MEDICAL SOCIOLOGYAND PUBLIC HEALTH: PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS FOR COLLABORATION IN THE NEW MILLENNIUM

Abstract

Medical sociology and public health share many of the same concerns in the study of social and cultural factors that affect the health of the population. Differences in theoretical approaches, methodological procedures, conceptualization and measurement, and research objectives, however, often serve to limit the potential for collaboration between the two disciplines. Sociologists possess many of the theoretical models and analytical techniques needed in public health for the study of the impact of socioeconomic status, poverty, inequality, differentials in power, and social and cultural differences on disease outcomes and health status. Although in the past, public health professionals were dependent primarily on the theoretical and analytical models offered by epidemiology and social psychology, current trendsin public health research have opened a wider variety of opportunities for sociologists to contribute to public health research. Public health has reached a crossroads that leads in two directions: a broad approach that addresses the sociocultural foundations of health and a more narrow approach focusing on more proximal risk factors such as individual lifestyles or health risk behaviors. This article presents a review of the factors that led to this crossroads in public health and offers suggestions as to how sociologists might take advantage of the opportunities afforded by the broader approach to public health that is gaining momentum among some public health practitioners. Medical sociologists are uniquely equipped to assist public health in recapturing its historical commitment to social justice in the maintenance of health for the entire population.