Social mobility and health: cause or effect?

摘要

Since the publication of the Black report in 1980, health researchers throughout the industrialised world have given extensive attention to the issue of inequalities in health. Health inequalities are large, widespread, and remarkably persistent. Different socioeconomic indicators give roughly the same picture, showing inequalities with a variety of health measures in both sexes and at all ages, with adolescence as a possible exception. The consistent and robust links between socioeconomic status and health suggest that scientists of different disciplines have a lot to explain.