"The Handbook answers the need, expressed by social scientists and health practitioners, for an authoritative, interdisciplinary study which demonstrates the contribution and promise of social science disciplines in the crucial and rapidly changing field of health and medicine. The book will also be of interest to nurses and students in physical therapy, occupational therapy, epidemiology, primary care and public health. The Handbook signals the coming of age of the social sciences in the arenas of medicine and health studies."--BOOK JACKET.