The Status Syndrome: How Social Standing Affects Our Health and Longevity. This item is unavailable.The Status Syndrome: How Social Standing Affects Our Health and Longevity

"Bold, important and masterful . . . Marmot's message is not just timely, it's urgent."
-The Washington Post Book World

You probably didn't realize that when you graduate from college you increase your lifespan, or that your co-worker who has a slightly better job is more likely to live a healthier life. In this groundbreaking book, epidemiologist Michael Marmot marshals evidence from nearly thirty years of research to demonstrate that status is not a footnote to the causes of ill health-it is the cause. He calls this effect the status syndrome.

The status syndrome is pervasive. It determines the chances that you will succumb to heart disease, stroke, cancers, infectious diseases, even suicide and homicide. And the issue, as Marmot shows, is not simply one of income or lifestyle. It is the psychological experience of inequality-how much control you have over your life and the opportunities you have for full social participation-that has a profound effect on your health.

The Status Syndrome will utterly change the way we think about health, society, and how we live our lives.

Sir Michael Marmot is Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health at UCL, a leading intellectual both in the UK and globally. He will take up the Lown visiting professorship at Harvard in 2015. He chaired the WHO Commission on Social Determinants of Health (2005-8), his recommendations have been adopted by the World Health Assembly and taken up by many countries and the British Government appointed him to conduct a review of social determinants and health inequalities. The Marmot Review and its recommendations are now being implemented in three-quarters of local authorities in England. He previously published Status Syndrome in 2004.