Health History/Social Epidemiology Paper
SOC 3070: MEDICAL SOCIOLOGY
SPRING 2021
This project asks you to analyze how race, ethnicity, gender, and social class may have influenced a specific person’s health history. Your analysis should take a sociological perspective and employ concepts we’ve read about and discussed in class. You may additionally address aspects of identity other than race/ethnicity, gender, and SES in any section(s) of your paper.
Begin by choosing a person to profile—either yourself or someone else who is willing to talk with you (anonymously and confidentially). (Note: People aged 30 or older may have more to say about health and illness than younger folks.) To gather information about this person, ask them to respond to the set of questions about health experiences at the end of this assignment sheet—in other words, interview them or yourself.
• If you choose to write about yourself, you do not need to disclose anything you would prefer to keep private or otherwise do not wish to discuss.
• If you are interviewing another person:
o You must use a pseudonym when referring to that person in your paper.
o Bear in mind that you are likely to get more useful responses (i.e., more detailed and conversational) if you conduct the interview in person or by phone/Facetime/Zoom /etc. rather than having the person write responses by email or text.
o Take detailed notes and/or audio record the interview so that you can use LOTS OF DIRECT QUOTES AS EVIDENCE in your essay.
After you’ve gathered the necessary data, it’s time to develop your 4-5 page (1000- 1250 words) essay. Your essay should include ALL of the following elements, but they do not need to appear in this exact order. (In fact, intertwining the required elements may make for a more effective or eloquent paper.)
1. Briefly describe the person whose experiences you will analyze, including their age and social identities (i.e., race/ethnicity, gender, social class, etc.). If they experienced any major status changes over time, make note of that (this is much more likely for social class and sexual identity than other aspects of identity and more likely for older than younger people).
• Hint: Use the person’s education and occupation to assess their current SES and their parents’ education(s) and occupation(s) to assess their SES while growing up.
2. Explain what you would predict about this person’s health, given their gender, racial/ethnic background, and socioeconomic status (past and present). To make such a prediction, you may wish to refer to course materials and/or do some outside research. (The US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) offers some useful, high-quality resources, including the Health, United States report (2016): https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/hus/index.htm.) You don’t need to be terribly specific here, more along the lines of “I would expect an [age, race/ethnicity, SES, gender] person to be [general description of expected health status]” than “for a 43-year-old poor Anglo-American woman I would predict onset of thyroid disease by age 50 and death by heart attack at age 62.”
3. What does this person’s health look like in fact? Briefly summarize their responses to the question set. You may focus on the aspects of the interview—or of health and illness—that were most interesting or relevant to you/your interviewee. Note: Detail is great, but should be provided in the service of the analytic points you want to make (see #4, #5a, and 5b below), not just for
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detail’s sake.
4. Discuss how well the person’s actual health profile fits your predictions, given their race/ethnicity, gender, and social class. To what extent do their health and illness experiences resemble or diverge from the general patterns we’ve learned about in class readings and lectures? Especially in cases of divergence: Why do you think that is?
5a. Throughout your essay, relate the person’s health and illness experiences to ideas from class readings and lectures. You can use specific concepts (e.g., constrained choice, racial residential segregation, health-wealth gradient) to make sense of your/your interviewee’s experiences. You can also by reference specific findings reported in a chapter, article, documentary, etc. (e.g., likelihood of women getting disease X, proportion of college-educated with health insurance).
5b. Make sure you address intersectionality! Note: It is often easier to think about the effects of intersecting identities by considering what might happen if a person’s identity differed along one dimension at a time rather than every dimension at once. For example, you might start by comparing a Mexican-American working-class man to a Mexican-American middle-class man, rather than to a Filipino-American wealthy woman. Then repeat for gender, race/ethnicity, etc., until you’ve addressed all the identities you plan to address.
Format • Papers should be 4-5 pages (1000-1250 words) in length, not including references.
• Double-space and use a 12-point font and one-inch margins all around.
• Number your pages
• Don’t forget to proofread for grammar, spelling, and typos. Well-written and -presented papers will receive better grades than poorly-written, messy ones.
• Citations and references:
o Make sure to cite ALL of your sources in the text, using any major author-date citation style (e.g., ASA, APA, Chicago B) you prefer.
o Include a bibliography providing references for all your sources—including sources from class. (If you have no idea what I’m talking about, see the ASA Citation Guide posted in Brightspace under Assignments.)
o Note: You do NOT need to provide a formal citation or reference for direct quotes from your interview.
Due Date & Late Policy
• The paper is due on Thursday, April 22nd .
• Late papers will be penalized. Lateness begins at midnight, Friday, April 23rd. Every day your paper is late, your grade will be reduced by ten points.
Grading
• This paper is worth 20% of your total grade in the course.
• Grades in the:
o A range are reserved for exceptionally thoughtful and well-reasoned papers, not only demonstrating strong understanding of the concepts and/or course materials used, but also going above and beyond the call of the assignment—by bringing ideas together in novel ways or showing an unusually deep understanding of the topic. A-range papers
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must also be well written.
o B range reflect a generally good paper, featuring a thoughtful, well-reasoned analysis of the health history in question, supported by concrete examples. There may be some minor weaknesses (e.g., underdeveloped analysis). If you follow the directions like a recipe, you should get a grade in the B range.
o C range indicate substantial weaknesses in your arguments, misunderstandings of the readings, and/or that some major aspect of the assignment is missing or poorly/ incompletely fulfilled.
o D range represents a worse version of “C.”
THE QUESTIONS
BASIC PROCEDURE: Start with the demographic questions, then proceed with the substantive items. You may opt to tailor the topical questions to yourself/your interviewee (i.e., adding, subtracting, or rewording questions), but make sure you cover the basic categories of information outlined below. As you respond (or conduct your interview), try to get specific examples to support general statements (e.g., if a person says doctors treat her poorly because she’s a woman, ask her to tell you about a time that happened).
If you are interviewing someone, before you begin, make sure that you:
(a) Read through the interview guide carefully in advance. It is somewhat complex and there are some “skip” patterns that you’ll want to be prepared for.
(b) Tell your informant that all information they share with you will remain confidential and that your paper will refer to them only by pseudonym.
(c) Tell your informant that they may refuse to answer any question or stop the interview at any time.
Demographic Information [this part of the interview should go QUICKLY]
1. How old are you?
2. What is your gender?
3. What is the highest level of school you have completed? Do you expect to complete more? [If so, how much?]
4. What is your current (or expected) occupation?
a) How long have you worked at your current job?
b) If the person is (or expects to be) a health professional: What is your specialty within that occupation, if any? (e.g., physician > dermatologist)
5. Parents/guardians’ education & occupations.
a) What is the highest level of school your mother (or guardian) completed? What is/was her occupation for most of her adult life?
b) [repeat for father]
6. How would you describe your racial or ethnic background?
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7. What is your religious background?
a) Do you currently practice that (or another) religion?
8. How would you describe your sexual identity (or orientation)?
9. Are you currently married or living with a romantic partner?
a) How long have you been married to (cohabiting with) your partner?
10. Do you have any children? Do they live with you?
a) How many? What ages? What genders?
b) Do you live with any children not your own? If so: Number, ages, genders.
11. Where did you grow up? Where do you live now? (city/ state/ country)
12. How would your describe your current neighborhood in terms of:
a) Options for exercise, including outdoor exercise?
b) Access to, quality, and affordability of grocery stores and restaurants?
c) Availability and quality of public transportation?
13. Is your current neighborhood similar to or different from the one you grew up in? If different, please describe some key differences.
Health and Illness Experiences
• How would you describe your overall health? Excellent, good, fair, poor, awful?
• Have you had, or do you have, any major illnesses or chronic health conditions? [[If none, see next series of questions.]]
o [For each illness/condition the person mentions, ask:]
o When and how did find out you have [disease/condition]? (Probe: Who diagnosed you, when? Were you tested for that/other conditions? Any misdiagnoses along the way?)
o Have you had any surgeries or hospitalizations for the illness/condition?
o What kinds of treatment did you received/are you receiving? How did you decide on a treatment strategy? Have you followed the treatment exactly, or have you adjusted it a bit? (Why/why not?)
o How has [illness/condition] affected your life?
o How have your family/friends/romantic partners reacted to you having [illness/condition]?
o Do you think your experience of [illness/condition] would be/have been different if you were [other gender]? If so, in what ways? [[Repeat for racial/ethnic background and SES (and any other identities you want to include).]]
• [[Can SKIP if the person answered previous question in detail.]] Tell me about the most recent time you visited a health care professional.
o When was that? Why/How did you decide to go?
o What happened when you were there? (Probe: Did you see a nurse, physician, other health care practitioner? How long did you wait to see them? Did you fill out any paperwork? Have any tests done or measurements taken?)
o Were you diagnosed with anything? If so, what treatment was prescribed? Did you follow that treatment exactly, or adjust it a bit? (Why/why not?)
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o Did you have to pay for the visit?
Experiences with Health Care Providers
• When you were a child:
o Did you have a regular pediatrician? Or a specific clinic/doctor’s office you went to?
o Did you get routine check-ups? Or did you see doctors only when you were sick?
o How sick did you need to be to see a doctor?
• Do you currently have health insurance? Has your type of insurance or insurance status changed over time? [Get details.]
• Do you currently have a regular physician [or other health care practitioner]?
o If so, How long have you been under their care?
o What is their gender? Their racial/ethnic background (if you can tell)? (Could add age, sexual identity.)
o Was their gender a factor in your choosing them? Staying under their care? If so, explain how/why. [[Repeat for race/ethnicity, age.]]
• All other things being equal, would you prefer to see a health care practitioner of a particular gender? Race/ethnicity? (Could add age, sexual identity.) If so, can you tell me why that is?
• Do you think that any of your doctors [or other providers] have treated you in a particular way—good, bad, or just distinctive—because of your gender? Because of your race/ethnicity? Your income or education? [Could add other aspects of identity.] If yes, please describe a specific incident.
Future Health
• Do your responsibilities at home ever affect your ability to take care of your health? How so? (Probe about children, housework, care for family members.)
• Do your responsibilities at work ever affect your ability to take care of your health? How so? (Probe about hours, relationships with coworkers, income/benefits, transportation.)
• What do you know about the health care histories of your parents? Your siblings? How do you think your family’s medical history might affect your future health?
• Do you have any specific fears or concerns about your future health? If so, what are they? Why do you think you have these particular concerns?
o Do you see these concerns as related to your gender? Racial/ethnic background? (SES, sexual identity, age, religion?)
Conclusion
• Thank you for your time!
• Is there anything else that it would be helpful for me to know about your health experiences?
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