Key Concepts in Health Studies provides a much needed guide to the central concepts used across the subject, and offers the reader a comprehensive overview of the core topics, theories and debates. Drawing together the fundamentals within the disciplines of health, nursing, and social policy this book is an ideal text both for students studying health in a range of academic fields, and for health and social care practitioners.

Table of Contents

• Notes on the Text
• Notes on the Authors
• Introduction
• Part 1 Defining Health
• The biomedical model of health
• The social model of health
• The social and medical models of disability
• Alternative or complementary medicine
• Quality of life measures
• Functionality
• Part 2 The Human Life Course
• The life course
• Childbirth
• Childhood
• Family and individual well-being
• Social dependency in older age
• The third age
• The social organization of death and dying
• Part 3 Health Protection
• Social inequalities in health
• Social capital
• Risk society
• Public health
• Health promotion
• Work and health
• Global health
• Part 4 Health Beliefs and Health Behaviour
• Models of health behaviour
• Healthy lifestyle and consumption patterns
• Lay knowledge and illness attribution
• Personality and health
• Embodiment
• Stress and coping
• Motivational interviewing in health care
• Part 5 The Lived Experience of Health and Illness
• Stigma and labelling theory
• Medicalization
• Biographical disruption
• Professional–client communication
• Pain
• Illness narratives
• Adherence
• Part 6 Health Care Provision
• Health care systems
• Long-term health and social care needs
• Informal care
• The role of health professionals
• Health care governance
• Institutionalization
• Health care consumerism and patient choice