With thorough coverage of inequality in health care access and practice across the field it surveys, The Sociology of Health, Healing, and Illness 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 and contextualizes 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 timely and familiar examples to deepen their understanding of the many social dimensions of health care, such as the social history of medicine, social epidemiology, social stress, health and illness behavior, the medical profession, 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 to this eleventh edition include:

• A heightened focus on social disparities in race, class, gender, and sexual identity, addressing how these differences impact health outcomes in the United States and why
• Updates to the boxed sections that explore topics “In the Field” and “In Comparative Focus,” sparking readers’ curiosity and drawing their attention to topics such as medical education and student debt, as well as the continuities and differences in health care and public health issues across time and space
• Thorough examination of newer perspectives and developments in the field, including the issue of nurse and physician burnout during the COVID-19 pandemic, quality concerns in nursing homes, and the inner workings of health care systems in other parts of the world
• Improved support materials for instructors, featuring updated exam questions and lecture slides that correspond to the book’s newer content

Altogether, the new edition of The Sociology of Health, Healing, and Illness maintains the foundational coverage of the field that the book is well known for and enriches its presentation with considered attention to contemporary patterns, perspectives, and research – perfect for introducing readers to the important and tremendously meaningful issues studied by medical sociologists.