The past year has highlighted the ways in which sociological realities pattern health and well-being in the United States. With these patterns becoming more visible, it is more important than ever to examine these realities through the lens of medical sociology. The extent of the COVID-19 death toll is unquestionably shaped by sociological phenomena (e.g., distrust in science and authority, preexisting health and social inequities, cultural resistance to vaccination, fractured political will; Davis, Rambotti, and Hill 2021). COVID19, however, represents just one of several healthlinked societal schisms that have plagued the United States recently. These gravitational shifts occurred along several fault lines that have intensified recently, including a racial reckoning, an opioid crisis, a maternal mortality crisis, an upsurge in suicide rates, an amplification of economic inequality, and an advancement in hyper-political polarization. Furthermore, life expectancy—which mirrors the living conditions of society—dropped for the first time in over a century (before COVID-19), a trend driven primarily by the mortality of disadvantaged Americans. These examples point toward the macro-level social forces that define sociological inquiry and underscore the pivotal role medical sociologists fill in making sense of the turmoil shaping the health of individuals and nations. Perhaps unsurprisingly, medical sociologists have been heavily invested in understanding these (and other) issues, which has generated an exceptional amount of highly relevant work of late. The knowledge, theories, and methods within our field have taken a giant leap forward on several fronts. For instance, we have perceived rapid advancements in our (a) understanding of how macro-, meso-, and individual-level characteristics conjointly shape population health; (b) methodological ability to test the intricate ways genetics and social contexts are linked to health; (c) understanding of how social environments get “under the skin” and produce enduring health disparities; (d) ability to measure structural forces (e.g., racism, sexism); (e) understanding of how intricately intertwined medicine and health are with broader trends in culture, science, and politics; and (f) knowledge of the health patterning of historically marginalized and ignored populations such as sexual minorities and transgendered people. In the context of these and many more recent and critical advancements in the field, we assess our current knowledge base and what it foretells for the future of medical sociology research.

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特刊简介

过去一年突出了社会学现实影响美国健康和福祉的方式。随着这些模式变得越来越明显，从医学社会学的角度审视这些现实比以往任何时候都更加重要。COVID-19 死亡人数的规模无疑是由社会学现象决定的（例如，对科学和权威的不信任、先前存在的健康和社会不平等、对疫苗接种的文化抵制、政治意愿破裂；Davis、Rambotti 和 Hill 2021）。然而，COVID19 只是最近困扰美国的几种与健康相关的社会分裂之一。这些引力变化发生在最近加剧的几条断层线上，包括种族清算、阿片类药物危机、孕产妇死亡危机、自杀率上升、经济不平等的扩大，以及极端政治两极分化的推进。此外，反映社会生活条件的预期寿命在一个多世纪以来（在 COVID-19 之前）首次下降，这一趋势主要是由处于不利地位的美国人的死亡率驱动的。这些例子指向了定义社会学探究的宏观层面的社会力量，并强调了医学社会学家在理解塑造个人和国家健康的动荡方面所扮演的关键角色。也许不足为奇的是，医学社会学家在理解这些（和其他）问题上投入了大量资金，这在最近产生了大量高度相关的工作。我们领域内的知识、理论和方法在几个方面都取得了巨大的飞跃。例如，我们在 (a) 对宏观、中观和个人层面特征如何共同塑造人口健康的理解方面取得了快速进展；(b) 检验遗传学和社会背景与健康的复杂联系方式的方法能力；(c) 了解社会环境如何“深入人心”并产生持久的健康差异；(d) 衡量结构性力量（例如种族主义、性别歧视）的能力；(e) 了解医学和健康与更广泛的文化、科学和政治趋势如何错综复杂地交织在一起；(f) 了解历史上被边缘化和被忽视的人群（例如性少数和变性人）的健康模式。在这些以及该领域许多最近和重要的进步的背景下，