International Centre for Health and Society, UCL
2005 Seminar Series
Monday 9 May, 5pm (followed by drinks at 6pm)
All very welcome - RSVP essential
Professor David Rose
Institute for Social and Economic Research, University of Essex
The NS-SEC and Health Inequalities'
Abstract
The UK has a tradition of using occupational data in relation to the
analysis of mortality and health inequalities which dates back to
1837. Official measures of socio-economic position were first
introduced from 1913 with the creation of the Registrar General's
Social Classes. In this seminar Professor Rose will discuss the
development of the new official UK government measure of socio-
economic position, the National Statistics Socio-economic
Classification (NS-SEC, in use since 2001) and the reasons why it was
created. The conceptual basis of the NS-SEC will be explained and its
structure will be described. A series of NS-SEC validation studies on
health inequalities using both UK death registration and other
official data will also be discussed. These studies show not only
that the NS-SEC is a good measure of socio-economic position, but
that health inequalities in the UK are in some ways even more marked
than had previously been supposed. Finally, Professor Rose will
briefly introduce the EU project which is developing a European
version of the NS-SeC for use in comparative research on health and
other issues.
David Rose is Research Professor of Sociology in the Institute for
Social and Economic Research at the University of Essex and was
Academic Convenor of the UK Economic and Social Research Council's
Review of Government Social Classifications (1994-2001). He was also
principal founder of the British Household Panel Survey (modeled on
PSID) and was successively its Deputy Director, Director and
Associate Director from 1989-97. His current research includes the
creation of European Union and American versions of the NS-SEC. He is
also undertaking research on social comparisons and social order. He
has written extensively on social class. Among his major publications
are Social Class in Modern Britain (Routledge 1989); Constructing
Classes (ESRC/ONS 1997); A Researcher's Guide to the NS-SEC (Sage
2003); Researching Social and Economic Change: The Uses of Household
Panel Studies (Routledge 2001) and The NS-SEC: Origins, Development
and Use (Palgrave Macmillan on behalf of ESRC/ONS July, 2005). He has
also published articles on social class and macro-sociology in
leading British, European and American journals. He is an Academician
of the Social Sciences and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and
has held visiting fellowships in France, Australia and Germany.
Ms Patricia Crowley
Dept of Epidemiology & Public Health, UCL
1 - 19 Torrington Place, London WC1E 6BT
T: (International code +44 20) or (Domestic code 020) 76791708
F: (International code +44 20) or (Domestic code 020) 7813 0280
New Masters course offered see: www.ucl.ac.uk/healthandsociety
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