The lifecourse perspective on adult health and on health inequalities in particular, is one of the most important recent developments in epidemiology and public health. This book brings together, in a single volume, the work of one of the most distinguished academics in the field. It is the first to specifically take a lifecourse approach to health inequalities and will be essential reading for academics, students and policy makers with an interest in public health, epidemiology, health promotion and social policy.
Section I Patterns of health inequality Working conditions in the mines: capital and labour. The Wellcome Library, London. Reproduced with permission.
Section VI Ethnicity and health inequalities Humber, from ‘The shipping forecast’. Photograph by Mark Power. Reproduced with permission of Mark Power.
This book offers a unique multi-disciplinary perspective on tackling health inequalities in a rich country, examining the New Labour policy agenda for tackling health inequalities and its inherent challenges.
The book presents an overview of progress since the publication of the seminal and ambitious 1998 Acheson Inquiry into health inequalities, and the theoretical and methodological issues underpinning health inequalities. The contributors consider the determinants of inequality - for example, early childhood experience and ethnicity - the factors that mediate the relationship between determinants and health - nutrition, housing and health behaviour - and the sectoral policy interventions in user involvement, local area partnership working and social work.
Challenging health inequalities offers a combination of broad analysis of progress from differing perspectives and will be key reading to academics, students and policy makers.
Section VIII Health inequalities – past and present Providence Place, London, c.1900.
Introduction In this chapter we will focus on the relationship between health, health inequalities and society. Michael Marmot’s work (for example, Marmot, 2010 , 2015 ; Marmot et al, 2020a ) makes an excellent case for viewing health inequalities as the most significant health problem in societies while arguing that we need to better understand the societies and environments people live in, in order to understand the distribution of health outcomes. The complex relationships between the social contract, the political economy and the types and
Foreword by Lisa Berkman, Professor of Public Policy, Harvard University
How welfare states influence population health and health inequalities has long been debated but less well tested by empirical research. This book presents new empirical evidence of the effects of Swedish welfare state structures and policies on the lives of Swedish citizens.
The discussion, analysis and innovative theoretical approaches developed in the book have implications for health research and policy beyond Scandinavian borders. Drawing on a rich source of longitudinal data, the Swedish Level of Living Surveys (LNU), and other data, the authors shed light on a number of pertinent issues in health inequality research while at the same time showing how health inequalities have evolved in Sweden over several decades. Topics covered include how structural conditions relating to family, socio-economic conditions and the welfare state are important in producing health inequalities; how health inequalities change over the lifecourse and the impact of environment on health inequalities - at home, at school, in the workplace.
Health inequalities and welfare resources will be invaluable to researchers, students and practitioners in sociology, social epidemiology, public health and social policy interested in the interplay between society and health.
xii Health inequalities Introduction: lifecourse approaches to health inequalities Discussions of health inequalities often begin with the statement that such inequalities are ubiquitous: the less affluent have always had worse health, they have worse health wherever they live, and they suffer more from all forms of ill-health. I entered the field thinking along these lines, but, as with most generalisations, a more than superficial acquaintance with empirical studies revealed that there were important exceptions; indeed it seemed to me that we could perhaps
1 Health, inequalities, welfare and resources ONE Health, inequalities, welfare and resources Johan Fritzell and Olle Lundberg Introduction Health and inequalities are of great interest to most people. When asked to rank what is important in life the vast majority put health at the top of their list (Holmberg and Weibull, 2001). Health is also an everyday concern for most of us, and this is reflected in simple things like the reference to health in common greeting phrases (‘How are you?’) and when suggesting a toast (‘Santé’). Inequalities, as in an unjust
75 Ten Health inequalities and user involvement Jonathan Tritter and Helen Lester Introduction Patient and public involvement has been suggested as a mechanism to engage individuals more fully in their own healthcare and to reorient service provision around the needs of users rather than providers (Tritter and Macallum, 2006). Yet, patterns of health inequality are also reflected in those who tend to be involved and those who are members of ‘hard to reach’ groups. The Acheson Report (Acheson, 1998) includes no explicit mention of involvement but has had a
