University College London, UK.
J Health Psychol. 1997 Jul;2(3):283-96. doi: 10.1177/135910539700200302.
The first Whitehall Study of British civil servants demonstrated an inverse gradient in mortality. The lower the grade the higher was the mortality risk. This higher mortality risk applies to most but not all causes of death. The Whitehall II Study, set up to investigate causes of this social gradient shows similarly marked gradients in morbidity. A review of potential causes of the gradient suggests that it is due neither to health selection nor simply to differences in lifestyle, but that relative deprivation-a psychosocial concept-and the accumulation of socially-patterned exposures over the life course, must be important. Whitehall II suggests that the operation of these factors is to be found in the specific circumstances under which people grow, live and work.
第一份英国公务员的白厅研究报告表明，死亡率呈逆梯度分布。级别越低，死亡率风险越高。这种更高的死亡率风险适用于大多数但不是所有死因。设立白厅 II 研究旨在调查这种社会梯度的原因，表明发病率也存在类似显著的梯度。对梯度潜在原因的审查表明，这既不是由于健康选择，也不仅仅是生活方式的差异，而是相对剥夺——一个心理社会概念——以及一生中社会模式暴露的积累，一定是重要的。白厅 II 表明，这些因素的作用可以在人们成长、生活和工作的具体环境中找到。
