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Health inequalities and the psychosocial environment
ARTICLE IN PRESS
Social Science & Medicine 58 (2004) 1461
Preface
Health inequalities and the psychosocial environment This collection of original research contributions on ‘Health Inequalities and the Psychosocial Environment’ results from a unique scientific collaboration among several research teams across Europe. It is one of the achievements of the Scientific Programme on ‘Social Variations in Health Expectancy in Europe’ funded by the European Science Foundation (ESF) for the period 1999–2003. For the first time, two ESF research councils, the Standing Committee for the Social Sciences and the European Medical Research Council, coordinated their efforts to support a scientific programme that aims at advancing explanations of one of the most urgent and well-documented modern public health problems, the widening of social inequalities in morbidity and mortality between and within countries. This programme has been supported by 22 ESF Member Organisations of 13 European countries, and it has assembled some 70 scientists from Europe including transatlantic link with leading researchers from the United States and Canada. Collaborative work was largely organised along three topics dealt with in three respective working groups. The focus of Work Group I was on life course approaches towards explaining social inequalities in health, with particular emphasis on early life. Work Group II concentrated on social and psychological determinants of health in midlife (especially at work) and on psychobiological pathways linking an adverse psychosocial environment with ill health. Macrosocial variations in health expectancy were the topic of Work Group III where issues of regional disparity, income inequality and social capital were analysed.
The contributions collected in this special issue resulted from scientific collaboration within Work Group II. These were selected by us on the basis of their scientific merit and their topical importance. We are convinced that these articles provide robust and most up-to-date evidence of the importance of an adverse psychosocial environment in understanding variations in human health and disease. We are grateful to all authors who contributed to this special issue, and we also thank the anonymous reviewers for their helpful feedback. Our special thank goes to Prof. Mildred Blaxter, the Associate Editor of this Journal who supported this initiative from the very beginning with her outstanding skills and enthusiasm, and to Prof. Sally Macintyre, the Editor in Chief, for her interest and final acceptance of the Issue. We are grateful to Simone Weyers, the Scientific Coordinator of this ESF scientific programme, for her help in communicating with authors and in preparing final versions of the manuscript. We thank the representatives of the European Science Foundation for their support of a very stimulating and important programme of scientific collaboration.
0277-9536/$ - see front matter r 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/S0277-9536(03)00348-4
Michael Marmot Johannes Siegrist Guest editors Department of Medical Sociology, Heinrich Heine Universitaet, Universitaetsstrasse 1, Duesseldorf 40225, Germany E-mail address: [email protected]
Social Science & Medicine 58 (2004) 1461
Preface
Health inequalities and the psychosocial environment This collection of original research contributions on ‘Health Inequalities and the Psychosocial Environment’ results from a unique scientific collaboration among several research teams across Europe. It is one of the achievements of the Scientific Programme on ‘Social Variations in Health Expectancy in Europe’ funded by the European Science Foundation (ESF) for the period 1999–2003. For the first time, two ESF research councils, the Standing Committee for the Social Sciences and the European Medical Research Council, coordinated their efforts to support a scientific programme that aims at advancing explanations of one of the most urgent and well-documented modern public health problems, the widening of social inequalities in morbidity and mortality between and within countries. This programme has been supported by 22 ESF Member Organisations of 13 European countries, and it has assembled some 70 scientists from Europe including transatlantic link with leading researchers from the United States and Canada. Collaborative work was largely organised along three topics dealt with in three respective working groups. The focus of Work Group I was on life course approaches towards explaining social inequalities in health, with particular emphasis on early life. Work Group II concentrated on social and psychological determinants of health in midlife (especially at work) and on psychobiological pathways linking an adverse psychosocial environment with ill health. Macrosocial variations in health expectancy were the topic of Work Group III where issues of regional disparity, income inequality and social capital were analysed.
The contributions collected in this special issue resulted from scientific collaboration within Work Group II. These were selected by us on the basis of their scientific merit and their topical importance. We are convinced that these articles provide robust and most up-to-date evidence of the importance of an adverse psychosocial environment in understanding variations in human health and disease. We are grateful to all authors who contributed to this special issue, and we also thank the anonymous reviewers for their helpful feedback. Our special thank goes to Prof. Mildred Blaxter, the Associate Editor of this Journal who supported this initiative from the very beginning with her outstanding skills and enthusiasm, and to Prof. Sally Macintyre, the Editor in Chief, for her interest and final acceptance of the Issue. We are grateful to Simone Weyers, the Scientific Coordinator of this ESF scientific programme, for her help in communicating with authors and in preparing final versions of the manuscript. We thank the representatives of the European Science Foundation for their support of a very stimulating and important programme of scientific collaboration.
0277-9536/$ - see front matter r 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/S0277-9536(03)00348-4
Michael Marmot Johannes Siegrist Guest editors Department of Medical Sociology, Heinrich Heine Universitaet, Universitaetsstrasse 1, Duesseldorf 40225, Germany E-mail address: [email protected]