have made important contributions to public health research and practice in a variety of areas. Most notably, sociological research on the social determinants of health, health inequalities, access to care, the organization of services, health policy,rift gold and family health have dominated sociological studies of population-based health. In particular, sociology and demography have played a major role in shaping the field of social epidemiology. Using the methods of survey research and statistical analysis, researchers have identified significant variation in health status and conditions for groups defined by sociodemographic variables, including age, gender, race, class, ethnicity, occupation, education, marital status, and religion. Increasingly sophisticated techniques for analyzing large data sets such as vital statistics, population surveys,rift gold and health service indicators have provided useful information for identifying populations at risk, for measuring unmet need for services, for planning health programs, and for formulating health policy. In another line of activity, sociologists have made important contributions to understanding the social construction of health problems, that is, how social processes shape how and why societies come to define certain conditions and trends as public health problems. Examples of this include the framing of teen pregnancy as a social problem, public reactions to the AIDS epidemic, and concern with the growing prevalence of obesity in wealthy societies.