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Praise for the First Edition:'A real, combined approach of behavioural, social, biomedical, and clinical sciences is paramount. [This book] is one pioneering example of such integration, bridging core sociology with medical education.'– Dikomitis L, Wenning B, Ghobrial A, and Adams K.M. (2022). Embedding behavioural and social sciences across the medical curriculum: (Auto) ethnographic insights from medical schools in the United Kingdom. Societies, 12, 101.'Constantinou's book not only contributes to bridging the gap between theoretical sociology and medical education, it also contributes to the way we teach a new generation of students – how to understand patients in context, how to treat them with respect and, ultimately, how to be a better medical doctor.'– Andrea Stockl from her Foreword to the First EditionComments from Medical Students:'‘Ignorance is not just lack of knowledge but lack of implementing knowledge gained'. I encourage everybody going into a clinical and general work setting to read this book and implement.''I believe this book is the key to unlocking the minds of medical students in viewing illness as not only physical and emotional also as social experience.''I believe everyone should read this book, especially medical students and practitioners who wish to become all-round competent and understanding doctors.''The better you understand your patient's illness and his/her suffering, the healthier you can make him/her – this book teaches this important skill.'This popular and accessible text continues to cover the basic principles of the sociology of health and illness in an eminently readable way. This fully revised second edition has been inspired, informed, and reviewed by medical students. By creatively employing a problem-based learning approach, the book examines commonly covered topics integrating underlying principles and research findings through real-life stories. The book investigates the relevance of sociology and considers a new direction – one that places sociology in the context of healthcare settings, making the topic more realistic, useful, and memorable. The book will be an invaluable companion for medical students throughout undergraduate studies and is also a useful reference for students in nursing, social work, psychology, and sociology, as well as qualified doctors and healthcare practitioners.

Social Research in Health and Illness offers a theoretically informed guide to practising the key social research methods in investigating health and illness. Examining both methods and methodology, the authors explore the importance of selecting the appropriate research method for the project in question, demonstrating that researchers do not simply apply a set of neutral techniques to the issues that they investigate, but take part in a dynamic, reflective engagement with social and cultural worlds in a process of continual learning. With its application of a variety of research methods to concrete cases, this book provides a sociology of specific health conditions, thus rendering them more understandable, whilst clarifying the nature of research concepts, approaches, methods and methodologies by demonstrating their use in real-life settings. Drawing on case studies involving a range of health conditions, including mental illness, HIV, diabetes, kidney disease, Alzheimer's disease, heart disease, breast cancer, thalassaemia and multiple sclerosis, the authors examine a range of methodological issues, exploring the use of focus groups, observation, data archives, interviews and surveys, while also considering questions of ethics and analysis. A comprehensive and practical examination of research methods in use in a defined field of social scientific enquiry, this volume is essential reading for scholars, graduate students and healthcare professionals with interests in conducting qualitative and quantitative research in the fields of health and medicine.

This inspirational new text covers the basic principles of the sociology of health and illness in an eminently readable way. By creatively employing the fictitious character of Frank Bennet, a new medical student, who cannot understand why he has to attend so many sessions in sociology in order to become a doctor, the book examines the most commonl