HEALTH INEQUALITY

http://socialistregister.com/index.php/srv/article/view/6763

Inequality and health

David Coburn

Abstract

In 1820 average world life expectancy was about 26 years. By 1890 it had risen to thirty years. There was rapid improvement in the 20th century -- by 2004 average world longevity was over 65 years.  However general improvements have been accompanied by persistent inequalities in health which have recently increased. In every country the rich and more powerful live longer, healthier lives than do the poor. White men in the ten healthiest counties in the United States live over 15 years longer than black men in the least healthy counties.  Internationally, poorer nations generally, but not always, have much worse health than the wealthy nations.  While there are general, if recently slowing, world-wide improvements in health, some regions or nations -- notably sub-Saharan Africa, countries of the former Soviet Union, Iraq and North Korea -- have been declining in life expectancy.  The relationship between wealth and health, nationally and internationally, is not the only one where inequalities are important. Sex and race/ethnicity are important too. Women generally live longer than men, although experiencing greater illness, while aboriginal or native populations in colonised nations show very poor health compared to their non-aboriginal counterparts. But it is with the relation between general socio-economic status and health that this essay is primarily concerned.