The fortunes of medical sociology, like other public policy-relevant disciplines, are shaped by political dynamics and prevailing values and attitudes. In the 1990s the field, which views disease and disability as consequences to a substantial degree of material conditions, social...

Attributing one's problems to a mental illness is associated with reduced subjective quality of life (QOL) among persons with schizophrenia, controlling for a broad range of socio-demographic, social, clinical, and psychosocial variables. Persons who attributed their problems to a 'physical,...

Policymakers in many countries seek to contain health care costs over the long range by promoting health and more effective health behavior. Such efforts can be directed at entire populations, at members of a health plan, at defined risk groups or single individuals at risk. Many health risks...

Technology refers to inputs (machines, bureaucratic procedures, management strategies) organized to achieve specified outcomes. Such inputs and how they are used arise from socio-cultural conditions and in turn influence social behavior and values. Advances in medical technology are due to the...

Health is a product of culture and social structure. The routine organization and constraints of everyday settings shape our health. Socio-economic status is of major importance in determining exposure to disease risk and in shaping health and illness behavior responses. Lay explanations of...

The almost exclusive dependence on the diagnostic disease model limits addressing the burden of illness and disability typically seen in primary medical care. With aging of populations and increasing prevalence of chronic disease and disability and behavioral disorders, new approaches to patient...

Tensions are inevitable between funders seeking to solve specific health care issues within existing frameworks and many social scientists who see health and health care as reflections of societal stratification and processes of power and control. Many current and impending issues require deep...

Based on data from the National Health Interview Survey Mental Health Supplement, 1989 (NCHS, 1991), this article compares health outcomes for respondents living with someone who is mentally ill (N = 776) with a randomly selected subsample of respondents not living with someone identified as...

This paper examines conceptions of trust among three groups of respondents diagnosed with either breast cancer, Lyme disease or mental illness. Interviews were carried out using an open-ended interview guide to explore how patients made assessments of trust in their doctors and health care...