The Social Causes of Health and Disease

This stimulating book has become a go-to text for understanding the role that social factors play in the experience of health and many diseases. This extensively revised and updated third edition offers the most compelling case yet that stress, poverty, unhealthy lifestyles, and unpleasant living and working conditions can all be directly associated with illness.

The book continues to build on the paradigm shift that has been emerging in twenty-first-century medical sociology, which looks beyond individual explanations for health and disease. As the field has headed toward a fundamentally different orientation, William Cockerham’s work has been at the forefront of these changes, and he here marshals evidence and theory for those seeking a clear and authoritative guide to the realities of the social determinants of health. Of particular note in the latest edition is new material on the relationship between gender and health, implications of the life course for health behavior, the health effects of social capital, and the emergence of COVID-19.

This engaging introduction to social epidemiology will be indispensable reading for all students and scholars of medical sociology, especially those with the courage to confront the possibility that society really does make people sick.

Preface

1 The Social Causation of Health and Disease

Coronavirus

Smoking

The Biomedical Model

Elements of Proof

Diabetes

HIV/AIDS

Social Determinants of Disease: Fundamental Cause Theory

Measuring Structural Effects

Conclusion

Critical Thinking Questions

Suggested Further Reading

2 Theorizing about Health and Disease

The Rise and Fall of Structural-Functionalism

The Fall of Conflict Theory and Repackaging of Marxism

The Rise of the Agency-Oriented Paradigm

American Medical Sociology

British Medical Sociology

Conclusion

Critical Thinking Questions

Suggested Further Reading

3 Health Lifestyles

Lifestyle: Health as an Achievement

Methodological Individualism in Health Lifestyle Research

The Agency–Structure Debate

Health Lifestyle Theory

Class circumstances

Age, gender, and race/ethnicity

Collectivities

Living conditions

Socialization and experience

Life choices (agency)

Life chances (structure)

Choice and chance interplay

Dispositions to act (habitus)

Completing the model

Conclusion

Critical Thinking Questions

Suggested Further Reading

4 The Power of Class

Class and Heart Attack Survival

Class Structure and its Components

Class schemes

Weber: status groups

The End of Class?

The Social Gradient in Mortality

Confirming the Relationship

Medical Care as an Intervening Variable?

Conclusion

Critical Thinking Questions

Suggested Further Reading

5 Class and Health: Explaining the Relationship

Class, Health, and Medical Care in the United States

Class, Health, and Medical Care in the United Kingdom

Stress

Income Inequality

Culture

Smoking

Obesity

Conclusion: Social Causation or Social Selection?

Critical Thinking Questions

Suggested Further Reading

6 Age

Age Stratification Theory

Life Course Theory

Cohort Effects of Age

Conclusion

Critical Thinking Questions

Suggested Further Reading

7 Gender

The Gender Health and Mortality Paradox

Gender Differences in Physical and Mental Health

Gender Differences in Health Practices

LGBT Health

Another Look at Smoking

Conclusion

Critical Thinking Questions

Suggested Further Reading

8 Race and Ethnicity

Ethnicity

Race and Physical Health

Hispanics and Immigration

Racism as a Fundamental Cause

Race and Health in Britain

Race and Mental Health

Summary

Critical Thinking Questions

Suggested Further Reading

9 Living Conditions and Neighborhood Disadvantage

Unhealthy Places

Health and Neighborhood Disadvantage in Britain

Physical Health and Neighborhood Disadvantage in the US

Mental Health and Neighborhood Disadvantage in the US

Conclusion

Critical Thinking Questions

Suggested Further Reading

10 Health and Social Capital

Robert Putnam: Bowling Alone

Nan Lin: Social Capital as Structure

Pierre Bourdieu: A Social Form of Capital

Robert Sampson: Collective Efficacy

Research Applications of Social Capital

Conclusion

Critical Thinking Questions

Suggested Further Reading

Concluding Remarks

The Return of Structure

Structure–Agency Interface

Policy Implications

Conclusion

References

Name Index

Subject Index

"The third edition of Cockerham's classic text on the social causes of health and illness is most welcome. Notable features of this masterful and comprehensive contribution are the coverage of theory as well as research, its international reach, and its erudition. This will be an indispensable volume for teachers, students, and practitioners alike."
—Graham Scambler, University College London and Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences

"As in the previous editions, Cockerham presents us with a powerful understanding of the social determinants of health. This time, he updates his perspective, weaving in novel dynamic dimensions from life course research and important structural elements from social capital."
—Bernice A. Pescosolido, Indiana University

"This is a brilliant book to provide the foundations to students and scholars who are keen to learn about inequalities and the impacts on health and illness, clinicians who know that something is unfair in healthcare but can't put their finger on it or even those that want to have statistics and theories ready for a Christmas dinner debate with a relative... an excellent and comprehensive beginner’s guide to how inequalities change the lives of others."
—Cost of Living

William C. Cockerham is Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Chair Emeritus at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and Research Scholar of Sociology at the College of William & Mary in Virginia.