The Black Report and Inequalities in Health

Social Capital

During the 1950s and 60s a study of the Italian-American community of Roseto, Pennsylvania, where heart attacks were fifty percent less frequent than surrounding communities, explained these differences by the greater social cohesion of this group.

The idea that social isolation is bad for health is also supported by self-report studies that show housewives, the unemployed and the retired as reporting significantly poorer health than those who are employed.