The Strategic Review of Health Inequalities in England, under the chairmanship of Professor Marmot, can be downloaded here The executive summary is an easy read with a number of interesting and striking diagrams. All we will do here is point up some of the main points.

Health problems slope up or down, depending where you are looking from. Each social group in society has, on average, worse health than the group above them and better health than the group below. "There is a social gradient in health - the lower a person's social position the worse his or her health". So one aim must be to even out the health inequalities across society.

Differences in life expectancy is an example. In Grimsby and Cleethorpes it can vary by 8 or 9 years according to where you live. In England as a whole, premature death costs around 1.5 to 2 million years of life.

What is true of how long you are likely to live applies also to a wide range of illnesses and disabilities. Examples are diabetes, heart problems, respiratory diseases, osteoporosis, and so on. These are on the same gradiant as life expectancy. So that the lower a person's social position the longer he or she is likely to live with one or more disabilities. When these two are put together the gap between the better and worst off averages about 17 years. The lucky ones will live longer and have a shorter life suffering disabilities.

One implication of the above is that it is unfair for a wide section of society to raise the retirement age. More investment in better health will both improve the economy and make a more just and fair society.

So what is to be done?
Priority must be given to early years programmes. A better start in life means longer and healthier lives.
Activities should be aimed at the whole of society, not only the worst off.
Help young people to maximise their skills and capabilities - more support for families - a "whole child" approach in education.
Reduce social isolation.
Invest in health prevention - proportionally across the whole of society.

The cost of doing nothing is very high..

As a follow up to this report the IDeA have produced a compendium with many contribution about how greater health equality can be furthered by local authorities. To see this and download click here.