Abstract: This book raises new and critical issues about health inequalities. It provides an international perspective on this problem, with contributions from the developed and developing world. The outcome of a Public Health Forum organized by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, this book brings together material from internationally recognised contributors from a wide range of disciplines and countries. The chapters reflect this diversity, ranging from the micro- to the macro-level, and from aetiology to intervention. Topics covered include: the over-arching concepts linking economic and social forces and health status the extent to which ethical concerns lie at the heart of the issue of inequalities in health and attempts to ameliorate them; macro-level features of inequalities in health within and between countries; an overview of the main body of work on inequalities in health in developed countries and those in transition within Europe; specific pathways and mechanisms at the individual level that link poverty and inequality to health status; the interaction of social and biological influences on health status throughout life; specific disease-specific links; and issues of policy and interventions aimed at reducing inequalities in health.

Keywords: health inequalities, Public Health Forum, micro-level, macro-level, health status, developed countries, poverty and inequality, social influences, biological influences, policy