Social Inequalities in Health: Back on the Agenda

Abstract

In 1980, Britain's Department of Health and Social Security published the Black report on inequalities in health. Scott-Samuel summarizes some of the organizational and individual responses to the report. The Junior Members' group of the British Medical Association (BMA) held a forum on inequalities in health in 1985. A resolution at the BMA's annual meeting that same year led to the establishment of a working party to look into the Black report's recommendations. Much research has been done on the nature and extent of the social aspects of the issue. Recent papers by S. Koskinen, R.G. Wilkinson, and D. Leon and Wilkinson (all footnoted in this article) have looked at the relationship between social class in Britain and health care outcome. (KIE abstract)