This third edition of Juanne Nancarrow Clarke's thorough and essential study of the sociology of health, illness, and medicine has been expanded and completely revised to include recent research findings and statistical data on how we try to stay healthy and how we respond to illness, on how we live and how we die. New chapters on nursing and midwifery and on complementary and alternative medicine have been written for this edition, which includes over 100 tables and figures, as well as numerous vignettes on such topics as medical technologies, pioneers in medicine, epidemics, environmental disasters, and the history of medicine. Canada's health-care system has been largely defined by physicians, hospital administrators, and government bureaucrats. It has been a boon to many, but has meant the entrenchment of allopathic medicine over such alternatives as chiropractic and naturopathy. As Canada's population ages and chronic illnesses proliferate, interventionist and pharmaceutical solutions to health problems become less relevant and extremely costly. Allopathic interventions such as surgery and chemotherapy may increase quantity of life at the expense of its quality. Clarke uses four different sociological perspectives--structural-functional, conflict, symbolic interactionist, and feminist--to examine occupational diseases, environmental challenges, the inequities of age, gender, class, race, and ethnicity, the experience of getting sick and going to the doctor, and the extensive and profit-motivated impact of the pharmaceutical and medical device industries. Health, Illness, and Medicine in Canada also considers the Canadian health-care system in historical and international context.

Preface Acknowledgements Part I: Sociological Perspectives 1. Ways of Thinking Sociologically about Health, Illness, and Medicine Structural Functionalism Conflict Theory Symbolic Interactionist Theory Feminist Theory Sociology of Health in Canada Summary 2. Ways of Studying Health, Illness, and Medicine Sociologically Positivism Conflict Theory Symbolic Interactionism Feminist Theory/Methodology Summary Part II: Sociology of Health and Illness Introduction 3. Disease and Death: Canada in International and Historical Context Life Expectancy Poverty Food Security The Physical and Social Environment Death, Disease, and Disability in Canadian Society Causes of Death and Disease Summary 4. Environmental and Occupational Health and Illness The Major Environmental Issues Air Pollution and Human Health The Great Lakes Waste Disposal Biodiversity Occupational Health and Safety Other Accidents and Violence Summary 5. Social Inequity, Disease, and Death: Age and Gender Age and Mortality Age and Morbidity Gender and Mortality Gender and Morbidity Explanations for Differences in Disease and Death Summary 6. Social Inequity, Disease, and Death in Canada: Class, Race, and Ethnicity Social Class Education Race, Ethnicity, and Minority Status Explanations for the Health Effects of Inequities Economics and Health Summary 7. Getting Sick and Going to the Doctor Stress Social Support Coronary-Prone or Type A Behaviour and Heart Disease Sense of Coherence Religion and Health Prayer and Health Therapeutic Touch The Illness Iceberg Why People Seek Help Summary 8. The Experience of Being Ill Illness, Sickness, and Disease Variations in the Experience of Being Ill Popular Conceptions of Health, Illness, and Disease The Insider's View: How Illness Is Experienced Case Study: Women and Cancer Summary 9. The Social Construction of Scientific and Medical Knowledge and Medical Practice The Sociology of Medical Knowledge Medical and Scientific Knowledge: Historical and Cross-Cultural Context Medical Science and Medical Practice: A Gap in Values Medical Sciences Reinforces Gender Role Stereotypes The Sociology of Medical Practice Doctor-Patient Communication Summary 10. Medicalization: The Medical-Moral Mix A Brief History of Western Medical Practice Medicalization: The Critique of Contemporary Medicine The Contemporary Physician as Moral Entrepreneur Uncertainty and Medicalization Medicalization and Demedicalization Summary 11. Medical Practitioners, Medicare, and the State Early Canadian Medical Organizations The Origins of the Contemporary Medical Care System The Efforts of Early Allopathic Physicians to Organize The History of Universal Medical Insurance in Canada The Impact of Medicare on the Health of Canadians The Impact of Medicare on Health-Care Costs Summary 12. The Medical Profession The 'Profession' of Medicine A Brief History of Medical Education in North America Medical Education in Canada Today Organization of the Medical Profession: Autonomy and Social Control The Management of Mistakes Summary 13. The Medical Care System: Critical Issues The Medical Model Sex and the Medical Hierarchy: A Brief History Nursing Women's Health: A New Focus Women as Hidden Healers The Medicalization of Women's Lives Summary 14. Nurses and Midwives in the Changing Health-Care System Nursing: The Historical Context Nursing Today: Issues of Sexism, Managerial Ideology, Hospital Organization, and Cutbacks Nursing as a Profession Midwifery Summary 15. Complementary and Alternative Medicine Alternative, Complementary, and Allopathic Medicine Chiropractic Naturopathy Summary 16. The Medical-Industrial Complex Drug Use Physicians and Prescribing Pharmacists The Pharmaceutical Industry Issues in Drug Regulation Medical Devices and Bioengineering Summary Appendix: Web Sites for Sociological Research on Health and Medicine Bibliography Index

Juanne Nancarrow Clarke , Professor, Department of Sociology, Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada