Characteristics of individuals and characteristics of areas: investigatingtheir influence on health in the Whitehall II study

There is evidence that health is determined by macro-level factors as well as by individual risk factors. Using data from the Whitehall II study we co nsider area-level determinants of health and ask two related questions. Fir stly, are health differences between areas explained by the individual risk profiles of residents ill there areas? Secondly, since poorer people tend to live in poorer places, are individual socio-economic effects on health e xplained by where people live? The demographic characteristics of residents , level of deprivation in the area, housing and neighbourhood quality and s ocial integration were independently associated with health but did not ful ly explain differences between areas. Although there was considerable resid ential polarisation, area deprivation did not explain why lower status part icipants had poorer health. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reser ved.