Socioeconomic circumstances such as our social class or income are thought to be strongly linked to our health. On average, the more socioeconomically advantaged someone is, the better their health. Socioeconomic circumstances seem to be important at different points in life. Regardless of what happens later in life, socioeconomic circumstances in childhood seem to have strong effects on adult health. Contrary to a widely-held myth, these differences are not inevitable or unchangeable. Economic and health policies change across time, and are ultimately expected to either worsen (widen) or improve (narrow) these differences.

Scientists, government departments, and voluntary organisations all tend to agree that inequalities in health should be reduced. To inform this aim, this project will provide new evidence to understand:

1. How these inequalities have changed across time.
2. How these inequalities may be reduced
3. How changes in socioeconomic factors have influenced the overall health of the public in the later 20th and early 21st century.

This projects uses data from four birth cohorts – three CLS studies, tracking individuals born in 1958, 1970, and 2000, and the MRC National Survey of Health and Development, following a cohort born in 1946.

These studies contain very detailed information on socioeconomic circumstances across life as well as different measures of health. In the past, researchers have tended to use these studies separately. Analysing them together is a very powerful way of understanding how inequalities have changed across time in society.