Class and Health: Research and Longitudinal Data: 24 (Routledge Library Editions: Health, Disease and Society)

Originally published in 1986, this book discusses issues such as social class differences in health; the effect of unemployment on health; the relationship between income and health; how much of the class differences in death rates can be explained in terms of medically recognized factors. Presenting empirical research to resolve these issues, the book takes health to the centre of the political stage and raises fundamental issues about the direction of modern economic and social development and its impact on inequality. As relevant now as when it was first published the book reviews twenty of the most important longitudinal studies in the area of health and class that had been carried out in the UK at the time.

Richard Wilkinson