by Michael Marmot
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Product Description
ou probably didn't realize that when you graduate from college you increase your lifespan, or that your co-worker who has a slightly better job is more likely to live a healthier life. In this groundbreaking book, epidemiologist Michael Marmot marshals evidence from nearly thirty years of research to demonstrate that status is not a footnote to the causes of ill health-it is the cause. He calls this effect the status syndrome.The status syndrome is pervasive. It determines the chances that you will succumb to heart disease, stroke, cancers, infectious diseases, even suicide and homicide. And the issue, as Marmot shows, is not simply one of income or lifestyle. It is the psychological experience of inequality-how much control you have over your life and the opportunities you have for full social participation-that has a profound effect on your health.The Status Syndrome will utterly change the way we think about health, society, and how we live our lives.
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Average Customer Review:
18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
 An important contribution to understanding health inequalities, 2005-12-20
Marmot began his important work on social determinants of health with two long term studies of the British Civil Service finding that those who enjoyed higher status roles had better health and longer life expectancy than those who had lower status roles. This gradient from higher to lower applied throughout the service. Why was it so? And did it apply in other social and cultural contexts?
This book is a compelling exploration of the commonality of this phenomenum throughout both developed/transitional and developing country contexts, exploring the evidence and sifting the reasons for it. Status is found to be crucial - people with more opportunity to control their lives are more resiliant to stress and enjoy better health as a result (I simplify). It is not that healthier people enjoy better status because they are healthier - an argument carefully considered and dismissed - but people enjoying social contexts that enable them to secure status will enjoy better health and longer life. This applies as much to the rich social opportunities of Kerala in India as it does to an upper middle class suburb in the United States. Poverty, in itself, once basic needs are met, is not the issue as long as it is equally shared with all, what matters is the disequilibrium between people's status and being in the population denied access to opportunity to control one's life. The book is well-written, closely argued, and could change how you see the world for good.
10 of 51 people found the following review helpful:
 A book of socialist faith, not reason, 2005-11-24
Open Professor Marmot's book to almost any page and see him make firm statements and firm conclusions about research and anecdotal evidence which are in fact quite uncertain. It seems reasonable that status affects health, indeed I believe it does, but Professor Marmot throws anecdotes or questionable research conclusions at the troublesome fact that healthier people will achieve greater status, or in other words that healthier people are healthier.
Professor Marmot cares only about "inequality", not evil. For example, he appears to see no difference between the millions of Russians murdered by Stalin during Communist rule and the millions of Russians who have had shortened life expectancies during the collapse and aftermath of Communist rule, supposedly as a result of "inequality". Could these tens of millions of deaths have been due to people like Professor Marmot who sought a government-mandated end to inequality, and not to inequality itself?
Perhaps because the book promotes a politically correct, leftist, government-solution, tax and spend agenda as a solution for "inequality", it does not appear to have attracted serious criticism of its scholarship.
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
Invaluable teaching aid for public health students, 2005-10-03
This book is the perfect introduction to the study of Health Inequalities, especially in the context of occupational health. Students are gripped.
38 of 41 people found the following review helpful:
A topic in its infancy, 2004-09-28
You are a hot shot in a company, though not the boss. You are paid extremely well, but, again you have plenty of bosses above you (say the partners of an investment firm). Is it better than deriving a modest income being your own boss? The counterintuive answer is NO. You will live longer in the second situation, even controlling for diet, lifestyle, and genetic predispositions.
Marmot spent years poring over data; he left no stone unturned and is well read in the general literature on human nature. This idea of people living longer when they exert control over their lives has not spread yet. That people lead longer lives when they trust their neighbors and feel part of a community is far reaching. Just think of the implications on social justice etc. Also think that everything you learn on human preferences and well-being in both economics and medicine is either incomplete (medicine) or bogus (economics).
The book is well written, humorous at times, and rigorous --it reads like a well-translated scientific paper. But it feels that it is just the introduction to a topic. Please, write the continuation.
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