The biology of social inequality

On average, individuals from more disadvantaged social backgrounds will develop diseases earlier and die earlier compared with their more advantaged peers. Indeed, so ubiquitous is the association between health and wealth that it has been referred to as a ‘fundamental’ cause of disease. Understanding how social group based differences in socio-economic position (SEP) get biologically embedded in the tissues and organs of the body to precipitate earlier ageing of the poor is an important research endeavour with implications for public policy. This project will investigate the extent to which life course psychosocial stressors (e.g. traumatic life events) contribute to social inequalities using data from the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA); a large nationally representative panel study of ageing in the Republic of Ireland involving data for some 8500 individuals with rich life course data and deep biological phenotyping.

Faculty Supervisor:

Diane Lagace

Student:

Partner:

Trinity College Dublin

Discipline:

Sociology

Sector:

Education

University:

University of Ottawa

Program: