There is increasing recognition (including within the field of medicine) that health and illness are a function of social factors (e.g., inequality). For example, the MCAT now includes questions about health inequalities. Students who specialize in this area will be expected to understand this idea and the research that demonstrates that social inequalities matter for health. They will also be expected to be familiar with other socially oriented approaches to understanding health outcomes like depression, morbidity, and mortality. This often involves understanding not just a range of theories concerning why different individuals have different health outcomes, but also a range of methods (both clinical and otherwise) for understanding health outcomes.
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Professor, Rebecca Q. and James C. Morgan Dean, Cornell Human Ecology

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