The Black Report and Inequalities in Health

Natural or Social Selection

There is evidence of ‘social drift’, where people with poor health suffer a decline in socio-economic position.

This graph shows the difference in the number of schizophrenia sufferers in each social class compared to the general population and this one shows the same for their fathers. You can see it indicates a trend for people suffering schizophrenia to drift into the lower social classes.

The opposite hypothesis, that the healthy rise in class, is less likely as many health problems only emerge in adulthood, once career choices have been made.