In this study, the first of two whitehall studies, michael marmot, professor of epidemiology and public health and head of the international centre for health and society at university college in. The whitehall ii study was established to explore the relationship between socioeconomic status, stress and cardiovascular disease. Between 1985 and 1988 we investigated the degree and causes of the social gradient in morbidity in a new cohort of 10 314 civil servants 6900 men, 3414 women aged 3555 the whitehall ii study. The whitehall studies have come to be closely associated with.
British civil servants in the first whitehall study an inverse gradient by. The study was an attempt to avoid some of the problems created by the use of general social class groupings, e. Students should work with their parents, teachers, and school counselors as they select courses for next school year and develop plans for graduation and beyond. This research has been carried out in the longitudinal whitehall ii study of 10308 male and female civil servants, aged 3555 years on entry to the study in 1985. So the social gradient isnt only related to poverty, its. The whitehall studies have come to be closely associated with the. To the best of our knowledge, this research represents the first analysis of the whitehall ii data by a researcher outside the whitehall study. The whitehall ii study has shown evidence that the. The whitehall study examined mortality rates over 10 years among male british civil servants aged 2064. Smoking has been categorised according to cigarette use as current smoker. The whitehall study concentrates on one industry in which there is. Whitehall study ii health economics research centre herc. Whitehall ii, a study of 10,314 british civil servants aged 3555 published in the lancet in 1991, represents this attempt.
Particularly important to whitehall ii is the effect of psychosocial factors, such as stress and social support, on disease. The initial prospective cohort study, the whitehall i study, examined over 17,500 male civil servants between the ages of 20 and 64, and was conducted over a period of ten years, beginning in 1967. The whitehall ii study was set up to determine what underlies this grade or social gradient in death and disease and to include women. The whitehall ii study is the model for occupational cohorts such as those in helsinki and japan, 21 and a plan for a whitehall in washington study is being discussed by the national institutes of health. The whitehall studies investigated social determinants of health, specifically the cardiovascular. It contains all the courses offered at whitehall yearling high school. This cohort of civil servants has been followed up since then with repeated phases of data collection every 23 years.
The first whitehall study made clear that inequalities in health were not limited to the health consequences of poverty. But the whitehall study showed there is a social gradient in health even though the participants were neither very rich nor very poor. Magnitude and causes whitehall study journal of epidemiology. Approximately 19029 men from the selected population, all aged between 4069 years were recruited for investigation between the 19671970s, for identifying the risk factors that lead to the incidence of cardiovascular diseases. The whitehall studies investigated social determinants of health, specifically the cardiovascular disease prevalence and mortality rates among british civil servants. The whitehall study of british civil servants begun in 1967, showed a steep inverse association between social class, as assessed by grade of employment, and mortality from a wide range of diseases. The original whitehall study investigated social determinants of health, specifically the cardiorespiratory disease prevalence and mortality rates among british. The wellcome trustfunded cohorts in novosibirsk, krakow, and prague are populationbased and are using many common protocols to study. Whitehall study health economics research centre herc. The influential whitehall studies of british civil servants identified a strong inverse relation ship between employment rank and mortality, but we. The whitehall study i included a sample that was selected from british civil servants, all male during the 1960s. In the 20 years separating the two studies there has been no diminution in social class difference in morbidity. The wellcome trustfunded cohorts in novosibirsk, krakow, and prague are populationbased and are using many common protocols to study health inequalities in postsoviet siberia and. The name whitehall originates from the first whitehall study of 18,000 men in the civil service, set up in 1967.
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