Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-m6dg7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T05:50:25.520Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Area, Class and Health: Should we be Focusing on Places or People?*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2009

Sally Macintyre ,
Sheila Maciver  and
Anne Sooman
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In Britain there has been a long tradition of research into associations between area of residence and health. Rarely has this involved investigating socio-economic or cultural features of areas that might influence health; usually studies use area level data, for example about specific pathogens or about levels of deprivation, as surrogates for individual level data, rather than being interested in the areas themselves. This paper reviews the literature on the relationship between area and health. It advocates directly studying features of the local social and physical environment which might promote or inhibit health, illustrating this approach with some findings from a study in the West of Scotland, and suggests that improvements in public health might be achieved by focusing on places as well as on people.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Social Policy , Volume 22 , Issue 2 , April 1993 , pp. 213 - 234
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1993

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Bakx, K. (1990), Changes in the Patterns of Employment and Unemployment in the Central Clydeside Conurbation 1981–1987, MRC Medical Sociology Unit Working Paper No. 18, Glasgow.Google Scholar
Barker, D.J.P. and Osmond, C. (1987), ‘Inequalities in health in Britain: specific explanations in three Lancashire towns, British Medical Journal, 294, 749–52.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Benzeval, M., Judge, K. and Solomon, M.. (1992), The Health Status of Londoners. A Comparative Perspexsctive, King's Fund Institute, London.Google Scholar
Blaxter, M. (1990), Health and Lifestyles, Routledge, London.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Britton, M., Fox, A.J., Goldblatt, P., Jones, D.R., and Rosato, M. (1990), ‘The influence of socio-economic and environmental factors on geographic variations in mortality in OPCS’, Mortality and Geography, HMSO, London.Google Scholar
Carstairs, V. and Morris, R. (1989a), ‘Deprivation: explaining differences in mortality between Scotland and England and Wales’, British Medical Journal, 299, 886–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Carstairs, V. and Morris, R. (1991), Deprivation and Health in Scotland, Aberdeen University Press, Aberdeen.Google Scholar
Chinn, S., Florey, C. du V., Baldwin, I.G. and Gorgol, M. (1981), ‘The relation of mortality in England and Wales 1969–73 to measurements of air-pollution’, journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 35, 174–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cox, B.D., Blaxter, M. and Buckle, A.J.L., Fenner, N., Golding, J., Gore, M., Huppert, F., Nickson, J., Roth, M., Stark, M., Wadsworth, M. and Whichelow, M. (1987), Health and Lifestyle Survey: Preliminary Report, Health Promotion Research Trust, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Crombie, I.K., Kenicer, M.B., Smith, W.C.S., Tunstall-Pedoe, H.D. (1989), ‘Unemployment, socioenvironmental factors and coronary heart disease, British Heart Journal, 61, 172–7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Curtis, S. (1990), ‘Use of survey data and small area statistics to assess the link between individual morbidity and neighbourhood deprivation’, Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 44, 62–68.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Department of Health (1992), The Health of the Nation: A Strategy Document of Health in England, Cmnd.1986, HMSO, London.Google Scholar
Erskine, S. (1991), Social Work Services and Resources in Two Contrasting Localities in Glasgow City, MRC Medical Sociology Working Paper No. 24, Glasgow.Google Scholar
Fox, A.J., Jones, D.R. and Goldblatt, P.O. (1984), ‘Approaches to studying the effect of socio-economic circumstances on geographic differences in mortality in England and Wales’, British Medical Bulletin, 40, 309–14.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gardner, M.J. (1973), ‘Using the environment to explain and predict mortality’, Journal of Royal Statistical Society, 136: 3, 421–440.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gardner, M.J. (1989), ‘Review of reported increases of childhood cancer rates in the vicinity of nuclear installations in the UK’, Journal of Royal Statistical Society (A), 152, 307–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gardner, M.J., Snee, M.P., Hall, A.J., Powell, C.A., Downes, S. and Terrell, J.D. (1990), ‘Results of case-control study of leukaemia and lymphoma among young people near Sellaflield nuclear plant in West Cumbria, British Medical Journal, 300, 423–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Graunt, J. (1662), Natural and Political Observations made Upon the Bills of Mortality, London.Google Scholar
Greater Glasgow Health Board (1984). Ten Year Report 1974–1983, Information Services Division, GGHB, Glasgow.Google Scholar
Greater Glasgow Health Board (1989), The Annual Report of the Director of Public Health, Glasgow.Google Scholar
Haan, M., Kaplan, G.A. and Camacho, T. (1987), ‘Poverty and health: prospective evidence from the Alameda County Study’, Amercian Journal of Epidemiology, 125: 6, 989–998.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Macintyre, S. (1986), ‘The patterning of health by social position in contemporary Britain; directions for sociological research’. Social Science Medicine, 23, 393–415.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Macintyre, S., Annandale, E., Ecob, R., Ford, G., Hunt, K., Jamieson, B., Maclver, S., West, P. and Wyke, S. (1989), ‘The West of Scotland Twenty-07 Study: health in the community’, in Martin, C. and MacQueen, D. (eds), Readings for a New Public Health, Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Maclver, S. (1988), West of Scotland Twenty-07 Study: Socio-demographic and Mortality Profiles of the Study Areas, MRC Medical Sociology Unit Working Paper No. 10, Glasgow.Google Scholar
MacIver, S. and Bowie, F. (1989), A Survey of Retail Provision: Price and Availability of Selected Food Items in Two Localities in Glasgow City, MRC Medical Sociology Unit Working Paper No. 15, Glasgow.Google Scholar
MacIver, S. and Finlay, A. (1990), Health Service Provision in the Twenty–07 Study Localities, MRC Medical Sociology Unit Working Paper No. 19, Glasgow.Google Scholar
MacIver, S. and Macintyre, S. (1987), West of Scotland Twenty-07 Study: Selection of the Study Localities and Region, MRC Medical Sociology Unit Working Paper No. 4, Glasgow.Google Scholar
Moon, G. (1990), ‘Conceptions of space and community in British health policy’, Social Science Medicine, 30, 165–71.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
OPCS (1990), Mortality and Geography: A Review in the mid-1980s, The Registrar General's decennial supplement for England and Wales, in Britton, M. (ed.), Series DS No. 9, HMSO, London.Google Scholar
Pacione, M. (1979), ‘Housing policies in Glasgow since 1988’, The Geographical Review, 69, 395–412.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Phillimore, P. (April 1991), How do Places Shape Health? Rethinking Locality and Lifestyle in N-E England, paper presented at British Sociological Association Annual Meeting, Manchester.Google Scholar
Pocock, S.J., Shaper, A.G., Cook, D.G., Packham, R.F., Lacey, R.F., Powell, P. and Russell, P.F. (1980), ‘British regional heart study: geographic variations in cardiovascular mortality, and the role of water quality’, British Medical Journal, 280, 1243–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Reid, M. (1992), Long Live Glasgow!, Greater Glasgow Health Board and Evening Times, Glasgow.Google Scholar
Roberts, C.J. and Lloyd, S. (1972), ‘Association between mortality from ischaemic heart disease and rainfall in South Wales and in the County Boroughs of England and Wales, Lancet, i, 1091–3.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scottish Office Home and Health Department (1991), Scotland's Health: A Challenge to Us All, HMSO, Edinburgh.Google Scholar
Shaper, A.G., Pocock, S.J., Walker, M., Cohen, N.M., Wale, C.J., Thomson, A.G. (1981), ‘British Regional Heart Study: Cardiovascular risk factors in middle aged men in 24 towns, British Medical Journal, 283, 179–186.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sooman, A. and Taggart, J. (1992), Price and Availability of a Selection of Basic Food Items in Two Localities in Glasgow City, MRC Medical Sociology Working Paper No. 33, Glasgow.Google Scholar
Townsend, P. (1987), ‘Deprivation’, Journal of Social Policy, 16: 2, 125–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Townsend, P. and Gordon, D. (1989), ‘What is enough?’, new evidence on poverty allowing the definition of a minimum benefit: paper presented at the International Sociological Association International Seminar on the Sociology of Social Security, University of Edinburgh, 4–6 July 1989.Google Scholar
Townsend, P., Phillimore, P. and Beattie, A. (1988), Health and Deprivation: Inequality and the North, Croom Helm, London.Google Scholar
Townsend, P., Simpson, D. and Tibbs, N. (1984), Inequalities of Health in the City of Bristol, Department of Social Administration, University of Bristol, Bristol.Google Scholar
Tudor-Hart, J. (1971), ‘The inverse care law’, Lancet, 405–12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
West, R.R. and Lowe, C.R. (1976), ‘Mortality from ischaemic heart disease—inter-town variation and its association with climate in England and Wales, International Journal of Epidemiology, 5, 195–201.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
West, R.R., Lloyd, S. and Roberts, C.J. (1973), ‘Mortality from ischaemic heart disease—association with wealth’, British Journal of Preventative and Social Medicine, 27, 36–40.Google Scholar
Williams, F.L.R., Lloyd, O.L. and Lloyd, M.M. (1988), Animal and Human Disease around a Site with Two Incinerators: A Review, Asia-Pacific Symposium on Environmental and Occupational Toxicology, 8, 475–83.Google Scholar
Wyke, S., Campbell, G. and Maclver, S. (1992), ‘Comparison of the provision of, and patient satisfaction with, primary care services in a relatively affluent and a relatively deprived area of Glasgow’, British Journal of General Practice, 42, 271–75.Google Scholar