HEALTH: A lifetime paying price of poverty

Wealth and social class determine your health throughout your life, with the less well off particularly susceptible to heart disease.

Two studies in today's British Medical Journal call for action to redress inequalities in health after "many years of inaction".

The first study, carried out in Glasgow found that the risk of heart attacks increased sharply with increasing deprivation while the chance of reaching hospital alive decreased and the chance of dying during the attack increased.

The other study carried out in the west of Scotland found that the lower your social class the more likely you are to be heavier, smoke cigarettes, and have bronchitis and angina.

Manual workers were also shorter with worse lung function and less likely to have never smoked. Glenda Cooper