"The chances of a long and healthy life are unequal: there are large differences between men and women, between members of different ethnic groups, between regions and between social classes. Health inequality is of increasing concern in all developed countries, forming one of the WHO's Health for All by the Year 2000 targets. In the UK the New Labour government has commissioned an independent inquiry into its causes and consequences. Health inequality has to be studied in a way that breaks down the boundaries between medicine and social science. This collection of papers reflects this concern. It represents the contribution of the social sciences: sociology, economics, psychology, geography and social policy, to the understanding and alleviation of health inequality. "

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