The most comprehensive major academic textbook available on its topic, this classic text presents the most important research studies in the field. The author integrates engaging first-person accounts from patients, physicians, and other health-care providers throughout the text. Since the book’s inception, its principal goal has been to introduce students to the field of medical sociology and serve as a reference for faculty by presenting the most current ideas, issues, concepts, themes, theories, and research findings in the field. This 16th edition is heavily revised, with updated data and important new additions.

New to this edition:

• Updated chapter on the social causes, impacts, and responses to the COVID-19 pandemic (Chapter 3)
• Analysis of the widening ten-year gap in average life expectancy in American society between the wealthy and well-educated and the poor and less-educated (Chapter 4)
• Expanded discussion of the effects of racism on physical and mental health (Chapter 6)
• Additions to health lifestyle theory of pandemic behavior and the digitalization of society (Chapter 8)
• New developments in doctor–patient interaction, including the use of genomic data and artificial intelligence (AI) technology in medical care (Chapter 10)
• The endangered Affordable Care Act (Chapter 16)
• Review of key issues in different types of health-care delivery systems (Chapter 17)