With thorough coverage of inequality in health care access and practice, this leading textbook is widely acclaimed by instructors as the most comprehensive of any available. Written in an engaging and accessible style, with multiple student-friendly features, it integrates recent research in medical sociology and public health to introduce students to a wide range of issues affecting health, healing, and health care today.

This new edition links information on COVID-19 into each chapter, providing students with a solid understanding of the social history of medicine; social epidemiology; social stress; health and illness behavior; the profession of medicine; nurses and allied health workers; complementary and alternative medicine; the physician-patient relationship; medical ethics; and the financing and organization of medical care.

Important changes and enhancements in the eleventh edition include:



Inclusion of material on COVID-19 in the main text of every chapter, with special sections at the end of each chapter exploring additional intersections of COVID-19 with chapter content.
Expanded coverage of fundamental cause theory and the social determinants of health.
New centralized discussions of how and why social disparities in race, class, gender, and sexual identity impact health outcomes in the United States.
New “In the Field” boxed inserts on topics such as medical education and student debt, physicians’ use of medical jargon, and corporate greed.
New “In Comparative Focus” boxed inserts on topics such as the 1918 influenza pandemic, infant and maternal mortality in Afghanistan, the patient care coordination process, drug prices, long-term care, and global health.
A more in-depth look at both physician and nursing shortages.
Expanded discussion of nurse burnout during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Curricular and pedagogical changes in medical schools.
Discussion of continued changes in the financing of the US health care system.
A more in-depth look at quality concerns in nursing homes.
Increased attention to the health care systems in Norway, Germany, Cuba, and Mexico.
An updated instructor’s guide with test bank and PowerPoint slides.