SOC 2720 - Medical Sociology

3 cr. 3 hr. Day course offered in the Spring.

In this course, students explore the effects of stratification on health status and health care. Topics discussed in class include communication between physicians and patients of different socio-cultural backgrounds; formal organizational studies of health facilities such as hospitals, clinics, or doctors’ offices; social factors and their relation to chronic illness; and the sociology of mental illness. Also investigated are the relationships between doctors and nurses, the organization and utilization of health services, the comparative examination of health systems either within a society or in a cross-cultural perspective, and the perception of illness as deviant or aberrant behavior. B