This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Chamberlain, K. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by Chamberlain, K. Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Socio-economic Health Differentials

From Structure to Experience

Massey University, New Zealand

A large and expanding literature demonstrates the existence and persistence of socio-economic differences in health. This literature is extensive, but very little of it examines the individual's experience of health. This article argues the need for research into socio-economic differentials in health from a qualitative perspective, and draws on research from this perspective to present and discuss several issues of relevance to health differentials. These include talking about health, contact with health professionals, views on modem medicine, the meaning of health, control and fatalism, smoking and health, diet and food, exercise and fitness and the healthy body. Findings illustrate considerable differences in the ways people from upper and lower socio-economic positions understand and experience health and illness, and also demonstrate how their health-related concerns are embedded in the fabric of everyday lives. Further research from this perspective has potential for improving our understanding of socio-economic differentials in health. In closing, the article offers some directions for future research, and identifies three issues: the type of qualitative approach adopted; the nature of linguistic accounts; and the need for a theoretical framework, to which future research should attend.

Key Words: class • health differentials, qualitative research • socio economic status

Journal of Health Psychology, Vol. 2, No. 3, 399-411 (1997)
DOI: 10.1177/135910539700200308


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				R. E. Aronson, B. L. Norton, and M. C. Kegler Achieving a "Broad View of Health": Findings From the California Healthy Cities and Communities Evaluation Health Educ Behav, June 1, 2007; 34(3): 441 - 452. [Abstract] [PDF]

				S. Ek Information Literacy as a Health Promoting Determinant Health Informatics Journal, June 1, 2004; 10(2): 139 - 153. [Abstract] [PDF]

				M. Murray, D. Pullman, and T. H. Rodgers Social Representations of Health and Illness among ' Baby-boomers' in Eastern Canada J Health Psychol, September 1, 2003; 8(5): 485 - 499. [Abstract] [PDF]

				D. Hodgetts and K. Chamberlain The Social Negotiation of People's Views on the Causes of Illness J Health Psychol, May 1, 2000; 5(3): 325 - 336. [Abstract] [PDF]

				G. Scambler and P. Higgs Stratification, Class and Health: Class Relations and Health Inequalities in High Modernity Sociology, May 1, 1999; 33(2): 275 - 296. [Abstract] [PDF]