Richard K. Thomas

For the first time, a guide to the sociology of health and healthcare that addresses the needs of both sociologists and health professionals. Written by a career health professional with a medical sociology background, Thomas applies sociological concepts to current healthcare issues, incorporates the latest findings from health services research, and provides clear examples of the uses of sociology in understanding the U.S. healthcare system. Each chapter contains illustrative boxed material, exhibits highlighting key information, suggested readings, and useful websites for more information. With over 30 years of experience, the author provides valuable insights into the social aspects of health behavior and reveals an in-depth understanding of the social dimensions of the health delivery system. The book is a textbook for students of sociology and health, as well as a reference book for instructors and practitioners in the healthcare and sociology fields.

"Health demography" has come to play an increasingly important role within the larger field during the past twenty years; the number of health professionals who utilize its methods and materials has grown exponentially. In a thoroughgoing revision of the first edition of this classic text and reference, published by Plenum in 1992, the authors convey the general principles that underlie this applied subdiscipline and demonstrate how the merging of demography and health care impacts on the planning processes of a range of health care organizations.

Demography as a discipline is now at the point where its relevance to business decision making is indisputable—and top business management knows this. People who lack an understanding of state-of-the-art demographic techniques, and who cannot adapt to new ways of thinking prompted by demography and demographers, will find themselves significantly disadvantaged in today's competitive business environment. Pol and Thomas thus provide practitioners and students alike with a concise but intensive introduction to the concepts and methods of business demography. They chronicle current demographic trends and explain their meaning for business. With numerous examples drawn from business and industry, they make clear that business demography is truly a decision-making science.Pol and Thomas introduce basic concepts, then present an overview of recent and future demographic trends. They elaborate on the application of current demographic methods to planning and marketing in the contemporary business environment, and illustrate their points with numerous charts, maps, and sidebars. Pol and Thomas provide many examples of real world situations in which demographic methods, data, perspective, and theory are actively applied. With sections on sources of health care data, the calculation of demographic rates, the demographic resources available and up-to-date statistics on current demographic trends, their book becomes not only a unique resource for professionals, but also a useful text and reference for their colleagues in the academic community.