[Continuative approaches of social structure for health inequality research--which perspective opens up the concept of living conditions?].

For the last 30 years the appropriateness of social strata concepts has been discussed controversially in Germany. It was hypothesised that changes in the social structure resulting in a greater heterogeneity of social living conditions has decreased the relevance of social strata concepts. However, socio-epidemiological research still revealed a strong social gradient, indicating that health risks are still depending on individual social background. Nevertheless, enhanced models of social stratification could be fruitful for socio-epidemiological research, particularly with respect to the objective of reducing health inequality. The 'concept of living conditions' is one of the continuative social strata approaches, which is based on a multidimensional concept of social inequality. First use of this concept provided promising results in obtaining a more precise description of health-related living conditions. In this paper, the concept is presented in more detail, spotlighting on questions about conceptual realisation as well as empirical implementation. The paper aims to encourage a wider discussion about the use of these concepts for socio-epidemiological research and medical sociological theory.