Social position, social roles and women's health in England: changing relationships 1984-1993

The aim of this study is to investigate the relationships between social ro les, social position and health in English women using theoretically derive d measures of social position. Data are taken from the Health and Lifestyle Survey, carried out between 1984-1985, and the Health Survey for England o f 1993. First the paper asks whether health inequality in women is still ev ident when theoretically derived measures (the Erikson-Goldthorpe schema an d the Cambridge scale) are used. It goes on to explore the extent to which different combinations of family roles and employment circumstances might a ffect social variations in health. Finally, the paper shows that health dif ferences between women in different combinations of social roles were not t he same in 1993 as in 1984 and examines some reasons why this change may ha ve occurred. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.