Prior to training and working in public health medicine, I spent 10 years doing research as a medical sociologist. Academic public health is multidisciplinary and medical sociology is a major strand. The thing that makes me chuckle is that when I was a bone fide sociologist working in a sociology department, the question we were asked a lot was "isn't sociology just common sense?" Then I enter public health waters and have public health registrars quaking at the sight of the jargon. Too many theories they say and who on earth is Foucault?

The medical sociology section on the part A exams seems to be the part most registrars dread. It's almost routine for me now to do the circuit every 6 months and help alleviate fears. Sociology is not that difficult. It's not quite common sense but it doesn't mean hours of learning about the Formalism School.

Sociology is about viewing patterns in populations. It's a sibling of anthropology except that sociologies study their own societies. Many talk about the three levels of society - micro, meso and macro. Micro level is all about the individual. How they relate to others, socialise, what culture influences them, their social behaviours and how they make decisions. Meso is about social networks and relationships, about communities, cultures, ethnic groups and how well connected socail groups are to power and influence. Macro involves the higher level, the insitutions. This includes social class, politics, religion, education, social structure, organisations, industries and societal attitudes.

To think sociologically involves being objective and scientific. For example, I once taught Sociology of Religion. Somtimes, students would be defensive and say that they were scientists and couldn't accept irrational thoughts. Others burst into tears at the term secularisation of western societies. They were getting personal. I asked them to visualise themselves as an observer sent from Mars who was asked to report back on this situation called religion was organised and practice on the plant called Earth. Sounds a bit ridiculous but it worked.

If you want to approach a public health topic in a sociological manner, ask yourself why does a woman who wants to breastfeed doesn't? What cultural and societial influences are stopping her? A man wants to lose weight and despite having the knowledge he can't. Again what is it that is stopping him? Is it long working hours seated in front of a computer screen? A culture of having lunch at the desk or on the go? No workplace encouragement to exercise? Reliance on a car, long working days and habit of collapsing on the couch to watch sport in the evenings? No safe green spaces nearby? All of these questions are sociological questions. So medical sociology (or sociology of health and illness) is the study of all those aspects of contemporary social life which impact upon health and well-being throughout the life course

If you work in public health, you should proably know a bit about the different social theories and the domains of medical sociology such as: the social construction of medical knowledge and disease, lay health beliefs, lifestyles and risk taking, lay-professional interactions, experience of chronic illness and disabilities, sociology of the body, social inequalities and health status , social aspects of disease (including sociological epidemiology) and the organisation of health services.

Crash Course in Medical Sociology

These talks are aimed at those who are studying medical sociology as part of their MPH or for the MFPH Part A exams. They are a very quick 'n dirty overview of the topics on the MFPH Part A syllabus.

Introduction to Medical Sociology

Lay Perceptions and Illness Behaviours

Health and Social Inequalities

Social Construction of Medicine

Social Capital

Further Reading

Scambler, G. (Ed.) Sociology as Applied to Medicine. W.B. Saunders, various editions available.

Nettleton, S. The Sociology of Health and Illness. 2nd Edition. Polity Press, 2006.

Turner, B. Medical Power and Social Knowledge. 2nd Edition. Sage Press, 1995.

Shaw,I & Kauppinen, K. (Ed.) Constructions of Health and Illness. Ashgate, 2004.

Cockerham, W. (Ed.) The Blackwell Companion to Medical Sociology. Blackwells, 2001.

Shilling, C. The Body and Social Theory. Sage, 1993.

Blaxter, M. Health: Key Concepts. Polity, 2004.

Scambler, G. (Ed.) Habermas, Critical Theory and Health. Routledge, 2001.

Shaw, M, Dorling, D & Mitchell, R. Health, Place and Society. Prentice Hall, 2002.