How early childhood shapes our health and how long we live

Since the 2008 WHO Commission on the Social Determinants of Health report, which was chaired by the Institute of Health Equity’s Director, Professor Sir Michael Marmot, we have understood why and how our social circumstances (where we are born, grow, live, work and age) affect health equity (the size of the ‘health gap’ between the top and bottom of society). Large health gaps are unfair and avoidable.

The government-commissioned Marmot review of health inequalities in 2010, Fair Society, Healthy Lives, highlighted that our health and how long we live all starts in early childhood. Acting on the social determinants of health, such as reducing adverse childhood experiences, is crucial to our health and how long we live.

As the UCL Institute of Health Equity’s COVID-19 Marmot Review shows, the pandemic has widened inequalities in health and the social determinants of health. The pandemic is showing prioritising everyone’s health, and reducing inequalities, is vital to building back fairer, ‘levelling up’ and the functioning of society.

As the Marmot Review 10 Years On confirmed, we know what to do and how to do it. Where people have better living and working conditions, better education, more social capital and better access to health services, they have been less susceptible to infection and severe COVID-19 disease.

Links:
- Report from WHO Commission on the Social Determinants of Health (2008): https://www.instituteofhealthequity.org/resources-reports/commission-on-social-determinants-of-health-closing-the-gap-in-a-generation
- Fair Society, Healthy Lives (2010): https://www.instituteofhealthequity.org/resources-reports/fair-society-healthy-lives-the-marmot-review
- UCL Institute of Health Equity’s COVID-19 Marmot Review: https://www.instituteofhealthequity.org/resources-reports/build-back-fairer-the-covid-19-marmot-review
- The Marmot Review 10 Years On: https://www.instituteofhealthequity.org/resources-reports/marmot-review-10-years-on

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