Status Syndrome: How Your Social Standing Directly Affects Your Health and Life Expectancy

by M . G . Marmot (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2004

  $3.35

  The rich countries of the world have remarkably good health. Malaria is long gone from Europe and the USA. Parasitic diseases do not wreak havoc with our lives. Infant mortality is below one in a hundred. Yet even so, where we stand in the social hierarchy is intimately related to our chances of getting ill and to how long we live. And the differences between top and bottom are getting bigger. This eye-opening book is based on more than twenty-five years of research that began with the Whitehall Studies in the 1980s. These showed that even among white-collar employees with steady jobs there is a clear social gradient in health. Michael Marmot's subsequent work took him round the world as he puzzled out the relationship between health and social circumstances. Everywhere from the US to Russia, from the Mediterranean to Australia, from Southern India to Japan, similar patterns emerged, showing that control over our lives and opportunities for full social participation are key factors for good health.

• Used

  Paperback
  2005

  $5.12

  Why do Oscar winners live for an average of four years longer than other Hollywood actors? Who experiences the most stress - the decision-makers or those who carry out their orders? Why do the Japanese have better health than other rich populations, and Keralans in India have better health than other poor populations - and what do they have in common? In this eye-opening book, internationally renowned epidemiologist Michael Marmot sets out to answer these and many other fascinating questions in order to understand the relationship between where we stand in the social hierarchy and our health and longevity. It is based on more than thirty years of front-line research between health and social circumstances. Marmot's work has taken him round the world showing the similar patterns that could be affecting the length of your life - and how you can change it.