WHAT IS MEDICAL SOCIOLOGY ?

(BSC -APPLIED SOCIOLOGY)
INTRODUCTION

Medical sociology is concerned with the relationship between social factors and health, and with the application of sociological theory and research techniques to questions related to health and the health care system.

 Medical sociology is concerned with the relationship between social factors and health, and with the application of sociological theory and research techniques to questions related to health and the health care system. 

😊SOCIOLOGIST TALCOTT PARSON

Sociologist Talcott Parsons is one of the founding fathers of medical sociology, and applied social role theory to interactional relations between sick people and others.

If sociology is the systematic study of human behavior in society, medical sociology is the systematic study of how humans manage issues of health and illness, disease and disorders, and health care for both the sick and the healthy.

One of the important tasks of medical sociology consists in explaining how the social environment affects human health. Theoretical models are instrumental in identifying those aspects within the complex social reality that accounts for increased or reduced health risks in populations.

The four main areas of research in medical sociology are the social construction of health/illness, the social production of health/illness, the study of healthcare systems and facilities, and the postmodern perspective of health and illness.

In the first three decades of the twentieth century medical sociology was identified first with the field of social work and later with the field of public health. Not until the 1930s and the 1940s did the interrelations between society and the health sciences become of interest to sociologists.

IMPORTANCE OF STUDYING MEDICAL SOCIOLOGY IN NURSING 

in understnading  Public Health 

 sociology can help to understand the definitions, prevalence, causes, and associated perspectives of diseases and illnesses. Moreover, it also helps to understand the treatment-related issues in different societies. The concepts are further described in the social construction of health.

2.Medical sociology can also be defined as "the scientific study of the social patterning of health. In such case, Medical Sociology is a study of how social factors influence health"

3. Some e.g. are class, race, gender, religion , ethnicity, kinship network, marriage, educational status, age, place , and cultural practices) influence human health.

1)     1. The main relevance of studying sociology in nursing is to understand human nature. By understand the patient's customs and personal ideals, nurses are able to understand the concerns of their patient. This also helps them carry out their duties as a nurse in a way that will both benefit them and the patient.