Understanding lay perspectives on socioeconomic health inequalities in Britain
A Meta-Ethnography
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2249331 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Katherine E Smith (0000-0002-1060-4102, Social Policy, School of Social & Political Science University of Edinburgh Edinburgh UK, corresponding author), Rosemary Anderson (Social Policy, School of Social & Political Science University of Edinburgh Edinburgh UK) |
| Year | 2018 |
| Volume | 40 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 146-170 |
| Publication date | 2018-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Sociology of Health & Illness (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0141-9889 • E-ISSN: 1467-9566 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/1467-9566.12629 |
| PMID | 29044572 |
| OpenAlex | W2765660476 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 49 |
| References cited | 40 |
The links between socioeconomic circumstances and health have been extensively studied in Britain but surprisingly few studies consider lay perspectives. This is problematic given popular efforts to reduce health inequalities appear to be based on assumption that public understanding is limited (this is evident in efforts to raise awareness of both 'upstream' causes of health inequalities and health-damaging behaviours). The results of this meta-ethnography, involving 17 qualitative studies, fundamentally challenge this assumption. We show, first, that people who are living with socioeconomic disadvantage already have a good understanding of the links between socioeconomic hardship and ill-health. Indeed, participants' accounts closely mirror the research consensus that material-structural factors represent 'upstream' determinants of health, while 'psychosocial' factors provide important explanatory pathways connecting material circumstances to health outcomes. Despite this, people living in disadvantaged circumstances are often reluctant to explicitly acknowledge health inequalities, a finding that we suggest can be understood as an attempt to resist the stigma and shame of poverty and poor health and to (re)assert individual agency and control. This suggests that work to increase public awareness of health inequalities may unintentionally exacerbate experiences of stigma and shame, meaning alternative approaches to engaging communities in health inequalities discussions are required
Agency (philosophy · Disadvantaged · Economic growth · Economics · Health equity · Inequality · Population · Poverty · Psychosocial · Public health · Shame · Social science · Socioeconomic status · Sociology · Stigma (botany · Employment and Welfare Studies · Health disparities and outcomes · Medicine · Obesity and Health Practices · Psychology · Social Psychology
A history of abuse
Young people’s views and experience of diet-related inequalities in England (UK)
Shape-shifting versions of class in Australia and the pursuit of equity in public health
Causal beliefs about social determinants of depression, poverty, and mortality
Subjective socioeconomic status and agreement that health is determined by distal and proximal factors
Going global with social determinants of health
Meat consumption, classed
Minding the gap
‘Bigotry is all around us, and we have to deal with that’
Public perspectives on inequality and mental health
Coproduction of a resource sharing public views of health inequalities
Young people's perspectives on addressing UK health inequalities
Causes, Solutions and Health Inequalities
Unequal high streets? A spatial analysis of inequalities in health-related amenities in England from 2014-2024
Why are socioeconomic health inequalities unacceptable? Studying the influence of explanatory framings on cognitive appraisals
Exploring Participation and Interaction in a Bottom-Up Health Promotion Program for Migrant Women in Norway
‘It depends on where you were born…here in the North East, there’s not really many job opportunities compared to in the South’
“Take away the greed of the private landlord housing market … because is killing people”
It All Kind of Links Really’
Covid-19 and pathways to health inequities for families in a socioeconomically disadvantaged area of Sweden – qualitative analysis of home visitors’ observations
Policy actors’ perceptions of public participation to tackle health inequalities in Scotland
Perceived health inequalities
Individualisation in public health
Falling down the rabbit hole? Methodological, conceptual and policy issues in current health inequalities research
Poverty, choice and dying in the UK
Eliciting public values on health inequalities
Framing the wider determinants of health and health inequalities
Do personal narratives make thematic maps more persuasive? Integrating concrete examples into maps of the social determinants of health
What shapes local health system actors’ thinking and action on social inequalities in health? A meta-ethnography
Exploring inequalities in health with young people through online focus groups
It is surprising how much nonsense you hear’
Children's perspectives on water, sanitation and hygiene in schools
It's like being in Tattooville’
Contextualising lifestyles
Exploring young people's perspectives on mental health support
Compliance and the social space of cities
An unequal health policy landscape? Examining socioeconomic differences in acceptability and preferences for policies that aim to reduce socioeconomic inequalities in health
Public understandings of potential policy responses to health inequalities
The Potential of Meta-ethnography in the Study of Public Administration
The state They're in
Power, control, strain
Health inequality attributions and support for healthcare policy
Scaling up
Known to be unhealthy
Suicide as slow death
The Role of Boundary Spanning in Building Trust
Health inequalities and contemporary youth
Conflicting experiences of health and habitus in a poor urban neighbourhood
Unemployment, sanctions and mental health
Work, Worklessness, and the Political Economy of Health
Beyond Evidence-Based Policy in Public Health
Checklists for improving rigour in qualitative research
Conducting a meta-ethnography of qualitative literature
Are rich people or poor people more likely to be ill? Lay perceptions, by social class and neighbourhood, of inequalities in health
Meta-Ethnography
Improving health in deprived communities
The ‘blemish of place’
Understanding the impacts of industrial change and area-based deprivation on health inequalities, using Swidler’s concepts of cultured capacities and strategies of action
Theorising participatory practice and alienation in health research
Nae as nice a scheme as it used to be”
Even the birds round here cough’
Location, location, location
Experiencing Environmental Inequality
Illustrating health inequalities in Glasgow
Reducing health inequalities
A typology of actions to tackle social inequalities in health
Can we reduce health inequalities? An analysis of the English strategy (1997–2010)
Working-class discourses of politics, policy and health
The wealthy get healthy, the poor get poorly? Lay perceptions of health inequalities
Individualisation and inequalities in health
Territorial Stigmatization in the Age of Advanced Marginality
Poor people, poor places, and poor health
That's just the cesspool where they dump all the trash
A proper place to live
"I used to be as fit as a linnet" - Beliefs, attitudes, and environmental supportiveness for physical activity in former mining areas in the North-East of England
Contrasting lives, contrasting views? understandings of health inequalities from children in differing social circumstances
How the other half live
Communal Beingness and Affect
Whose fault is it? People's own conceptions of the reasons for health inequalities
Youth and wellbeing
Beyond 'beer, fags, egg and chips'? Exploring lay understandings of social inequalities in health
Desperately seeking reductions in health inequalities
Structural violence and emotional health
We Need to Talk about Impact
Poverty in Global Perspective
| Unique citing works | 49 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 6,13 |
| Citation span | 2018 - 2026 (9) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 49 |