Health inequalities

Abstract

The evidence bearing on the nature and extent of health inequalities documented globally and in the UK is addressed, twin foci within the UK being (a) associations between socioeconomic classification and health and longevity, and (b) the notion of a 'social gradient'. A consideration of the various 'models' that have been developed by sociologists and their alliesmost conspicuously social epidemiologists -to account for (a) and (b) is offered, drawing on government-sponsored commissions and reviews as well as the peer-reviewed literature. This is followed by a portrayal of specifically sociological theories of health inequalities, featuring those that hold social structures as well as cultural shifts in convention and behaviour to be causally efficacious for health inequalities. The summary and conclusions of the review incorporate an outline of pertinent questions the sociological community has so far been reluctant to address and an agenda for future research.

Shaming Encounters: Reflections on Contemporary Understandings of Social Inequality and Health

“…These are destigmatisation strategies and collective imaginaries; integrating these with psychosocial theorising, we argue, provides a more nuanced theoretical framework for understanding how shaming social comparisons may operate to shape health. In this regard, our argument is consistent with those who have lamented the epistemological 'thinness' of understanding at the core of much contemporary social epidemiology (Forbes and Wainwright, 2001;Lamont, 2009;Popay et al, 1998;Scambler, 2007Scambler, , 2012 and we echo calls for greater incorporation of theory as a response to this 'thinness' (Williams, 2003).…”

“…

The idea that social inequality has deleterious consequences for population health is well established within social epidemiology and medical sociology (Marmot and Wilkinson, 2001;Scambler, 2012). In this article, we critically examine arguments advanced by Wilkinson and Pickett in The Spirit Level (2009) that in more unequal countries population health suffers, in part, because of the stress and anxiety arising from individuals making invidious or shame-inducing comparisons with others regarding their social position.

…”

‘We’ve Got Some Underground Business Selling Junk Food’: Qualitative Evidence of the Unintended Effects of English School Food Policies

“…Informed by the theoretical framework outlined above, we draw on qualitative data to explore how students and staff view the school food environment and examine how recent policy reforms, including the prohibition of certain products, may have influenced their attitudes and actions. In doing so, this article also responds to the appeal of sociologists of health and illness for empirical public health research which studies the lived experience of 'risk behaviour' (Rhodes, 1997) and recognises the importance of social context and structures in shaping and enabling such behaviour (Scambler, 2011;Williams, 2003).…”

Theorizing health inequalities: The untapped potential of dialectical critical realism

“…The lining of the pockets of the less than 1 per cent kills people, especially within what contemporary positivists define as the bottom decile. Virschow and Engels were spot on (Scambler, 2012). Table 1 offers a summary of our position (see Scambler and Scambler, 2013, p. 93;Scambler, 2014).…”