Over the years, I’ve written about many different dimensions of the relationship between health and economic inequality on this blog—from children’s brain development to car crashes.
But, as Kat Arney [ht: ja] explains, “Unpicking the biological connections between external socioeconomic forces and an individual’s health is no easy task.”
Now apparently, researchers in England are beginning to unpick those connections, by measuring biological markers in the bloodstream. And what they’ve discovered is fascinating—and disturbing.
Apparently, measuring the levels of two molecules—an individual’s C-reactive protein and fibrinogen (as in the charts above)—and matching them against their socioeconomic position starts to reveal the hidden mechanisms connecting social inequality and health. And the missing link turns out to be stress.
“You have stressful life events such as bereavement or divorce, but we’re talking about understanding chronic long-term stresses,” Kumari says. “One of the things we think about is why is disadvantage stressful? For something like low income, it could be because you don’t have the same levels of control over your life. Maybe you can manage it for a little while, but over the long term it becomes a chronic stress. These things are hard to measure and capture.”
Bartley agrees more needs to be done to understand the financial causes of stress across society. “Debt is deadly for people – it’s the ultimate lack of control,” she says. “Housing is also a huge issue and it doesn’t get researched enough – living in poor situations is depressing, especially if you’re bringing up children. People in poverty can end up in social isolation, and that’s known to be associated with all kinds of unhealthy outcomes.”
From a policy perspective, if you know when health inequalities begin and when they peak, it becomes possible to target these age groups and allocate resources more effectively. A far more effective response, of course, would be to eradicate the grotesque inequalities that characterize contemporary society.
Toward this end, public health experts might suggest eliminating capitalism, which would decrease stress and improve people’s health.
occasional links & commentary 