Module code: NUR7049-B
(1) Demonstrate a systematic understanding of the nature and scope of sociological perspectives of health and illness.
(2) Critically appraise how social structures including class, gender and ethnicity impact on patterns of illness
(3) Synthesise theoretical frameworks and research knowledge to explore health inequalities
Knowledge base: theories and concepts of sociology as applied to health and illness with a special focus on health inequalities. A consideration of structural and behavioural determinates of health and their interaction. How sociological understandings have been applied to public health.
Epidemiology data on health across the life course with a particular focus on infancy and childhood. Theories of the childhood origins of adult disease will be explored with reference to key area of health challenge, for example connections between obesity, diabetes and heart disease. The importance of environmental influences on health inequalities will be explored.
Various dimension of social difference will be examined and their influence on health and health inequalities explored, including deprivation, gender, ethnicity, migration history, age. In addition the social structures of different countries will be examined to consider differences caused by varieties of civil society and governmental actions, for example the impact of the gap between richest and poorest in any society as a predictor of population health. The role of national and local government and examples of innovative local practice will be examined. Specific examples of research undertaken in the Born in Bradford birth cohort study will be presented and links to practice change examined.
The global dimension of inequalities in health will be examined. Sociological and epidemiological research will be considered and the different values of specific methodologies will be critically reviewed