Some groups of people are healthier than others. Overwhelmingly, for almost all kinds of morbidity and mortality, groups at the bottom of the social scale are less healthy than those at the top. But this simple observation describes a complex phenomenon that has become a major focus of research, teaching, intervention, and public policy and has led to recognition of the stark power of social determinants of population health. Why are poorer, less educated, lower-class groups less healthy than others? Historically, and indeed today, this has been a question that has polarized researchers, policy-makers, politicians, and casual onlookers. The debate is intensely contentious because if health inequalities are largely a consequence of people at the bottom of the social scale lacking resources and living in poor conditions, then, arguably, policies must be directed towards correcting those material deficits. But if inequalities in health are largely due to the social inequalities among people and their feelings about their position in relation to other people, then policies that encourage a more egalitarian society may be needed to close the health gap.
Edited by two leading scholars in the field, the four volumes in this new Routledge Major Work bring together key research from a wide range of disciplines, including epidemiology and public health, sociology, psychology, biology, and public policy, to provide a coherent and multidisciplinary synthesis of this vast and vibrant literature.
Volume I assembles the basic evidence of health inequalities in different countries and different time periods, and focuses on the extent to which health inequalities result from social selection versus social causation. Volume II covers the main schools of thought on the causes of health inequalities and the pathways linking low social status to poor health. The focus of the third volume is on the effectiveness of interventions that have been designed to reduce health inequalities. The theme of Volume IV is the social and political ecology of health and the biology and psychology of human sensitivity to the social environment.
Fully indexed and with a comprehensive introduction newly written by the editors, which places the collected material in its historical and intellectual context, Health and Inequality is an essential work of reference for both scholars and practitioners hoping to understand (and mitigate or remove) inequalities in health.
Volume I: Health Inequalities: The Evidence
Classic Research Establishing the Fact of Social Inequalities in Health
1. N. Krieger, ‘Epidemiology and Social Sciences: Towards a Critical Reengagement in the 21st Century’, Epidemiologic Reviews, 22, 2000, 155–63.
2. C. Hamlin, ‘Could You Starve to Death in England in 1839? The Chadwick-Farr Controversy and the Loss of the "Social" In Public Health’, American Journal of Public Health, 85, 1995, 856–66.
3. A. Alaszewski and J. Manthorpe, ‘Durkheim, Social Integration and Suicide Rates’, Nursing Times, 91, 1995, 34–5.
4. R. Taylor and A. Rieger, ‘Medicine as Social Science: Rudolf Virchow on the Typhus Epidemic in Upper Silesia’, International Journal of Health Services, 15, 1985, 547–59.
Health Inequalities by Area, Income, Education, Occupation, Gender, and Ethnicity
5. R. E. Faris and H. W. Dunham, ‘Chapter XI’, Mental Disorders in Urban Areas (University of Chicago Press, 1939), pp. 160–77.
6. A. Yankauer, ‘The Relationship of Fetal and Infant Mortality to Residential Segregation: An Inquiry into Social Epidemiology’, American Sociological Review, 15, 1950, 644–88.
7. E. M. Kitagawa and P. M. Hauser, ‘Education and Income Differentials’, Differential Mortality in the United States: A Study in Socioeconomic Epidemiology (Harvard University Press, 1973), pp. 11–23.
8. M. G. Marmot et al., ‘Employment Grade and Coronary Heart Disease in British Civil Servants’, Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 32, 1978, 244–9.
9. S. H. Preston, ‘The Changing Relation between Mortality and Level of Economic Development’, Population Studies, 29, 1975, 231–48.
10. A. Sen, ‘Public Action and the Quality of Life in Developing Countries’, Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, 43, 1981, 287–319.
11. P. Heuveline, M. Guillot, and D. R. Gwatkin, ‘The Uneven Tides of the Health Transition’, Social Science and Medicine, 55, 2002, 313–22.
12. R. G. Wilkinson, ‘The Epidemiological Transition: From Material Scarcity to Social Disadvantage?’, Daedalus, 123, 1994, 61–77.
13. A. M. Gray, ‘Inequalities in Health. The Black Report: A Summary and Comment’, International Journal of Health Services, 12, 1982, 349–78.
14. G. D. Smith, M. Bartley, and D. Blane, ‘The Black Report on Socioeconomic Inequalities in Health 10 Years On’, British Medical Journal, 301, 1990, 373–7.
15. G. Pappas et al., ‘The Increasing Disparity in Mortality between Socioeconomic Groups in the United States, 1960 and 1986’, New England Journal of Medicine, 329, 1993, 103–9.
16. J. Banks et al., ‘The SES Health Gradient on Both Sides of the Atlantic’ (NBER Working Paper 12674, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc., 2007).
17. S. Arber, ‘Comparing Inequalities in Women’s and Men’s Health: Britain in the 1990s’, Social Science and Medicine, 44, 1997, 773–87.
18. A. Sacker et al., ‘Comparing Health Inequality in Men and Women: Prospective Study of Mortality 1986–96’, British Medical Journal, 320, 2000, 1303–7.
19. D. R. Williams and C. Collins, ‘US Socioeconomic and Racial Differences in Health: Patterns and Explanations’, Annual Review of Sociology, 21, 1995, 359–86.
20. J. Y. Nazroo, ‘The Structuring of Ethnic Inequalities in Health: Economic Position, Racial Discrimination, and Racism’, American Journal of Public Health, 93, 2003, 277–84.
21. J. W. Frank, R. S. Moore, and G. M. Ames, ‘Historical and Cultural Roots of Drinking Problems Among American Indians’, American Journal of Public Health, 90, 2000, 344–51.
The Measurement of Health Inequalities
22. B. Galobardes, J. Lynch, and G. D. Smith, ‘Measuring Socioeconomic Position in Health Research’, British Medical Bulletin, 81–2, 2007, 21–37.
23. R. Carr-Hill, ‘The Measurement of Inequities in Health: Lessons from the British Experience’, Social Science and Medicine, 31, 1990, 393–404.
24. J. P. Mackenbach et al., ‘Socioeconomic Inequalities in Morbidity and Mortality in Western Europe: The EU Working Group on Socioeconomic Inequalities in Health’, The Lancet, 349, 1997, 1655–9.
25. D. Vagero and R. Erikson, ‘Socioeconomic Inequalities in Morbidity and Mortality in Western Europe’, The Lancet, 350, 1997, 516.
26. K. Moser, C. Frost, and D. A. Leon, ‘Comparing Health Inequalities Across Time and Place Rate Ratios and Rate Differences Lead to Different Conclusions: Analysis of Cross-Sectional Data from 22 Countries, 1991–2001’, International Journal of Epidemiology, 36, 2007, 1285–91.
selection versus causation
27. R. Illsley, ‘Social Class Selection and Class Differences in Relation to Stillbirths and Infant Deaths’, British Medical Journal, 2, 1955, 1520–4.
28. A. J. Fox, P. O. Goldblatt, and D. R. Jones, ‘Social Class Mortality Differentials: Artefact, Selection or Life Circumstances?’, Journal of Epidemiology Community Health, 39, 1985, 1–8.
29. P. West, ‘Rethinking the Health Selection Explanation for Health Inequalities’, Social Science and Medicine, 32, 1991, 373–84.
30. D. Blane, G. Davey Smith, and M. Bartley, ‘Social Selection: What Does it Contribute to Social Class Differences in Health?’, Sociology of Health & Illness, 15, 1993, 1–15.
Volume II: Health Inequalities: Causes and Pathways
31. N. E. Adler et al., ‘Socioeconomic Status and Health: The Challenge of the Gradient’, American Psychologist, 49, 1994, 15–24.
Behavioural Causes of Health Inequalities
32. E. Dowler, ‘Inequalities in Diet and Physical Activity in Europe’, Public Health Nutrition, 4, 2001, 701–9.
33. H. Graham, ‘Smoking Prevalence Among Women in the European Community 1950–1990’, Social Science and Medicine, 43, 1996, 243–54.
34. M. J. Jarvis and J. Wardle, ‘Social Patterning of Individual Health Behaviours: The Case of Cigarette Smoking’, in M. Marmot and R. G. Wilkinson (eds.), Social Determinants of Health, 2nd edn. (Oxford University Press, 2006), pp. 224–37.
35. L. S. Wakschlag et al., ‘Pregnant Smokers Who Quit, Pregnant Smokers Who Don’t: Does History of Problem Behavior Make a Difference?’, Social Science and Medicine, 56, 2003, 2449–60.
36. G. Rose and M. G. Marmot, ‘Social Class and Coronary Heart Disease’, British Heart Journal, 45, 1981, 13–19.
37. P. Makela, T. Valkonen, and T. Martelin, ‘Contribution of Deaths Related to Alcohol Use of Socioeconomic Variation in Mortality: Register Based Follow Up Study’, British Medical Journal, 315, 1997, 211–16.
38. P. M. Lantz et al., ‘Socioeconomic Disparities in Health Change in a Longitudinal Study of US Adults: The Role of Health-Risk Behaviors’, Social Science & Medicine, 53, 2001, 29–40.
Material Causes of Health Inequalities
39. D. Dorling et al., ‘The Ghost of Christmas Past: Health Effects of Poverty in London in 1896 and 1991’, British Medical Journal, 321, 2000, 1547–51.
40. K. E. Pickett and M. Pearl, ‘Multilevel Analyses of Neighbourhood Socioeconomic Context and Health Outcomes: A Critical Review’, Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 55, 2001, 111–22.
41. J. N. Morris et al., ‘A Minimum Income for Healthy Living’, Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 54, 2000, 885–9.
42. S. A. Bashir, ‘Home is Where the Harm is: Inadequate Housing as a Public Health Crisis’, American Journal of Public Health, 92, 2002, 733–8.
43. J. T. Hart, ‘The Inverse Care Law’, The Lancet, 1, 1971, 405–12.
44. S. Szreter, ‘Rethinking Mckeown: The Relationship between Public Health and Social Change’, American Journal of Public Health, 92, 2002, 722–5.
45. J. P. Mackenbach, M. H. Bouvier-Colle, and E. Jougla, ‘"Avoidable" Mortality and Health Services: A Review of Aggregate Data Studies’, Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 44, 1990, 106–11.
46. K. E. Lasser, D. U. Himmelstein, and S. Woolhandler, ‘Access to Care, Health Status, and Health Disparities in the United States and Canada: Results of a Cross-National Population-Based Survey’, American Journal of Public Health, 96, 2006, 1300–7.
47. A. Dixon and J. Le Grand, ‘Is Greater Patient Choice Consistent with Equity? The Case of the English NHS’, Journal of Health Services Research and Policy, 11, 2006, 162–6.
Social Determinants of Health in the Workplace and Unemployment
48. R. A. Karasek et al., ‘Job Characteristics in Relation to the Prevalence of Myocardial Infarction in the US Health Examination Survey (HES) and the Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (Hanes)’, American Journal of Public Health, 78, 1988, 910–18.
49. J. Siegrist, D. Klein, and K. H. Voigt, ‘Linking Sociological with Physiological Data: The Model of Effort-Reward Imbalance at Work’, Acta Physiologica Scandinavica Supplement, 640, 1997, 112–16.
50. M. G. Marmot et al., ‘Contribution of Job Control and Other Risk Factors to Social Variations in Coronary Heart Disease Incidence’, The Lancet, 350, 1997, 235–9.
51. J. De Jonge et al., ‘Job Strain, Effort-Reward Imbalance and Employee Well-Being: A Large-Scale Cross-Sectional Study’, Social Science and Medicine, 50, 2000, 1317–27.
52. J. E. Ferrie et al., ‘Health Effects of Anticipation of Job Change and Non-Employment: Longitudinal Data from the Whitehall Ii Study’, British Medical Journal, 311, 1995, 1264–9.
53. M. Bartley, ‘Unemployment and Ill Health: Understanding the Relationship’, Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 48, 1994, 333–7.
Psychosocial Causes of Health Inequalities
54. J. Cassel, ‘The Contribution of the Social Environment to Host Resistance’, American Journal of Epidemiology, 104, 1976, 107–23.
55. L. F. Berkman et al., ‘From Social Integration to Health: Durkheim in the New Millennium’, Social Science and Medicine, 51, 2000, 843–57.
56. A. Singh-Manoux, M. G. Marmot, and N. E. Adler, ‘Does Subjective Social Status Predict Health and Change in Health Status Better Than Objective Status?’, Psychosomatic Medicine, 67, 2005, 855–61.
57. I. Kawachi, ‘Social Capital and Community Effects on Population and Individual Health’, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 896, 1999, 120–30.
58. J. C. Barefoot et al., ‘Trust, Health, and Longevity’, Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 21, 1998, 517–26.
59. T. Q. Miller et al., ‘A Test of the Psychosocial Vulnerability and Health Behavior Models of Hostility: Results from an 11-Year Follow-up Study of Mexican Americans’, Psychosomatic Medicine, 57, 1995, 572–81.
60. S. Cohen, ‘Keynote Presentation at the Eight International Congress of Behavioral Medicine: The Pittsburgh Common Cold Studies: Psychosocial Predictors of Susceptibility to Respiratory Infectious Illness’, International Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 12, 2005, 123–31.
61. T. F. Robles and J. K. Kiecolt-Glaser, ‘The Physiology of Marriage: Pathways to Health’, Physiology & Behavior, 79, 2003, 409–16.
Early Life and the Life Course
62. D. Kuh and G. D. Smith, ‘When is Mortality Risk Determined? Historical Insights into a Current Debate’, Social History of Medicine, 6, 1993, 101–23.
63. A. Forsdahl, ‘Observations Throwing Light on the High Mortality in the County of Finnmark: Is the High Mortality Today a Late Effect of Very Poor Living Conditions in Childhood and Adolescence?’, International Journal of Epidemiology, 31, 2002, 302–8.
64. D. J. Barker, ‘Fetal Origins of Cardiovascular Disease’, Annals of Medicine, 31, Supplement 1, 1999, 3–6.
65. D. I. Phillips et al., ‘Elevated Plasma Cortisol Concentrations: A Link between Low Birth Weight and the Insulin Resistance Syndrome?’, Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, 83, 1998, 757–60.
66. R. Yehuda et al., ‘Transgenerational Effects of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Babies of Mothers Exposed to the World Trade Center Attacks During Pregnancy’, Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, 90, 2005, 4115–18.
67. D. Kuh et al., ‘Mortality in Adults Aged 26–54 Years Related to Socioeconomic Conditions in Childhood and Adulthood: Post War Birth Cohort Study’, British Medical Journal, 325, 2002, 1076–80.
68. C. Power and S. Matthews, ‘Origins of Health Inequalities in a National Population Sample’, The Lancet, 350, 1997, 1584–9.
69. I. Lissau and T. I. Sorensen, ‘Parental Neglect During Childhood and Increased Risk of Obesity in Young Adulthood’, The Lancet, 343, 1994, 324–7.
70. S. Macintyre and P. West, ‘Lack of Class Variation in Health in Adolescence: An Artefact of an Occupational Measure of Social Class?’, Social Science and Medicine, 32, 1991, 395–402.
71. R. A. Pollitt, K. M. Rose, and J. S. Kaufman, ‘Evaluating the Evidence for Models of Life Course Socioeconomic Factors and Cardiovascular Outcomes: A Systematic Review’, BMC Public Health, 5, 2005, 7.
72. B. Galobardes, J. W. Lynch, and G. Davey Smith, ‘Childhood Socioeconomic Circumstances and Cause-Specific Mortality in Adulthood: Systematic Review and Interpretation’, Epidemiologic Reviews, 26, 2004, 7–21.
73. G. W. Evans and K. English, ‘The Environment of Poverty: Multiple Stressor Exposure, Psychophysiological Stress, and Socioemotional Adjustment’, Child Development, 73, 2002, 1238–48.
Volume III: Health Inequalities: Interventions and Evaluations
The Theory of Public Health Intervention and Preventive Medicine
74. G. Rose, ‘Strategy of Prevention: Lessons from Cardiovascular Disease’, British Medical Journal, 282, 1981, 1847–51.
75. G. Rose, ‘Sick Individuals and Sick Populations’, International Journal of Epidemiology, 14, 1985, 32–8.
76. J. Adams and M. White, ‘When the Population Approach to Prevention Puts the Health of Individuals at Risk’, International Journal of Epidemiology, 34, 2005, 40–3.
77. K. Atwood, G. A. Colditz, and I. Kawachi, ‘From Public Health Science to Prevention Policy: Placing Science in its Social and Political Contexts’, American Journal of Public Health, 87, 1997, 1603–6.
78. A. Woodward and I. Kawachi, ‘Why Reduce Health Inequalities?’, Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 54, 2000, 923–9.
Overviews and Frameworks for Interventions and Policies
79. M. Petticrew et al., ‘Evidence for Public Health Policy on Inequalities: 1: The Reality According to Policymakers’, Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 58, 2004, 811–16.
80. M. Whitehead et al., ‘Evidence for Public Health Policy on Inequalities: 2: Assembling the Evidence Jigsaw’, Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 58, 2004, 817–21.
81. H. Graham and C. Power, ‘Childhood Disadvantage and Health Inequalities: A Framework for Policy Based on Lifecourse Research’, Child Care, Health and Development, 30, 2004, 671–8.
82. C. G. Victora et al., ‘Applying an Equity Lens to Child Health and Mortality: More of the Same is Not Enough’, The Lancet, 362, 2003, 233–41.
83. M. Exworthy et al., ‘Evidence into Policy and Practice? Measuring the Progress of US and UK Policies to Tackle Disparities and Inequalities in US and UK Health and Health Care’, The Milbank Quarterly, 84, 2006, 75–109.
84. J. P. Mackenbach and M. J. Bakker, ‘Tackling Socioeconomic Inequalities in Health: Analysis of European Experiences’, The Lancet, 362, 2003, 1409–14.
85. K. E. Smith, ‘Health Inequalities in Scotland and England: The Contrasting Journeys of Ideas from Research into Policy’, Social Science and Medicine, 64, 2007, 1438–49.
86. V. Speller, A. Learmonth, and D. Harrison, ‘The Search for Evidence of Effective Health Promotion’, British Medical Journal, 315, 1997, 361–3.
87. J. Parry and E. Scully, ‘Health Impact Assessment and the Consideration of Health Inequalities’, Journal of Public Health Medicine, 25, 2003, 243–5.
The Impact of Specific Interventions on Health and Health Inequalities
88. P. D. Mullen et al., ‘A Meta-Analysis of Trials Evaluating Patient Education and Counseling for Three Groups of Preventive Health Behaviors’, Patient Education and Counseling, 32, 1997, 157–73.
89. L. Arblaster et al., ‘A Systematic Review of the Effectiveness of Health Service Interventions Aimed at Reducing Inequalities in Health’, Journal of Health Services Research and Policy, 1, 1996, 93–103.
90. K. E. Pickett, Y. Luo, and D. S. Lauderdale, ‘Widening Social Inequalities in Risk for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome’, American Journal of Public Health, 95, 2005, 1976–81.
91. J. C. Riley, M. A. Lennon, and R. P. Ellwood, ‘The Effect of Water Fluoridation and Social Inequalities on Dental Caries in 5-Year-Old Children’, International Journal of Epidemiology, 28, 1999, 300–5.
92. ‘Hypertension Detection and Follow-up Program Cooperative Group ‘Educational Level and 5-Year All-Cause Mortality in the Hypertension Detection and Follow-up Program’, Hypertension, 9, 1987, 641–6.
93. C. D. Meade et al., ‘Impacting Health Disparities through Community Outreach: Utilizing the Clean Look (Culture, Literacy, Education, Assessment, and Networking)’, Cancer Control, 14, 2007, 70–7.
94. H. Graham et al., ‘Pathways of Disadvantage and Smoking Careers: Evidence and Policy Implications’, Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 60 Supplement, 2, 2006, 7–12.
95. C. Bartecchi et al., ‘Reduction in the Incidence of Acute Myocardial Infarction Associated with a Citywide Smoking Ordinance’, Circulation, 114, 2006, 1490–6.
96. F. J. Chaloupka, M. Grossman, and H. Saffer, ‘The Effects of Price on Alcohol Consumption and Alcohol-Related Problems’, Alcohol Research and Health, 26, 2002, 22–34.
97. J. Townsend, P. Roderick, and J. Cooper, ‘Cigarette Smoking by Socioeconomic Group, Sex, and Age: Effects of Price, Income, and Health Publicity’, British Medical Journal, 309, 1994, 923–7.
98. J. C. Kim et al., ‘Understanding the Impact of a Microfinance-Based Intervention on Women’s Empowerment and the Reduction of Intimate Partner Violence in South Africa’, American Journal of Public Health, 97, 2007, 1794–802.
99. C. D. Brindis, ‘A Public Health Success: Understanding Policy Changes Related to Teen Sexual Activity and Pregnancy’, Annual Review of Public Health, 27, 2006, 277–95.
100. J. P. Mayer, R. Housemann, and B. Piepenbrok, ‘Evaluation of a Campaign to Improve Immunization in a Rural Headstart Program’, Journal of Community Health, 24, 1999, 13–27.
101. R. Dembo et al., ‘The Impact of a Family Empowerment Intervention on Juvenile Offender Heavy Drinking: A Latent Growth Model Analysis’, Substance Use and Misuse, 37, 2002, 1359–90.
102. H. Thomson et al., ‘Do Urban Regeneration Programmes Improve Public Health and Reduce Health Inequalities? A Synthesis of the Evidence from UK Policy and Practice (1980–2004)’, Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 60, 2006, 108–15.
103. H. Thomson, M. Petticrew, and D. Morrison, ‘Health Effects of Housing Improvement: Systematic Review of Intervention Studies’, British Medical Journal, 323, 2001, 187–90.
104. P. Walberg et al., ‘Economic Change, Crime, and Mortality Crisis in Russia: Regional Analysis’, British Medical Journal, 317, 1998, 312–18.
105. F. Perlman et al., ‘Trends in the Prevalence of Smoking in Russia During the Transition to a Market Economy’, Tobacco Control, 16, 2007, 299–305.
106. S. Bezruchka, T. Namekata, and M. G. Sistrom, ‘Increasing Equality and Resulting Health Improvements: The Case of Postwar Japan’, American Journal of Public Health, 98, 2008, 589–94.
Early Life Interventions Intended to Have Long-Term Outcomes
107. B. Abrams, ‘Preventing Low Birth Weight: Does WIC Work? A Review of Evaluations of the Special Supplemental Food Program for Women, Infants, and Children’, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 678, 1993, 306–16.
108. J. Currie, ‘Early Childhood Education Programs’, Journal of Economic Perspectives, 15, 2001, 213–38.
109. A. Anning et al., ‘Understanding Variations in Effectiveness Amongst Sure Start Local Programmes: Final Report’ (London: Department for Education and Schools, 2007).
110. D. L. Olds et al., ‘Home Visiting by Paraprofessionals and by Nurses: A Randomized, Controlled Trial’, Pediatrics, 110, 2002, 486–96.
111. C. Hertzman and M. Wiens, ‘Child Development and Long-Term Outcomes: A Population Health Perspective and Summary of Successful Interventions’, Social Science and Medicine, 43, 1996, 1083–95.
112. L. Neuhauser et al., ‘Promoting Prenatal and Early Childhood Health: Evaluation of a Statewide Materials-Based Intervention for Parents’, American Journal of Public Health, 97, 2007, 1813–19.
Community Engagement
113. S. L. Syme, ‘Social Determinants of Health: The Community as an Empowered Partner’, Prevention of Chronic Disease, 1, 2004, 1–5.
Volume IV: The Political, Social, and Biological Ecology of Health
Relative Versus Absolute Deprivation in Relation to Health
114. R. G. Wilkinson, ‘Health Inequalities: Relative or Absolute Material Standards?’, British Medical Journal, 314, 1997, 591–5.
115. K. E. Pickett and R. G. Wilkinson, ‘Child Wellbeing and Income Inequality in Rich Societies: Ecological Cross Sectional Study’, British Medical Journal, 335, 2007, 1080–6.
116. R. Davidson, J. Kitzinger, and K. Hunt, ‘The Wealthy Get Healthy, the Poor Get Poorly? Lay Perceptions of Health Inequalities’, Social Science and Medicine, 62, 2006, 2171–82.
117. E. Blacksher, ‘On Being Poor and Feeling Poor: Low Socioeconomic Status and the Moral Self’, Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics, 23, 2002, 455–70.
Human Sensitivity to the Social Environment
118. S. S. Dickerson, T. L. Gruenewald, and M. E. Kemeny, ‘When the Social Self is Threatened: Shame, Physiology, and Health’, Journal of Personality, 72, 2004, 1191–216.
119. S. E. Taylor et al., ‘Biobehavioral Responses to Stress in Females: Tend-and-Befriend, Not Fight-or-Flight’, Psychological Review, 107, 2000, 411–29.
120. B. G. Link and J. C. Phelan, ‘Stigma and its Public Health Implications’, The Lancet, 367, 2006, 528–9.
121. J. Ahern, J. Stuber, and S. Galea, ‘Stigma, Discrimination and the Health of Illicit Drug Users’, Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 88, 2007, 188–96.
122. K. Hoff and P. Pandey, ‘Belief Systems and Durable Inequalities: An Experimental Investigation of Indian Caste, Policy Research Working Paper (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2004).
123. C. M. Steele and J. Aronson, ‘Stereotype Threat and the Intellectual Test Performance of African-Americans’, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69, 1995, 797–811.
124. D. Halpern, ‘Minorities and Mental Health’, Social Science and Medicine, 36, 1993, 597–607.
125. J. Gilligan, ‘Violence in Public Health and Preventive Medicine’, The Lancet, 355, 2000, pp.1802-1804.
The Stress of Modern Life
126. J. M. Twenge, ‘The Age of Anxiety? Birth Cohort Change in Anxiety and Neuroticism, 1952–1993’, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79, 2000, 1007–21.
127. J. M. Twenge, L. Zhang, and C. Im, ‘It’s Beyond My Control: A Cross-Temporal Meta-Analysis of Increasing Externality in Locus of Control, 1960–2002’, Personality and Social Psychology Review, 8, 2004, 308–19.
128. M. Wilson and M. Daly, ‘Life Expectancy, Economic Inequality, Homicide, and Reproductive Timing in Chicago Neighbourhoods’, British Medical Journal, 314, 1997, 1271–4.
129. R. H. Frank, ‘Should Public Policy Respond to Positional Externalities?’, Journal of Public Economics, 2008.
Non-Human Primate Studies of Stress and Social Relationships
130. D. H. Abbott et al., ‘Are Subordinates Always Stressed? A Comparative Analysis of Rank Differences in Cortisol Levels among Primates’, Hormones and Behavior, 43, 2003, 67–82.
131. D. Morgan et al., ‘Social Dominance in Monkeys: Dopamine D2 Receptors and Cocaine Self-Administration’, Nature Neuroscience, 5, 2002, 169–74.
132. S. F. Brosnan and F. B. De Waal, ‘Monkeys Reject Unequal Pay’, Nature, 425, 2003, 297–9.
Human Nature, Egalitarianism, and Social Justice
133. E. Fehr and U. Fischbacher, ‘The Nature of Human Altruism’, Nature, 425, 2003, 785–91.
134. J. Henrich et al., ‘"Economic Man" in Cross-Cultural Perspective: Behavioral Experiments in 15 Small-Scale Societies’, Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 28, 2005, 795–815, 849–55.
135. M. Kosfeld et al., ‘Oxytocin Increases Trust in Humans’, Nature, 435, 2005, 673–6.
136. D. Erdal and A. Whiten, ‘Egalitarianism and Machiavellian Intelligence in Human Evolution’, in P. Mellars and K. Gibson (eds.), Modelling the Early Human Mind (McDonald Institute Monographs, 1996), pp. 139–50.
137. R. De Vogli et al., ‘Unfairness and Health: Evidence from the Whitehall II Study’, Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 61, 2007, 513–18.
The Impact of Income Inequality on Health and Other Social Problems
138. R. G. Wilkinson and K. E. Pickett, ‘Income Inequality and Population Health: A Review and Explanation of the Evidence’, Social Science and Medicine, 62, 2006, 1768–84.
139. R. G. Wilkinson and K. E. Pickett, ‘The Problems of Relative Deprivation: Why Some Societies Do Better Than Others’, Social Science and Medicine, 65, 2007, 1965–78.
140. J. D. Willms, ‘Literacy Proficiency of Youth: Evidence of Converging Socioeconomic Gradients’, International Journal of Educational Research, 39, 2003, 247–52.
141. R. G. Wilkinson and K. E. Pickett, ‘Income Inequality and Socioeconomic Gradients in Mortality’, American Journal of Public Health, 98, 2007, 699–704.
An Overview
142. R. Sapolsky, ‘Sick of Poverty’, Scientific American, 293, 2005, 92–9.
Biography
Kate Pickett is Senior Lecturer in Epidemiology in the Department of Health Sciences at the University of York where she is involved in research on socioeconomic inequalities in health and leads the PhD programme in Health Sciences.
Pickett studied physical anthropology at Cambridge University and nutritional sciences at Cornell University, before receiving her doctoral training in epidemiology at the University of California, Berkeley. She spent four years as an Assistant Professor at the University of Chicago, before returning to England. She has conducted research on many aspects of health inequalities, including the health effects of income inequality, social mobility, neighbourhoods, social class, and ethnicity.
Richard Wilkinson is Professor of Social Epidemiology in the Division of Epidemiology and Public Health at the University of Nottingham and a Visiting Professor at University College London. He is a leading researcher on the social determinants of health.
Wilkinson studied economic history at the London School of Economics and economic planning at the University of Pennsylvania. Since training in epidemiology at the University of Nottingham, he has spent close to 30 years studying health inequalities and has played a formative role in research and public awareness of the social determinants of health. He has worked particularly on the health effects of income and income inequality, and psychosocial influences on population health.
