JESS Seminar CANCELLED: Neighbourhood socioeconomic inequality and allostatic load

There is a well-established social gradient in health outcomes in the UK. A wealth of evidence documents that being from a lower social position is associated with poorer health outcomes and a shorter life expectancy compared to those more advantaged. Increasingly, evidence suggests that neighbourhood context poses an additional risk factor for poor health, independent of individual socioeconomic circumstance, with studies suggesting that residing in a deprived neighbourhood is associated with poorer health. The role of environment and place in health is, however, multidimensional and can contribute to health inequalities in a myriad of ways. This study therefore seeks to empirically model the association between neighbourhood socioeconomic context, operationalised as an educational index of concentration at the extremes and allostatic load, a multi-systems view of the cumulative wear and tear on the body to explore how it is that ‘the social gets under the skin’. With the collection of biomarkers, Understanding Society, a nationally representative social survey, represents a unique opportunity to explore the processes by which individual pathways interact with the environment to shape health outcomes across the lifecourse.