Main description:

Social and Behavioral Science for Health Professionals examines various social and behavioral factors that affect health and illness, with a particular focus on how these phenomena inform clinical practice. The book introduces interdisciplinary insights from fields like sociology, psychology, and epidemiology to elucidate important and often problematic features of patient care routinely confronting physicians, nurses, and other allied health practitioners. Each chapter provides clear learning objectives and is organized around core concepts to facilitate clinicians' abilities to think in new and expanded ways about health and illness, as well as patient and professional interactions. The content explores the implications of a shifting epidemiological landscape; the critical roles of social factors as fundamental causes of health and disease; health disparities; the medicalization process and resulting changes in diagnostic patterns and expectations of practitioners; understandings of the illness experience of patients; interpersonal and interprofessional collaboration; clinical bioethics and the social psychology of ethical decision-making; and the significance of health system design and health policy. As a result, the book represents an important resource for improving patient care, particularly at a time when health is more intricately linked to social and behavioral conditions than ever before.

Contents:

Part I. Foundations of Social Science and Health

Chapter 1. Introduction to Health and the Sociological Imagination

Chapter 2. The Shifting Landscape of Health and Medicine: Past, Present, and Future

Chapter3. The Logic and Methods of Empirical Research

Part II.Social Epidemiology and Determinants of Health

Chapter 4. Social Class and Health

Chapter5. A Matrix of Health Inequalities

Chapter 6. Health Behavior and Lifestyles

Part III. Social Science in Clinical Practice

Chapter 7.Power, Medicalization, and Clinical Practice

Chapter 8. The Illness Experiences of Patients and Families

Chapter 9. The Social Dynamics of Clinical Communication

Chapter 10. Health Professions and Interprofessional Teamwork

Chapter 11. Bioethics, Social Science, and Clinical Practice

Part IV. Health Systems and Policy

Chapter 12. Health Care Systems and Policy

Chapter 13. Conclusion