HSOC 260 Social Determinants of Health
Cross-listed as SOCI 261
Offered:Previous Semesters
Aronowitz
Over the last century, we have witnessed dramatic historical change in population health, e.g. rising numbers of obese Americans and dramatic declines in death from stomach cancer. There has also been highly visible social patterning of health and disease, such as socio-economic disparities in AIDS, substance abuse, and asthma in the U.S. today or the association of breast cancer with affluence around the world. This course will explore the way researchers and others in past and present have tried to make sense of these patterns and do something about them.
The course is historical and sociological. We will examine evidence and theories about how poverty, affluence, and other social factors influence health AND we will examine how social and historical forces shape the ways in which health and disease are understood. In examining our current obesity "epidemic," for example, we wil not only consider evidence about the causal nature of market forces and the built environment, but ask how obesity was defined historically and why (besides the fact that we are heavier) obesity has become such a visible and important medical and public health issue in the U.S. today. We will study the important findings, methods and approaches in the developing field of population health.
The first half of the course is organized historically and the second half topically by health issues (e.g. cancer cluster, Russian mortality crisis). Readings are eclectic, for example excerpts from Emile Durkheim's 1897 book on suicide and medical articles on the decline in cardiovascular mortality in the U.S. There will be guest lecturers who are experts in particular health problems or involved in clinical and policy responses to those problems. There will be both lecture and discussion, several short (1-2 pp) papers based on readings, and a final research paper and class presentation.
NOTE: DO NOT CONFUSE THIS COURSE WITH STSC 260 - CYBERCULTURE
