Main description:

Unequal Health examines the reasons why stark differences in health and well-being persist, even as the health care industry and access to health care grow. The third edition of this powerful book retains the accessible style and focus on inequality from previous editions while featuring significant new material throughout.

After an overview of key themes, the book introduces the concept of epidemiology-measuring the number of people who are sick or dying-and offers an overview of health trends over time. Author Grace Budrys distills the latest research to consider the relevance of sex, race, income, and education, and relative social status on health. The book discusses disease, habits that contribute to health, the relationship between health care and health status, genetics, socioeconomic inequality, health policy, and more. The third edition features a new chapter on diet, an increased discussion of substance abuse and the attention it receives based on who is engaging in this behavior, new material on income and education variables and inequality, a new discussion of the Affordable Care Act and its impact, and more.

Contents:

Chapter 1-Introduction
Chapter 2-Identifying Disease and Its Causes
Chapter 3-Causes of Death
Chapter 4-Age, Sex, and Race or Ethnicity
Chapter 5-External Causes of Death
Chapter 6-Healthy and Unhealthy Behaviors: Diet
Chapter 7-Healthy and Unhealthy Behaviors: Exercise, Smoking, and Substance Abuse
Chapter 8-Health Care
Chapter 9-Genes
Chapter 10-Stress
Chapter 11-Social Determinants of Health
Chapter 12-Social Inequality
Chapter 13-Unequal Health