The patterning of health by social position in contemporary Britain: directions for sociological research.

Associations are described between health (variously measured) and occupational class, gender, marital status, age, ethnicity and area of residence, using British data. It is argued that when exploring the social patterning of health, illness and death, it would be profitable for sociologists to consider several or all of these social positions, and to develop models of general vulnerability to ill-health rather than of specific etiology. Three main types of explanation, artefact, health selection and social causation, are reviewed, and six general points are made about how sociological research on social patterning in health should proceed.