How does social standing affect our health and longevity?
The rich countries of the world have remarkably good health. Malaria is long gone from Europe and the USA. Parasitic diseases do not wreak havoc with our lives. Infant mortality is below one in a hundred. Yet even so, where we stand in the social hierarchy is intimately related to our chances of getting ill and to how long we live. And the differences between top and bottom are getting bigger.
This eye-opening book is based on more than twenty-five years of research that began with the Whitehall Studies in the 1980s. These showed that even among white-collar employees with steady jobs there is a clear social gradient in health. Michael Marmot's subsequent work took him round the world as he puzzled out the relationship between health and social circumstances. Everywhere from the US to Russia, from the Mediterranean to Australia, from Southern India to Japan, similar patterns emerged, showing that control over our lives and opportunities for full social participation are key factors for good health.
