Course Syllabus

FINAL - SOCIAL SCIENCE OF HEALTH EQUITY - FALL 2017.docx

Course Description:   This seminar will be conducted as a graduate-level course, introducing an interdisciplinary approach to health equity law and policy in the United States.  This class will explore health and health care inequities that can occur across multiple dimensions, including, race and ethnicity, socioeconomic status, gender, disability, geographic location, sexual orientation, age, and disability. Focus in this seminar will be placed on social science literature related to the social determinants of health, and its application to law and policy aimed at eliminating avoidable health and health care inequity.  

 The readings will consider qualitative and quantitative evidence to explain the association between social factors, and health outcomes. You do not need a social science, statistics, or math background for this course because I will explain all the basic concepts you need as we go along.  However, if you have absolutely no idea what a regression or p-value is, you may find it helpful to look at one of the brief introductions to understanding sociological research literature found easily online before tackling our readings.  We will explore social scientists’ contributions to empirical and policy debates on difficult issues such as why “zip code matters more than genetic code” to determine one’s health status in the United States.

 The core competencies you will develop in this seminar include an understanding of population-level health and health care disparities, and the contribution to those disparities made by the social determinants of health.  You will have a basic understanding of the major theoretical explanations for those disparities. And you will have an introduction to the currently debated policy levers available to achieve health equity.

See, e.g. ,Caroline Hodges Persell and Jennifer Gerdes,  “An Introduction to Sociology,” (American Sociological Association) available at www.asanet.org/sites/default/files/savvy/introtosociology/teacherResources/MForUnitII.html  see also,  Margarete Sandelowski and Julie Barraso, (2002). “Reading Qualitative Studies,” International Journal of Qualitative Methods 1(1):74-108

Course Summary:

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