‘What else can you expect from class-ridden Britain?’: the Whitehall studies and health inequalities, 1968 to c.2010

Clark, Peder

doi:10.1080/13619462.2020.1856082

Cited by 6 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 58 publications

(22 reference statements)

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“…Also, the recent local evidence have thus far rarely been translated into policy attention and concrete actions in Hong Kong, unlike the case of gradual policy changes in the UK in response to the continuous research effort and advocacy via the ground-breaking Whitehall studies and subsequent large-scale population cohort research over the past decades. 54 In short, the fragmented and irregular health and social data collection in Hong Kong hinders a comprehensive and long-term monitoring of health and health inequality.…”

Section: The Current Practices Of Health Inequality Monitoringmentioning

confidence: 99%

Monitoring socioeconomic inequalities in health in Hong Kong: insights and lessons from the UK and Australia

Chung

Robinson²,

Marmot³

et al. 2023

The Lancet Regional Health - Western Pacific

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Section: The Current Practices Of Health Inequality Monitoringmentioning

confidence: 99%

Monitoring socioeconomic inequalities in health in Hong Kong: insights and lessons from the UK and Australia

Chung

Robinson²,

Marmot³

et al. 2023

The Lancet Regional Health - Western Pacific

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“…The problem of inequitable distribution of health resources, and the failure of the post-war welfare state to correct historic patterns of disadvantage, remained a persistent concern in British public health, not least following the prolonged economic crisis precipitated by the oil price increases of 1973 (Webster, 2002 ). But by the end of the decade, novel strands of research, in tandem with official statistics and broader societal critiques, had reignited debate about “transmitted deprivation” and social and geographic disparities in health (Blaxter, 1981 ; Clark, 2021 ; Macintyre, 1986 ; Rutter & Madge, 1976 ). Most significantly, the Black Report, published in controversial circumstances by the newly incumbent Conservative government in August 1980, was a pivotal moment in bringing the new concept of “health inequalities” into view as both an epidemiological and public concern (Macintyre, 1997 ).…”

Section: David Barker and The Environments Of Early Lifementioning

confidence: 99%

“…As Peder Clark has argued, the novelty of the study lay predominantly in the researchers’ attention to class as a determinant of disease beyond the dominant focus on inequities of access. Rather, the research helped to build an argument as to how the effects of inequality might be “literally embodied by the incidence of disease” (Clark, 2021 ). Rose, and particularly Michael Marmot, who joined the Whitehall study in 1976, would play key roles in formulating a critique of lifestyle public health, which they argued failed to address the core issues of an unequal society (Rose & Marmot, 1981 ).…”

Section: David Barker and The Environments Of Early Lifementioning

confidence: 99%

A fetus in the world: Physiology, epidemiology, and the making of fetal origins of adult disease

Buklijas,

Al-Gailani

2023

HPLS

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Since the late 1980s, the fetal origins of adult disease, from 2003 developmental origins of health and disease (DOHaD), has stimulated significant interest in and an efflorescence of research on the long-term effects of the intrauterine environment. From the start, this field has been interdisciplinary, using experimental animal, clinical and epidemiological tools. As the influence of DOHaD on public health and policy expanded, it has drawn criticism for reducing the complex social and physical world of early life to women’s reproductive bodies as drivers of intergenerational ills. This paper explains this narrowing of focus in terms of a formative and consequential exchange between David Barker, the British epidemiologist whose work is credited with establishing the field, and the discipline of fetal physiology. We suggest that fetal physiologists were a crucial constituency of support for Barker’s hypothesis about early life origins of disease. Their collaborations with Barker helped secure and sustain the theory amid considerable controversy. The trajectory of DOHaD and its focus on the maternal body can be understood, we argue, as a consequence of this alliance, which brought together two distinct conceptualizations of the intrauterine environment, one from epidemiology and the other from fetal physiology. Along the way, we trace the histories of these conceptualizations, both of which were products of mid-to-late twentieth century British science, and show how Barker’s early emphasis on social and economic conditions was superseded by a narrower focus on physiological mechanisms acting upon the autonomous fetus.

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“… 25 This could not be explained by risk factors (such as smoking and diet) alone: the social structure itself had a negative impact on health. 26 …”

Section: Inequalities and Healthmentioning

confidence: 99%

Publics and their health: 50 years of continuity and change

Mold

2022

Journal of Public Health

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Background This article explores a set of changes and continuities in relation to public health and its publics in the UK since the establishment of the Faculty of Public Health in 1972. Methods The article draws on historical research to produce a synthetic analysis of key changes and continuities in British public health since 1972. Results Three key areas are identified. The first centres on the issue of who has responsibility for public health. The second examines the persistence of social and racial inequalities in population health. The third considers the ‘return’ of infectious disease as a threat to public health. Conclusions Despite the trend to place more responsibility for individual and collective health on the public itself, there was a proliferation in the actors and authorities involved in securing and protecting the health of the public. The strong linkages between health and structural inequality, and the challenges of addressing these, demonstrate that public health never was (and never can be) solely an individual matter. The appearance of new diseases, such as HIV/AIDS and the return of ones thought to have been conquered, like tuberculosis, raised profound questions for public health authorities and the people they cared for.

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‘What else can you expect from class-ridden Britain?’: the Whitehall studies and health inequalities, 1968 to c.2010

Cited by 6 publications

References 58 publications

Monitoring socioeconomic inequalities in health in Hong Kong: insights and lessons from the UK and Australia

Monitoring socioeconomic inequalities in health in Hong Kong: insights and lessons from the UK and Australia

A fetus in the world: Physiology, epidemiology, and the making of fetal origins of adult disease

Publics and their health: 50 years of continuity and change

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