The conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age are mostly responsible for health inequalities—the unfair and avoidable differences in health that divide populations. Economic and social disadvantage make people more vulnerable to illness, disability, suffering and premature death. For convenience, researchers studying the social determinants of health tend to focus on a limited set of markers of social status, such as income, education, occupation, race or ethnicity and neighborhood qualities (home ownership, property values, degree of segregation).
