What makes us sick?

Abstract

We can now go one step further and examine what influences the health differences described in the previous chapter. This question often forms the subject of a loaded debate, as it is closely linked to the issue of the degree of individual responsibility for health problems. Biological factors naturally play an important role: it is obvious that ageing is accompanied by deteriorating health, for example. However, biological factors are not the main explanation for the health differences between different socio-economic groups. This chapter therefore discusses the impact of lifestyle, living environment and job characteristics on health. We then focus specifically on the health dimension of “emotional well-being”. Finally, we place our results in a broader time perspective as it seems that health differences are partly determined by various characteristics of the parents.