Social Disparities in Health SOCY 7002 University of Colorado-Boulder, Fall 2009 Wednesdays 3:30-6:20 p.m. in Ketchum 33 Instructor: Professor Stefanie Mollborn Teaching Office: Ketchum Room 210 (2nd floor) Email: [email protected] Office Hours: Tu/Th 9:30-10:45 and by appointment This seminar is a graduate-level introduction to the interdisciplinary field of social disparities in health, with a particular focus on sociological contributions to the area. The course examines links between health outcomes and various types of social status, including but not limited to socioeconomic status, gender, race, and ethnicity. Explanations for the relationships between these factors and various health outcomes are discussed, as well as possible policy solutions. This class focuses on multiple levels of analysis, from the physician-patient interactions to health care systems as a whole. You will spend a substantial amount of time developing your own specific research interests in this field, culminating in a presentation of the relevant literature, an empirical research paper, and a conference-ready presentation of your research findings. Course Goals: 1. To learn about population-level social disparities in health outcomes. 2. To critically assess theoretical explanations for these disparities and possible policy solutions at multiple levels of analysis. 3. To gain in-depth knowledge and research experience in a specific topic area within the broader subject of social disparities in health. 4. To be supported through the process of researching and writing an empirical article suitable for eventual publication in a journal, reviewing others’ work and responding to reviews about your own, and preparing a conference presentation. Professor Sanyu Mojola will be teaching a companion seminar on the sociology of HIV/AIDS in the spring. Because her course has a more international and empirical focus, my course will tilt to the more theoretical side and focus more on the U.S. context. We will have graduate students from several different departments in this course. Course Materials: You do not need to buy any books for this course, but you will purchase three chapters of Institute of Medicine reports online for a small fee (see schedule for details). All other readings are available in PDF format on the course website at http://culearn.colorado.edu (right-click on a file and choose Open). You are responsible for completing all readings before the class for which they are assigned. This class will expose you to a variety of broad issues in social disparities in health. Not every reading represents my own perspective; rather, as a class we will critically evaluate the contributions and shortcomings of the readings. You do not need to focus on memorizing statistics or literature citations when you read; identify major points and think critically instead. For an overview of the empirical work that is going on in specific topics of this field, browsing recent issues of Journal of Health and Social Behavior is a good starting point.Sociology 7002: Social Disparities in Health 2 Course Format: This course requires attendance at each class session. The workload is designed to be spread out fairly consistently across the semester, rather than focused on a couple of high-pressure weeks. You must do the assigned readings on time and keep up with your assigned work. One part of each class period will be devoted to lecture and discussion based on readings about a broad topic within social disparities in health. Another portion will be devoted to student-led discussions about their particular topics of interest. In the third part of each class, you will split into working groups to work on your research projects. There will be some exceptions to this general structure, and we will sometimes have guest lecturers speaking on various areas of the health field. Course Requirements (totaling 100% of your course grade): Attendance, participation, preparation, and discussion leading = 20% Reviews of others’ research and presentation of research = 20% Research paper and submitted drafts = 60% Attendance, participation, preparation, and discussion leading You should attend each class. Prior to each class, finish the assigned readings and be prepared to contribute questions and critical assessments of the readings’ strengths and weaknesses during class. Think about how each reading relates to other readings and ideas from the course. You should be prepared to bring up ideas and findings from the readings you are doing for your research paper when they are relevant to the broader class discussion. Your participation in class discussions is essential, and the quality of comments is at least as important as quantity. Sometime between weeks 5 and 11, you will lead a 30-minute discussion of your research paper’s topic. The schedule will be set as soon as I get your project proposals and can arrange them by topic. A week in advance, you should electronically distribute an article related to your topic that has been chosen in consultation with me (either in person or over email is fine) as an optional reading for the rest of the class to read, skim, or file for future reference, depending on their level of interest. During class, you will talk informally (i.e., technology-free) about what you propose to study, how the article relates to your paper, your critical assessment of the strengths and weaknesses in the literature you are reading for the paper, and areas related to your topic that need further research. This experience will be good practice for your oral specialty comprehensive exam or your dissertation proposal defense. You will lead the class discussion of your topic. I do not expect you to become an expert on your topic, but rather to have intellectual curiosity and lead the class in exploring ideas related to it. I will take the first turn, using my research as a basis to demonstrate the format. Research paper and presentation The major course requirement is an approximately 15-page (for the main text, exclusive of the title page, abstract, references, and any tables, figures, or appendices) research paper that presents theoretical ideas and links them to your empirical findings. This paper can be qualitative or quantitative, but it must be related to some kind(s) of social inequalities in health. For example, you might use the National Longitudinal Study of