The study of social networks is increasingly central to health research for medical sociologists and scholars in other fields. Here, we review the innovations in theory, substance, data collection, and methodology that have propelled the study of social networks and health from a niche subfield to the center of larger sociological and scientific debates. In particular, we contextualize the broader

We present evidence from choice experiments on hypothetical triage decisions in a pandemic. Respondents have to decide who out of two patients gets ventilation. Patients are described in terms of attributes such as short-term survival chance, long-term life expectancy, and their current ventilation status. Attributes are derived from the ethical discourse among experts regarding triage guidelines during

The sexual identities of young women today are less binary and more fluid than ever before. Several theoretical perspectives imply that this fluidity could be accompanied by distress. To examine this, we analyzed four waves of data from Australian women born 1989 to 1995 (n = 11,527). We found no evidence of a universal association between sexual identity change and psychological distress. Instead

Postmortem diagnostic overshadowing—defined as inaccurately reporting a disability as the underlying cause of death—occurs for over half of adults with cerebral palsy. This practice obscures cause of death trends, reducing the effectiveness of efforts to reduce premature mortality among this marginalized health population. Using data from the National Vital Statistics System 2005 to 2017 U.S. Multiple

Pioneering scholarship links retrospective childhood conditions to mature adult health. We distinctively provide critical evidence with prospective state-of-the-art measures of parent income observed multiple times during childhood in the 1970s to 1990s. Using the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, we analyze six health outcomes (self-rated health, heart attack, stroke, life-threatening chronic conditions

We investigate time inequity as an explanatory mechanism for gendered physical activity disparity. Our mixed-effect generalized linear model with two-stage residual inclusion framework uses longitudinal data, capturing differing exchanges and trade-offs in time resources. The first stage estimates within-household exchanges of paid and family work hours. Estimates show that men’s employment increases

Medical sociology gives limited attention to age—a surprising observation given the aging of the population and the fact that age is among the strongest determinants of health. We examine this issue through an analysis of articles published in Journal of Health and Social Behavior (JHSB) and Sociology of Health & Illness (SHI) between 2000 and 2019. One in 10 articles focused on age or aging, with

One of the most promising directions for reducing mental illness stigma lies in Allport’s contact theory, which suggests that intergroup interactions reduce stigma. Here, we argue that stigmatizing attitudes are driven by the nature, magnitude, and valence of community-based ties to people with mental illness (PMI), not simply their presence. Using the 2018 General Social Survey (N = 1,113), we compare

Our study bridges literatures on the health effects of job loss and life course employment trajectories to evaluate the selection into employment pathways and their associations with health in the short and medium terms. We apply sequence analysis to monthly employment calendars from a population-based sample of working-age women and men observed from 2009 to 2013 (N = 737). We identify six distinct

Previous research has indicated that racial-ethnic minority communities lack a wide variety of health-related organizations. We examine how this relates to the early COVID-19 vaccine rollout. In a series of spatial error and linear growth models, we analyze how racial-ethnic residential segregation is associated with the distribution of vaccine sites and vaccine doses across ZIP codes in the five largest

Research suggests that economic declines contribute to mortality risks from suicide and drug poisoning, but how the economy impacts individuals’ risks of these deaths has been challenging to specify. Building on recent theoretical advances, we investigate how adolescent occupational expectations and preparation contribute to suicide and drug poisoning deaths in a shifting economy. We use High School

Prior research documents associations between personal network characteristics and health, but establishing causation has been a long-standing research priority. To evaluate approaches to causal inference in egocentric network data, this article uses three waves from the University of California Berkeley Social Networks Study (N = 1,159) to investigate connections between nine network variables and

Affective polarization—the tendency for individuals to exhibit animosity toward those on the opposite side of the partisan divide—has increased in the United States in recent years. This article presents evidence that this trend may have consequences for Americans’ health. Structural equation model analyses of nationally representative survey data from Pew Research Center’s American Trends Panel (n

The idea that socioeconomic differences are a “fundamental cause” of health and well-being is the basis for large volumes of research. However, one of the challenges in this area is that of linking socioeconomic positions to etiological mechanisms in theoretically informative ways. The situation is doubly challenging because the expression and meaning of socioeconomic positions and the mechanisms they

Pandemic frontline occupations consist of disproportionately low socioeconomic status and racial minority workers. Documenting occupational health disparities is therefore crucial for understanding COVID-19-related health inequalities in the United States. This study uses Current Population Survey microdata to estimate occupational differences in sickness-related absences (SAs) from work in March through

Suicide is steadily rising. Many blamed worsening economic conditions for this trend. Sociological theory established clear pathways between joblessness and suicide focused on status threat, shame, and consequent disruption of social relationships. However, recent empirical research provides little support for a link between unemployment and suicide. I attempt to reconcile this contradiction by focusing

This study analyzes the longitudinal association between precarious employment and physical and mental health in a dualized labor market by disaggregating between-employee and within-employee effects and considering mobility in precariousness of employment. Analyses were based on the German Socio-Economic Panel from 2002 to 2018 considering all employees ages 18 to 67 years (n = 38,551). Precariousness

Policy mechanisms shaping population health take numerous forms, from behavioral prohibitions to mandates for action to surveillance. Rising drug overdoses undermined the state’s ability to promote population-level health. Using the case of prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs), we contend that PDMP implementation highlights state biopower operating via mechanisms of surveillance, whereby prescribers

Although empirical work has shown that personal and spousal education are both related to health, the nature of these associations has been harder to establish. People select into marriages on the basis of observed and hard-to-observe characteristics, complicating the job of the researcher who wishes to make causal inferences. In this article, we implement a within-sibling-pair design that exploits

Quantitative studies of racial health disparities often use static measures of self-reported race and conventional regression estimators, which critics argue is inconsistent with social-constructivist theories of race, racialization, and racism. We demonstrate an alternative counterfactual approach to explain how multiple racialized systems dynamically shape health over time, examining racial inequities

Although physical pain lies at the intersection of biology and social conditions, a sociology of pain is still in its infancy. We seek to show how physical and psychological pain are jointly parts of a common expression of despair, particularly in relation to mortality. Using the 2002–2014 National Health Interview Survey Linked Mortality Files (N = 228,098), we explore sociodemographic differences

Traditional theories of grief suggest that individuals experience short-term increases in depressive symptoms following the death of a parent. However, growing evidence indicates that effects of parental bereavement may persist. Situating the short- and long-term effects of parental death within the life course perspective, we assess the combined influence of time since loss and life course stage at

Link and Phelan’s pioneering 1995 theory of fundamental causes urged health scholars to consider the macro-level contexts that “put people at risk of risks.” Allied research on the political economy of health has since aptly demonstrated how institutions contextualize risk factors for health. Yet scant research has fully capitalized on either fundamental cause or political economy of health’s allusion

The editor wishes to acknowledge the following people who reviewed one or more manuscripts for the Journal of Health and Social Behavior during the period October 2, 2020, to October 1, 2021. Peer review of manuscripts is an often underappreciated contribution yet is essential to the discipline and quality of scholarship published in this journal. We value the importance of peer review and express

Mass incarceration is a public health challenge, particularly among marginalized groups. Not only do prisons and jails serve as vectors for the transmission of infectious diseases, but the carceral experience also heightens risk for stress-related illnesses and premature mortality. Several important challenges confront this research. First, few studies account for selection effects resulting from preexisting

Depressive symptoms are disproportionately high among women and less educated individuals. One mechanism proposed to explain this is the differential vulnerability hypothesis—that these groups experience particularly strong increases in symptoms in response to stressful life events. We identify limitations to prior work and present evidence from a new approach to life stress research using the UK Household

Combining theories of health lifestyles—interrelated health behaviors arising from group-based identities—with those of network and behavior change, we investigated network characteristics of health lifestyles and the role of influence and selection processes underlying these characteristics. We examined these questions in two high schools using longitudinal, complete friendship network data from the

Simons, Ronald L., Man-Kit Lei, Eric Klopach, Mark Berg, Yue Zhang, and Steven S. R. Beach. 2021. “(Re)Setting Epigenetic Clocks: An Important Avenue Whereby Social Conditions Become Biologically Embedded across the Life Course.” Journal of Health and Social Behavior 62(3):436–53. doi:10.1177/00221465211009309.

Although prior research documents adverse health consequences of precarious work, we know less about how chronic exposure to precarious work in midlife shapes health trajectories among aging adults. The present study uses longitudinal data from the Health and Retirement Study to consider how histories of precarious work in later midlife (ages 50–65) shape trajectories of health and mortality risk after

This article reveals how law and legal interests transform medicine. Drawing on qualitative interviews with medical professionals, this study shows how providers mobilize law and engage in investigatory work as they deliver care. Using the case of drug testing pregnant patients, I examine three mechanisms by which medico-legal hybridity occurs in clinical settings. The first mechanism, clinicalization

In this investigation, we examined the associations between state-level structural sexism—a multidimensional index of gender inequities across economic, political, and cultural domains of the gender system—and health care access and quality among women and men in the United States. We linked administrative data gauging state-level gender gaps in pay, employment, poverty, political representation, and

Research suggests that incarceration exposure increases the prevalence of morbidity and premature mortality. This work is only beginning to examine whether the stressors of the incarceration experience become biologically embedded in ways that affect physiological deterioration. Using data from a longitudinal sample of 410 African American adults in the Family and Community Health Study and an epigenetic

Research on mental health pays increasing attention to the influence of social institutions on subjective well-being over the life course. Yet little research has considered how belief in the promise of legal institutions may have beneficial effects for well-being. Through structural equation models of longitudinal data, our findings suggest that belief in the neutrality and fairness of legal institutions

Using the life course perspective, we assess the “resources” and “risks” to mental health associated with transitions in religious attendance between early life and midlife and how this process may be influenced by education. Drawing on over 35 years of prospective panel data from the National Longitudinal Study of Youth, baseline models suggest that stable, frequent attendance accumulated between

Most Vietnamese young adults who experienced the American War were exposed to war-related violence, which can exert a lifelong impact. We analyze survey data collected among northern and central Vietnamese older adults in the 2018 Vietnam Health and Aging Study (N = 2,447) to examine the association between various war traumas, psychological distress, and suicidal ideation. Informed by life course

Recent shifts in the abortion provision landscape have generated increased concern about how people find abortion care as regulations make abortion less accessible and clinics close. Few studies examine the reasons that people select particular facilities in such constrained contexts. Drawing from interviews with 41 Ohio residents, we find that people’s clinic selections are influenced by the risks

Racial-ethnic disparities in adolescent sexual risk behavior are associated with health disparities during adulthood and are therefore important to understand. Some scholars argue that neighborhood disadvantage induces disparities, yet prior research is mixed. We extend neighborhood-effects research by addressing long-term exposure to neighborhood disadvantage and estimation bias resulting from inclusion

Using random coefficient growth curve analysis, this study utilizes 12 waves of data from the Health and Retirement Study (1994–2016; person-waves = 145,177) to examine the association between multiple chronic conditions (MCC) and depressive symptoms among older adults. Applying cumulative disadvantage and intersectionality theories, we also test whether the association between MCC and depressive symptoms

The authors have retracted the article titled “In Sickness and in Health? Physical Illness as a Risk Factor for Marital Dissolution in Later Life,” published in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior (2015, 56(1):59-73). There was a major error in the coding in their dependent variable of marital status. The conclusions of that paper should be considered invalid. A corrected version of the paper

A central paradox in the mental health literature is the tendency for black Americans to report similar or better mental health than white Americans despite experiencing greater stress exposure. However, black Americans’ higher levels of certain coping resources may explain this finding. Using data from the Nashville Stress and Health Study (n = 1,186), we examine whether black Americans have higher

Reczek, Corinne, Tetyana Pudrovska, Deborah Carr, Mieke Beth Thomeer, and Debra Umberson. “Marital Histories and Heavy Alcohol Use among Older Adults.” Journal of Health and Social Behavior 57(1):77-96. doi:10.1177/0022146515628028

At the center of the COVID-19 pandemic lies a ubiquitous feature of medicine. Medicine is permeated with ignorance. Seizing this moment to assess the current state of medical sociology, this article articulates a sociology of medical ignorance. We join insights from earlier medical sociological scholarship on uncertainty with emerging research in the sociology of ignorance to help make sense of the

Research on biological embedding of the social environment has been expedited by increased availability of biomarkers. Recently, this arsenal of measures has been expanded to include epigenetic clocks that indicate in years the extent to which an individual is older or younger than their chronological age. These measures of biological aging, especially GrimAge, are robust predictors of both illness

In his account of the medical profession’s ascent, Paul Starr drew a distinction between the social authority of physicians and the cultural authority of medicine—between doctors’ capacity to direct others’ behavior and the ability of medical institutions and discourses to shape meanings of illness, health, wellness, and treatment. Subsequently, scholars have reflected on the social-structural transformations

Recent trends in U.S. health have been mixed, with improvements among some groups and geographic areas alongside declines among others. Medical sociologists have contributed to the understanding of those disparate trends, although important questions remain. In this article, we review trends since the 1980s in key indicators of U.S. health and weigh evidence from the last decade on their causes. To

Research on the social dimensions of health and health care among sexual and gender minorities (SGMs) has grown rapidly in the last two decades. However, a comprehensive review of the extant interdisciplinary scholarship on SGM health has yet to be written. In response, we offer a synthesis of recent scholarship. We discuss major empirical findings and theoretical implications of health care utilization

From 1940 to 1980, studies of medical education were foundational to sociology, but attention shifted away from medical training in the late 1980s. Recently, there has been a marked return to this once pivotal topic, reflecting new questions and stakes. This article traces this resurgence by reviewing recent substantive research trends and setting the agenda for future research. We summarize four current

The concept of health lifestyles is moving scholarship beyond individual health behaviors to integrated bundles of behaviors undergirded by group-based identities and norms. Health lifestyles research merges structure with agency, individual-level processes with group-level processes, and multifaceted behaviors with norms and identities, shedding light on why health behaviors persist or change and

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

We identify a gap in health inequalities research that sociologists are particularly well situated to fill—an underrepresentation of research on the role advantaged groups play in creating inequalities. We name the process that creates the imbalance health-inequality diversions. We gathered evidence from awarded grants (349), major health-related data sets (7), research articles (324), and Healthy

The 2010 special issue of Journal of Health and Social Behavior, titled “Fifty Years of Medical Sociology,” defined the contours of the medical sociological perspective. We use this as a backdrop to outline and assess the continued integration of genetics into medical sociology research. We contend that the explosion of genetic and epigenetic data in population health data sources has made the medical

This article advances the field by integrating insights from intersectionality perspectives with the emerging literatures on structural racism and structural sexism—which point to promising new ways to measure systems of inequality at a macro level—to introduce a structural intersectionality approach to population health. We demonstrate an application of structural intersectionality using administrative

The research tradition on social relationships, social networks, and health dates back to the beginning of sociology. As exemplified in the classic work of Durkheim, Simmel, and Tönnies, social relationships and social networks play a double-edged—protective and detrimental—role for health. However, this double-edged role has been given unbalanced attention. In comparison to the salubrious role, the

Chronic pain is a common, costly, and consequential health problem. However, despite some important analytic contributions, sociological research on pain has not yet coalesced into a unified subfield. We present three interrelated bodies of evidence and illustrative new empirical findings using 2010 to 2018 National Health Interview Survey data to argue that pain should have a central role in sociological

Adults with disability have significantly lower rates of labor force participation relative to persons without disability, although it is unclear whether this disparity extends to subjective workplace experiences. Using data from the 2004 to 2006 wave of the National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States (n =2,030), we evaluate: (1) whether U.S. workers with physical disability report

We detail the implications of sociogenomics for social determinants research. We focus on education and race because of how early twentieth-century scientific eugenic thinking facilitated a range of racist and eugenic policies, most of which helped justify and pattern racial and educational morbidity and mortality disparities that remain today, and are central to sociological research. Consequently

Medical sociologists and sociologists of disability study similar topics but, because of competing or conflicting theoretical paradigms, tend to arrive at different conclusions, engage with different audiences, and pursue different directions for social change. Despite diverging trajectories over the past 20 years, however, there remains clear potential overlap between both subfields in the study of

Research shows that John Henryism, a high-effort, active coping style, is associated with poor physical health, whereas others suggest it may be psychologically beneficial. As such, it is unclear whether John Henryism represents a health risk or resource for black Americans and whether its impact varies across sociodemographic and gender groups. The present study used data from a representative community

Abortion work has changed in the decades since Roe v. Wade, and concerns over efficiency and cost reduction have resulted in increased specialization and compartmentalization of duties among health workers. This study examines the current state of surgical abortion at a clinic in southern California. Drawing on 18 months of ethnographic fieldwork at an abortion clinic, I use theories of dirty work