Library

Sociology of Health and Illness
A guide to Library resources & research

This guide provides information on:

General resources
Reference

Some online dictionaries & encyclopedias from both Sociology and Medicine to help provide some background to medical terminology and illnesses

Journals

Journals are a good resource for scholarly information on your topic - below is a selection of online journals that may be useful. A keyword search for sociology health periodicals or social medicine periodicals or Public Health periodicals will find more titles

Finding books

To find information that looks at an aspect of health or illness from a sociological perspective try terms such as:-

Psychosocial/ Social aspects/ Psychological aspects/ Sociological aspects/ or social conditions/ combined with the issue.

Eg cancer social aspects
mental illness social aspects
mental health sociological aspects
aboriginal health social conditions

NOTE Don't forget to use alternative terms for your illness in the keyword search eg

(Alzheimers or dementia) epidemiology

(anorexia or eating disorders) social aspects

 

Finding journal articles - searching databases
  • Journal titles are listed in the catalogue NOT journal articles
  • Journal articles are indexed in databases/indexes.

Search simultaneously across the 4 key databases in each discipline. OR search the databases individually.

Databases for Sociology of Health and Illness

The following databases would be the most useful.

Health databases

Medline – Most internationally recognised source for coverage of medical literature. Search from 1996 to present or 1966 to present

Cinahl - Cumulative index of nursing and allied health .

APAIS Health covers health and medicine in Australia and in particular the legal, social, economic and ethical aspects of health.

Meditext - Australian journal articles covering all aspects of health and medicine. Full text

Proquest health & medicine complete

Informit - Select Databases by subject and Health to find specific databases for AIDS and Indigenous Health . \

LibXplore quick sets - select Health Sciences and Pharmacy

Sociology databases

Sociological Abstracts indexes the international literature in sociology.

APAFT - indexes articles on Australian political, economic, legal, social and cultural affairs– articles have a more policy and public health focus. Full text

Web of Science –includes the Social Sciences Citation index - good for the sociological perspective

Expanded Academic – A good general undergraduate database that covers the social sciences and well as psychology and the health sciences. Full text

Libxplore quick sets - select Sociology & Anthropology

Locating the articles/books

NOTE If the database does not have a link to the full text of the article:-

•  Search for the title of the journal in our catalogue

•  Check all journal records if there are more than one – each entry provides different access eg The American Journal of Public Health

•  Check that we have the volume or year that is in the citation

•  Follow the links to the electronic version OR

•  Find the printed copies on the shelves.

No holdings check if it is available locally at another Victorian library

Referencing