ABSTRACT
The connections between health and status have already been verified and long taken for granted: in particular, there is no small quantity of accumulated data illustrating the thesis that the less socioeconomic inequality a society contains, the healthier it will be (see, for example: Shi and Starfield, 2000, pp. 541-55; Wilkinson, 2000; Mellor and Milyo, 2002, pp. 510-39; Marmot, 2004), although discussion of the mechanism through which income inequality and health interact is ongoing. Some (Brunner and Marmot, 1999; Wilkinson and Pickett, 2004) suggest that this mechanism has its roots in the characteristics of individuals’ social status and the class they belong to (the specific nature of the way of life and behaviour of a given class; chronic stress associated with a sense of being socially humiliated; loss of control over one’s own life; the low level of trust felt by those lower down the class structure, etc.). Others consider the main influence to come from the direct impact of income inequality and low living standards on health, while others again do not perceive any consistent association between health and income inequality (Deaton, 2003; Lynch et al., 2004).
