256 - Thematic Session. The Impact of Economic Inequality on Health and Developing Strategies to Reduce It

Session Submission Type: Invited Session

Abstract

Understanding the impact of socioeconomic factors on health is one of the strongest currents within medical sociology. This session brings together four papers that take very different approaches to this critical issue. The strong quantitative tradition in studying social determinants of health is represented by Bruce Link and colleagues, who use recently gathered data to examine the relative importance of early childhood circumstances vs. circumstances across the life course in determining adult SES and health. Elizabeth Gage Bouchard takes a qualitative approach to understanding economic factors and health, an approach that has been less well represented in the “social determinants” area. Her observations and interviews with low-income families detail the role of personal networks in shaping families’ health care experiences. Two papers – one by Adam Reich and Ryan Masters and one by James House – take innovative and highly sociological approaches to the problem of how to reduce inequalities in health.

Sub Unit

• Thematic Sessions

Session Organizer

• Jo C. Phelan, Columbia University

Individual Presentations

• Understanding the Long Reach of Child Health on Adult Health and Socioeconomic Status - Bruce G. Link, Columbia University; Ezra Susser, Columbia University; Ryan K. Masters, University of Colorado-Boulder

• Private Safety Nets and Social Leverage: The Role of Personal Networks in Shaping Low-income Families' Health Care Experiences - Elizabeth Gage-Bouchard, State University of New York-Buffalo

• Fundamental Interventions: Addressing the Fundamental Causes of Disease - Adam Dalton Reich, Columbia University; Ryan K. Masters, University of Colorado-Boulder

• Social Determinants and Disparities in Health and America's Paradoxical Crisis of Health Care and Health - James S. House, University of Michigan

Discussant

• Jeremy Freese, Northwestern University