The Social Sources of the Health Gradient: A Cross-National Analysis

52 Pages Posted: 6 Aug 2010

See all articles by Lucy Barnes

Lucy Barnes

University College London

Peter Hall

Harvard University

Rosemary C.R. Taylor

Tufts University

Date Written: July 18, 2010

Abstract

The relationship between health and social class is firmly established but theoretical understanding of its determinants is not well advanced. Existing approaches have limitations and their propositions are rarely tested against each other. We outline a new approach to the problem that links class-based inequalities in health to imbalances between life challenges and people’s capabilities for coping with them and locates the sources of those capabilities in multiple dimensions of the social and economic relations constitutive of class. We assess the support for this approach and the relative impact of material, social and cultural factors in a statistical analysis of individual-level data from nineteen developed democracies.

Keywords: Health Inequalities, Social Class, Population Health, Cultural Frameworks

Suggested Citation

Barnes, Lucy and Hall, Peter A. and Taylor, Rosemary C.R., The Social Sources of the Health Gradient: A Cross-National Analysis (July 18, 2010). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1644987 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1644987

Lucy Barnes

University College London ( email )

29/30 Tavistock Square
London, WC1H 9QU
United Kingdom

Peter A. Hall (Contact Author)

Harvard University ( email )

Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies
27 Kirkland Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

Rosemary C.R. Taylor

Tufts University ( email )

111B Eaton Hall
Dept. of Sociology, 5 The Green
Medford, MA 02155
United States

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