SOC239H5 Chapter Notes - Chapter 4: Infant Mortality, Housing Tenure, Binge Drinking
Document Summary
Socioeconomic gradient in health = the graded relationship between socioeconomic position and health in which an improvement in socioeconomic position is associated with a corresponding increase in health i. e lower risk for death and disease. Document more than four hundred pages named after the chair of the committee, sir douglas black. Those with higher status in a given society have lower rates of mortality and morbidity than those with a lower position in society. The nature of the relationship nearly always conforms to a gradient pattern, such that the risk for mortality and morbidity increases as one"s socioeconomic position decreases. The relationship between socioeconomic position and mortality begins at birth, with infant mortality significantly lower among the wealthiest. Income, education and occupation also influence mortality risk during adulthood. Avoidable deaths = deaths that could have been prevented with timely access to medical care. Researchers have generally found that mortality in later life is associated with educational attainment but not income.
