Inequalities in Health: The Evidence; The Widening Gap: Health Inequalities and Policy in Britain

Inequalities in Health: The Evidence

Eds David Gordon, Mary Shaw, Daniel Dorling, George Davey Smith

Policy Press, £18.99, pp 272

ISBN 1 86134 174 1

The Widening Gap: Health Inequalities and Policy in Britain

Mary Shaw, Daniel Dorling, David Gordon, George Davey Smith

Policy Press, £16.99, pp 294

ISBN 1 86134 142 3

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Inequalities in Health is a useful collection of state of the art papers, written by British experts for the Independent Inquiry into Inequalities in Health. The inquiry, commissioned by the newly elected Labour government in 1997 and chaired by Sir Donald Acheson, reviewed the evidence on inequalities in health in England in order to identify areas for policy development likely to reduce these inequalities. In 1998 it published its report with only a summary of the evidence, and now we have the complete evidence in our hands. There are 19 reports, on topics ranging from children to ethnic minorities, from housing to nutrition, and from mental to oral health.

It is clear that this inquiry has done more than any previous commission, both in Britain and elsewhere, to base its recommendations on scientific evidence. In …