The DOI matches its Crossref record.
Unhealthy Societies
Abstract
Among the developed countries it is not the richest societies which have the best health, but those which have the smallest income differences between rich and poor. Inequality and relative poverty have absolute effects: they increase death rates. But why? How can smaller income differences raise average life expectancy?Using examples from the USA, Britain, Japan and Eastern Europe, and bringing together evidence from the social and medical sciences, Unhealthy Socities provides the explanation. Healthy, egalitarian societies are more socially cohesive. They have a stronger community life and suffer fewer of the corrosive effects of inequality. As well as inequality weakening the social fabric, damaging health and increasing crime rates, Unhealthy Societies shows that social cohesion is crucial to the quality of life.The contrast between the material success and social failure of modern societies marks an imbalance which needs attention. The relationship between health and equality suggests that important social needs will go unmet without a larger measure of social and distributive justice. This path-breaking book is essential reading for health psychologists, sociologists, welfare economists, social policy analysts and all those concerned with the future of developed societies.
Overview
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Citations
Cited by
Unemployment impairs mental health: Meta-analyses
Paul, K. I., & Moser, K. (2009) · Journal of Vocational Behavior · doi:10.1016/j.jvb.2009.01.001 · Cited by 2,706
Theories for social epidemiology in the 21st century: An ecosocial perspective
Krieger, N. (2001) · International Journal of Epidemiology · doi:10.1093/ije/30.4.668 · Cited by 2,155
Will Money Increase Subjective Well-Being?
Diener, E., & Biswas-Diener, R. (2002) · Social Indicators Research · doi:10.1023/a:1014411319119 · Cited by 1,555
Krieger, N. (1999) · International Journal of Health Services · doi:10.2190/m11w-vwxe-kqm9-g97q · Cited by 1,181
A glossary for social epidemiology
Krieger, N. (2001) · Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health · doi:10.1136/jech.55.10.693 · Cited by 852
Consilience and Life History Theory: From genes to brain to reproductive strategy
FIGUEREDO, A., VASQUEZ, G., BRUMBACH, B., SCHNEIDER, S., SEFCEK, J., TAL, I., HILL, D., WENNER, C., & JACOBS, W. (2006) · Developmental Review · doi:10.1016/j.dr.2006.02.002 · Cited by 793
Shaw, M. (2004) · Annual Review of Public Health · doi:10.1146/annurev.publhealth.25.101802.123036 · Cited by 791
Meyer, I. H., Schwartz, S., & Frost, D. M. (2008) · Social Science & Medicine · doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2008.03.012 · Cited by 693
The Social Determinants of Chronic Disease
Cockerham, W. C., Hamby, B. W., & Oates, G. R. (2017) · American Journal of Preventive Medicine · doi:10.1016/j.amepre.2016.09.010 · Cited by 584
Gottfredson, L. S. (2004) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.86.1.174 · Cited by 580
From victim blaming to upstream action: tackling the social determinants of oral health inequalities
Watt, R. G. (2007) · Community Dentistry and Oral Epidemiology · doi:10.1111/j.1600-0528.2007.00348.x · Cited by 556
Padgett, D. K. (2007) · Social Science & Medicine · doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2007.02.011 · Cited by 509
Social capital and health: Implications for public health and epidemiology
Lomas, J. (1998) · Social Science & Medicine · doi:10.1016/s0277-9536(98)00190-7 · Cited by 500
Income inequality, the psychosocial environment, and health: comparisons of wealthy nations
Lynch, J., Smith, G. D., Hillemeier, M., Shaw, M., Raghunathan, T., & Kaplan, G. (2001) · The Lancet · doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(01)05407-1 · Cited by 450
Poverty, Inequality, and Discrimination as Sources of Depression Among U.S. Women
Belle, D., & Doucet, J. (2003) · Psychology of Women Quarterly · doi:10.1111/1471-6402.00090 · Cited by 440
Social capital and mental health
McKenzie, K., Whitley, R., & Weich, S. (2002) · British Journal of Psychiatry · doi:10.1192/bjp.181.4.280 · Cited by 434
Health promoting schools and health promotion in schools: two systematic reviews.
Lister-Sharp, Chapman, Stewart-Brown, & Sowden (1999) · Health Technology Assessment · doi:10.3310/hta3220 · Cited by 379
Contribution of Psychosocial Factors to Socioeconomic Differences in Health
Marmot, M. G., Fuhrer, R., Ettner, S. L., Marks, N. F., Bumpass, L. L., & Ryff, C. D. (1998) · The Milbank Quarterly · doi:10.1111/1468-0009.00097 · Cited by 317
Wallerstein, N. (1999) · Social Science & Medicine · doi:10.1016/s0277-9536(99)00073-8 · Cited by 292
The role of psychobiological pathways in socio-economic inequalities in cardiovascular disease risk
Steptoe, A. (2002) · European Heart Journal · doi:10.1053/euhj.2001.2611 · Cited by 274
The K-factor, Covitality, and personality: A Psychometric Test of Life History Theory
Figueredo, A. J., Vásquez, G., Brumbach, B. H., & Schneider, S. M. R. (2007) · Human Nature · doi:10.1007/bf02820846 · Cited by 268
Stress and Type 2 Diabetes: A Review of How Stress Contributes to the Development of Type 2 Diabetes
Kelly, S. J., & Ismail, M. (2015) · Annual Review of Public Health · doi:10.1146/annurev-publhealth-031914-122921 · Cited by 256
Michie, S., Jochelson, K., Markham, W. A., & Bridle, C. (2009) · Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health · doi:10.1136/jech.2008.078725 · Cited by 238
Parkhurst, J. (2016) · London School of Economics and Political Science Research Online (London School of Economics and Political Science) · doi:10.4324/9781315675008 · Cited by 756
Holistic risk-based environmental decision making: a Native perspective.
Arquette, M., Cole, M., Cook, K., LaFrance, B., Peters, M., Ransom, J., Sargent, E., Smoke, V., & Stairs, A. (2002) · Environmental Health Perspectives · doi:10.1289/ehp.02110s2259 · Cited by 200
Algren, M. H., Ekholm, O., Nielsen, L., Ersbøll, A. K., Bak, C. K., & Andersen, P. T. (2018) · BMC Public Health · doi:10.1186/s12889-018-5170-x · Cited by 187
Mcleod, J. D., & Owens, T. J. (2004) · Social Psychology Quarterly · doi:10.1177/019027250406700303 · Cited by 184
Gilbert, P., Gilbert, J., & Sanghera, J. (2004) · Mental Health, Religion & Culture · doi:10.1080/13674670310001602418 · Cited by 183
Epidemiology and social sciences: towards a critical reengagement in the 21st century
Krieger, N. (2000) · Epidemiologic Reviews · doi:10.1093/oxfordjournals.epirev.a018014 · Cited by 152
Public Health Ethics: From Foundations and Frameworks to Justice and Global Public Health
Kass, N. E. (2004) · Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics · doi:10.1111/j.1748-720x.2004.tb00470.x · Cited by 152
COVID-19 and income inequality in OECD countries
Wildman, J. (2021) · The European Journal of Health Economics · doi:10.1007/s10198-021-01266-4 · Cited by 139
Li, Q., & Wen, M. (2005) · Journal of Peace Research · doi:10.1177/0022343305054092 · Cited by 142
Wildman, J. (2003) · Journal of Health Economics · doi:10.1016/s0167-6296(02)00101-7 · Cited by 142
A Historical Overview of Health Disparities and the Potential of eHealth Solutions
Gibbons, M. C. (2005) · Journal of Medical Internet Research · doi:10.2196/jmir.7.5.e50 · Cited by 137
New policies to address the global burden of childhood cancers
Sullivan, R., Kowalczyk, J. R., Agarwal, B., Ladenstein, R., Fitzgerald, E., Barr, R., Steliarova-Foucher, E., Magrath, I., Howard, S. C., Kruger, M., et al. (2013) · The Lancet Oncology · doi:10.1016/s1470-2045(13)70007-x · Cited by 121
Chisholm, J. S. (1999) · Human Nature · doi:10.1007/s12110-999-1001-1 · Cited by 112
Depression and stress: a biopsychosocial exploration of evolved functions and mechanisms
Gilbert, P. (2001) · Stress · doi:10.3109/10253890109115726 · Cited by 92
Mills, C. (2018) · Development and Change · doi:10.1111/dech.12397 · Cited by 87
Health inequalities in Canada: Current discourses and implications for public health action
Raphael, D. (2000) · Critical Public Health · doi:10.1080/713658246 · Cited by 72
Human capital, wealth, and nutrition in the Bolivian Amazon
Godoy, R., Reyes-García, V., Vadez, V., Leonard, W. R., Huanca, T., & Bauchet, J. (2005) · Economics & Human Biology · doi:10.1016/j.ehb.2005.01.001 · Cited by 68
Do Markets Worsen Economic Inequalities? Kuznets in the Bush
Godoy, R. A., Gurven, M., Byron, E., Reyes-García, V., Keough, J., Vadez, V., Wilkie, D., Leonard, W. R., Apaza, L., Huanca, T., et al. (2004) · Human Ecology · doi:10.1023/b:huec.0000028085.47707.08 · Cited by 62
Crighton, E. J., Elliott, S. J., Moineddin, R., Kanaroglou, P., & Upshur, R. (2007) · Social Science & Medicine · doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2006.12.001 · Cited by 61
Poverty and Mental Health: A Qualitative Study of Residential Care Facility Tenants
Wilton, R. D. (2003) · Community Mental Health Journal · doi:10.1023/a:1022662704461 · Cited by 60
Tools for comparative analysis of alternatives: Competing or complementary perspectives?
Hofstetter, P., Bare, J. C., Hammitt, J. K., Murphy, P. A., & Rice, G. E. (2002) · Risk Analysis · doi:10.1111/1539-6924.00255 · Cited by 58
Social Stratification, Health, and Violence in the Very Young
BOYCE, W. T. (2004) · Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1196/annals.1330.003 · Cited by 59
Childhood adversities and health variations among middle-aged men: a retrospective lifecourse study
Elstad, J. I. (2005) · European Journal of Public Health · doi:10.1093/eurpub/cki114 · Cited by 57
Justice and Egalitarian Relations
Schemmel, C. (2021) · Justice and Egalitarian Relations · doi:10.1093/oso/9780190084240.003.0001 · Cited by 48
de Visser, R. O., Richters, J., Rissel, C., Badcock, P. B., Simpson, J. M., Smith, A. M. A., & Grulich, A. E. (2014) · Sexual Health · doi:10.1071/sh14112 · Cited by 38
Socioeconomic status and race/ethnicity independently predict health decline among older diabetics
Nicklett, E. J. (2011) · BMC Public Health · doi:10.1186/1471-2458-11-684 · Cited by 32
Mendenhall, E. (2014) · Annals of Anthropological Practice · doi:10.1111/napa.12058 · Cited by 32
Effects of U.S. States’ Social Welfare Systems on Population Health
Kim, A., & Jennings, E. T. (2009) · Policy Studies Journal · doi:10.1111/j.1541-0072.2009.00333.x · Cited by 27
Chu, L.-C. (2014) · Leadership · doi:10.1177/1742715013498403 · Cited by 24
Health at a Glance 2003: OECD Indicators
OECD (2003) · Health at a Glance · doi:10.1787/health_glance-2003-en · Cited by 12
Turrell, G., & Mathers, C. (2001) · International Journal of Epidemiology · doi:10.1093/ije/30.2.231 · Cited by 10
Liu, K.-Y. (2017) · Social Problems · doi:10.1093/socpro/spw044 · Cited by 9
Interpersonal violence: an important risk factor for disease and injury in South Africa
Norman, R., Schneider, M., Bradshaw, D., Jewkes, R., Abrahams, N., Matzopoulos, R., & Vos, T. (2010) · Population Health Metrics · doi:10.1186/1478-7954-8-32 · Cited by 4
Metadata
- Authors
- Wilkinson, R. G.
- Venue
- Routledge eBooks
- Publisher
- Routledge
- Published
- 2002-09-11
- OpenAlex
- W4231530624
- Cited by
- 1,437
- References
- 0
- FWCI
- 85.91
- Type
- book
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
Data sources
Bibliographic data: Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, Crossref.
Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).
Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.