Does where you live affect your health and wealth?
Yes. Public health research has shown for decades that the conditions around a person, including income, work, control over their own life and the place they live, shape how long and how well they live. These are called the social determinants of health. Where you live sets the odds on income, education, health, lifestyle and legacy.
What did the Whitehall studies find?
The Whitehall II study of British civil servants, published in The Lancet in 1991, found that health differed by employment grade. The gradient appeared even among office workers who all had stable jobs.
What are the social determinants of health?
The World Health Organization's Commission on Social Determinants of Health, which worked from 2005 to 2008, described them as the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age, and the distribution of power and resources behind those conditions.
What does this mean for a decision?
When an event changes the conditions where you live, it changes your odds. Every Sovereo Universe case asks how an event reaches those five areas of life. Priya and Emmanuel Grant weigh their own plans this way. This is education, not medical or financial advice.
Sources
- Marmot et al., Health inequalities among British civil servants: the Whitehall II study, The Lancet, 1991 (PubMed)
- World Health Organization, Commission on Social Determinants of Health, 2005 to 2008