Patricia Drentea is an Associate Professor in Sociology at the University of Alabama-Birmingham. She received her Ph.D. in Sociology from The Ohio State University in 1999. Professor Drentea teaches courses on family & aging, family & health, gender inequality, social gerontology, work and occupations and research methods in the Medical Sociology Ph.D. program. She is also a researcher at the Veteran's Affairs (VA) hospital in Birmingham, AL examining end-of-life issues for U.S. Veterans, and the effects on their families, and is an assistant director of graduate education in Gerontology for the Center for Aging.Her research has been widely published in journals such as The Journal of… Health and Social Behavior, Journal of Family Issues, Journal of Aging and Health, Social Science & Medicine, Society and Mental Health, The Gerontologist, Gender & Society, Sociology of Health and Illness, and Ethnicity and Health. She has published on issues such as family, retirement, activities and health, race and caregiving, health-seeking on the Internet and debt and well-being. She recently published a piece on end-of-life issues for low-income terminally-ill cancer patients. S