For many years it was believed that social mobility served to increase health inequality due to “the survival of the fittest”. This was even put forward as a reason why health inequality increased inexorably after the setting up of the Welfare State after World War II. However, work using the ONS Longitudinal Study showed that in fact the result of social mobility was a narrowing of health differences between social classes. This effect became known as “gradient
constraint”. This presentation will update the LS work to show how inequality according to
other health measures is influenced by social mobility. The notion that increasing social mobility may be one way to reduce health inequalities will be raised for debate.
Presented by:
Mel Bartley (UCL)
Date & time:
February 22, 2010 4:00 pm - February 22, 2010 5:30 pm
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