Dear Ruth!
Thanks so much for alerting us to the following book (see more details further down):
Marmot, Michael (2004). How Our Position on the Social Gradient Affects Longevity and Health. London: Bloomsbury.
Ruth Lister (please meet her on our Advisory Board) writes today: "there is a new book out here about the impact on health etc of social hierarchy."
Most warmly!
Evelin

Status Syndrome by Michael Marmot
Stress thrills the rich, but kills the poor
By Marek Kohn
18 June 2004
http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/

In his political credo, pronounced at the beginning of the year, the Conservative leader Michael Howard declared his disbelief that one person's poverty is caused by another's wealth, or that one person's sickness is made worse by another's health. It seems safe to assume that his disbelief is shared by his opposite number, and by most people with any influence over how such matters are nowadays arranged. To think otherwise seems to hark back to a bygone age in which one person's wealth was another's poverty because there was not enough to go around. Greed is a virtue - though it is now gauche to put it so bluntly - but envy remains a vice.
It's hard to imagine things any other way, dazzled as we are by the spectacle and onrush of unleashed wealth-generation that has surrounded us for the past quarter-century. But, during this period, research- ers such as Michael Marmot (now Sir Michael, and professor of epidemiology and public health at University College London) have been gathering evidence that offers the possibility of transforming our understanding of health, happiness and how to make a good society. Michael Howard's disbeliefs are beside the point. What we need to grasp is that one person's health may be made worse by another person's wealth.
For this to make sense, we have to stop thinking of wealth simply in material terms. Once there is enough to assure the basics of life for all, one person's wealth is not harmful because it reduces the amount left for another, but because it raises the wealthy person to a higher rank. As social status rises, so do health prospects and life expectancy.
Marmot pioneered this understanding with his studies of Whitehall civil servants, in which he discovered a steady gradient in the risk of heart disease from the lowest grades to the topmost. Men at the bottom were four times more likely to die than men in charge - and less than a third of the gradient disappeared when the usual suspects, such as smoking and cholesterol, were factored out. (Status Syndrome is generally surer of itself about men than women.)
Elsewhere, similar effects were observed in baboons, leading to predictable amusement and a theory of how status is related to health. Low status leads to stress, forcing the individual into permanent crisis mode, inducing physiological changes that can lead to heart disease. For Marmot and his colleagues, control is at the heart of the matter. The more control you feel able to exert over your situation, the more likely stress is to be stimulating rather than corrosive.
Other studies display the other side of the coin: having a sense that one is supported by relationships with others, rather than oppressed by them, is very good for health. One researcher exposed volunteers to cold viruses, having quizzed them about their friends, family and colleagues. The more numerous and varied the relationships, the less likely the volunteers were to catch colds.
By contrast, Marmot conveys the effects of solitude not with data but with a quote of exquisite aptness from Joseph Conrad's Nostromo, in which a marooned man is overcome, to the point of suicide, by "a state of soul in which the affectations of irony and scepticism have no place".
Adorned with epigraphs, bubbling with findings, discreetly illuminated by the light of social justice, written considerately for ordinary readers, Status Syndrome is packed with ideas that should have been coursing through public debate for years now. Marmot's understated voice makes him more comfortable as raconteur than as crusader.
He is not the thinking person's Michael Moore, nor this year's Naomi Klein, though he is presenting more radical ideas than they are. Despite its conversational tone, and contrary to some media coverage, Status Syndrome is not a conversation piece about social climbing. It is about how to save lives, and how to live good lives.

The Status Syndrome
June 08, 2004
http://theresident.typepad.com/

'Status Syndrome: How Our Position on the Social Gradient Affects Longevity and Health' is the title of book by Sir Michael Marmot, professor of epidemiology and public health at University College London.
In his book, Sir Michael outlines the very real possibility of the connection between status and longevity (and health). His research found that:
"People with PhDs live longer than those with masters degrees. Those with a masters live longer than those with a degree, while those with a degree live longer than those who left school early.
Similarly, actors who have won an Oscar will live on average three years longer than those who were nominated for the award but missed out. "
Sir Michael says that our health and longevity is influenced to a high degree to our social standing. Status it seems, is more important than genetics, supersize fast food or even smoking - and yeah, even money.
"Your position in the hierarchy very much relates to how much control you have over your life and your opportunities for full social engagement."
These feelings, he and others argue, profoundly affect one's health. Sir Michael believes that giving people more control over their lives and ensuring they play a full part in society will boost health and extend lifespan.

Status syndrome: How your social standing directly affects your health and life expectancy.
High status - not financial resources - makes you healthier
http://www.eurekalert.org/

Autonomy, a sense of control over your life and social connectedness - rather than actual financial resources or access to medical services - have the greatest impact on your health and life expectancy. That is the core argument of Michael Marmot's, Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health and Director of the International Centre for Health and Society at University College London (UCL), new popular science book "Status Syndrome," launched by Bloomsbury Publishing, on 7th June from 6pm at UCL, Gower Street.
"The lower in hierarchy you are, the less likely it is that you will have full control over your life and opportunities for full social participation," says Michael Marmot in the book. "Autonomy and social participation are so important for health that their lack lead to deterioration in health."

"Status Syndrome" is based on more than three decades of research by Michael Marmot that began with the Whitehall Studies in the 1970s. These showed that even among white-collar employees with steady jobs there is a clear social gradient in health. Marmot's subsequent work took him round the world as he puzzled out the relationship between health and social circumstances. From the US to Russia, from the Mediterranean to Australia, from Southern India to Japan, similar patterns emerged.

In addition, class systems are not just at play in England – they are just as bad, if not worse in Australia, America and other so-called classless societies. Studies in Sweden have shown that men with a doctorate had 50 per cent lower mortality than men who had tertiary education. In the US those in the poorest households have nearly four times the risk of death of those in the richest. In the UK, office workers are more likely to die of coronary heart disease the lower down the hierarchy they go.

Some of the key questions raised within "Status Syndrome" include:
Why are the poor more likely to get heart disease, AIDS, cancer, mental illness and all of today's other common killers?
Why do Oscar winners live for an average of four years longer than their Hollywood actors?
Who experiences most stress – the decision-makers or those who carry out their orders?
Why does life expectancy rise by twenty years over the twelve-mile subway ride that divides poor black downtown Washington DC and rich white Montgomery County?
Why does Japan have better health than other rich populations of the world and the province of Kerala in southern India have much better health than other poor populations of the world – and what do they have in common?
In the Whitehall Study 11 of British Civil Servants, the higher their position in the hierarchy, the more happiness they enjoyed. This is not a quirk of the British Civil Service. Colleagues in Wisconsin looked at two American studies – and found exactly the same thing: the higher the social position the greater the level of happiness.
Michael Marmot answers these questions and more in an agenda-setting book with huge implications for social and health-care policy and the worlds of education and finance.

Status Syndrome
http://www.bloomsbury.com/

How Our Position on the Social Gradient Affects Longevity and Health
by Michael Marmot
Bloomsbury Publishing 2004
ISBN 0747570493
Format Trade paperback, B format 288 pages. 234x153 mm.

We have remarkably good health in the rich countries of the world. Malaria is long gone from Europe and the USA. Parasitic diseases do not wreak havoc with our lives. Infant mortality is below one in a hundred. Yet even so, where we stand in the social hierarchy is intimately related to our chances of getting ill and to how long we live. And the differences between top and bottom are getting bigger.

This eye-opening book is based on more than twenty-five years of front-line research that began with the Whitehall Studies in the 1980s. These showed that even among white-collar employees with steady jobs there is a clear social gradient in health. Michael Marmot's subsequent work took him round the world as he puzzled out the relationship between health and social circumstances. Everywhere from the US to Russia, from the Mediterranean to Australia, from Southern India to Japan, similar patterns emerged, showing that control over our lives and opportunities for full social participation are key factors for good health.

‘Despite the widespread belief that molecular biology will soon vanquish disease, there remains the discomfiting fact that health can be predicted to an astonishing extent by being poor, feeling poor, and being made to feel poor. Any discussion of this subject inevitably comes to the Rosetta stone of this field, Michael Marmot's Whitehall Studies. Now Marmot offers a book that deciphers this phenomenon for the general public. Amid pages of wisdom, he proves himself to be a fun, accessible writer. Status Syndrome is a wonderful, important book’ Robert Sapolsky, author of Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers

‘Michael Marmot is a world-class scientist who writes deeply about matters of life and death with the grace of a world-class essayist. This important new book encapsulates a quarter century of his research that shows how toxic inequality, hierarchy, and social isolation can be. Anyone concerned about the health of our society should read this book’  Robert D. Putnam, author of Bowling Alone and Better Together
‘Status Syndrome, beautifully written by the founder of the field, explores the life-shortening effects of social stress and lack of control. Michael Marmot combines the findings and the insights of many disciplines into a fascinating story of the nexus of social life and individual death’ Daniel Kahneman, professor of psychology and public affairs, Princeton University, and winner of the 2002 Noble Prize in Economics
‘Anybody who gives it a moment's thought knows that poor people tend to have more health problems than do the rich. But why? In Status Syndrome, Michael Marmot tells us not only why being poor is lousy for one's health, but what can be done to bring health equity to the world. He has done us a great, great favor by writing this eminently readable, informative, and spectacular book.’ Laurie Garrett, author of Betrayal of Trust.

International Centre for Health and Society
2004 Public Seminar Series, UCL
Monday 7 June 5.00pm (followed by drinks at 6pm)
Professor Sir Michael Marmot, UCL
'Status Syndrome'
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/

Abstract
Go on a 12 mile subway journey from Washington DC to suburban Maryland. Life expectancy for men at the city end is 20 years shorter than for men in the wealthy suburbs. Being at the bottom of the social pile is bad for health, but so is not being at the top. Not only do we see fine gradations in health according to status in the Whitehall studies, but we see them everywhere. In Sweden, if you have a PhD, you have longer life expectancy than if you have a professional qualification. A Master's degree will gain you longer life than a bachelor's. Why among people who are not deprived should there be a social gradient in health? In his new book, Status Syndrome, Michael Marmot draws on his own research, and others', to show that the social gradient in health is related to the nature of the society in which we live and work. Although all societies have social hierarchies the magnitude of the gradients in health vary. A gradient in health among non-human primates suggests that the usual suspects - medical care, health behaviours - will not do as an explanation. An important gateway to health inequalities is through the brain. How much control an individual has and opportunity for full social engagement in society are crucial for health. These are related to early child development, material well being, the nature of work and communities and the circumstances in which older people live. All offer prospects for reduction in health inequalities.
Michael Marmot, Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health and Director of the International Centre for Health and Society at University College London, has been at the forefront of research into health inequalities for the past 20 years, as Principal Investigator of the Whitehall studies of British civil servants, investigating explanations for the striking inverse social gradient in morbidity and mortality. He was awarded a knighthood in 2000 by HM The Queen for services to epidemiology and understanding health inequalities.
This public seminar will be followed by a reception to mark the launch of Professor Michael Marmot's book 'Status Syndrome - How Our Position on the Social Gradient Affects Longevity and Health', Bloomsbury, June 2004. ISBN 0747570493.
RSVP seminar attendance not later than Friday 04/06/04 (indicating any special needs and for direction to the seminar room). Seats are limited and will be allocated on a first come first served basis.
International Centre for Health and Society Dept of Epidemiology & Public Health UCL, 1 - 19 Torrington Place London. WC1E 6BT T: +44 (0)20 7679 1708 E: ichs@public-health.ucl.ac.uk

Status Syndrome
by Professor Sir Michael Marmot
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/
Presented here with the permission of
Alexandra Brew, Media Relations Team, University College London

Why do Oscar winners live for an average of four years longer than other Hollywood actors? Why does life expectancy rise by 20 years over the 12 mile subway journey that divides poor black downtown Washington DC and rich white Montgomery County? Who experiences more stress – the decision makers or those who carry out their orders? These are just some of the questions posed by UCL’s Professor Sir Michael Marmot in his new book, ‘Status Syndrome’.

Spanning 30 years of research, including the Whitehall studies, which examined the gaping differences in the health of employees of the British civil service, ‘Status Syndrome’ examines the link between people’s position on the social ladder and their corresponding health. “Despite having no extremes of rich and poor, Whitehall was an ideal laboratory to discover how subtle differences in social ranking can lead to dramatic differences in health,” says Professor Marmot. For example, men at the bottom of the office hierarchy had, at ages 40 – 64, four times the risk of death than administrators at the top of the hierarchy. Similarly, smokers in lower grades were found to have a higher risk of heart disease than smokers in higher grades. Additional research from Australia, Sweden, Russia, the United States and India, also reveals similar findings.

Did you know…
In Sweden, men who are educated to Doctorate level have a 50% lower mortality rate than men who are just educated to degree level.
Oscar winning actors live four years longer on average than their co-stars and the actors nominated who did not win. However, scriptwriters who win Oscars do not live longer than scriptwriters who did not.
Japan has the longest life expectancy in the world, at 81.3.
A study, conducted in Britain, found that people who have access to a car have lower mortality rates than those who do not. Similary, people who own their house have lower mortality rates than those who do not.
extracts taken from ‘Status Syndrome’ by Professor Michael Marmot

Two key factors are identified as having the greatest impact on health and life expectancy – a sense of control over your life, and opportunities for social engagement. “The lower in the hierarchy you are, the less likely it is that you will have full control over your life and opportunities for full social participation. Autonomy and social participation are so important for health that the absence of them leads to deterioration in health,” says Professor Marmot.

“The book will not tell you what to eat for breakfast or how many times a week to go jogging, important as these things may be. Its aim is to help, by understanding the causes of the status syndrome, change the way we think about what we can do to lead more fulfilling lives and how we can shape the society in which we live to achieve that end,” says Professor Marmot.

Sir Michael Marmot has been at the forefront of research into health inequalities and was awarded a knighthood in 2000 for services to epidemiology and understanding health inequalities.