Professor Jan Abel Olsen - Widening the gap: The impact of increased social disparities in health behaviours on inequalities in health and wellbeing

On 29 January 2025, Professor from Jan Abel Olsen the Department of Community Medicine, University of Tromsø, Norway gave a talk on “Widening the gap: The impact of increased social disparities in health behaviours on inequalities in health and wellbeing”.

The study investigates the combined effect of two separate mechanisms that may contribute to explain this paradox: i) increased social stratification in health behaviours due to reinforced habit formation resulting from educational homogamy, and ii) the increasing relative importance of health behaviours in explaining health inequalities due to an expanding proportion of ill health caused by ‘lifestyle diseases’. By use of unique longitudinal data from a Norwegian population-based study (The Tromsø Study), the study follows 11,313 adults, aged 25-54 at baseline, over 21 years. Results show widening socioeconomic disparities in (un)healthy behaviours over time. The study investigates the relative importance of three health behaviours (smoking, obesity and physical activity) versus three socioeconomic indicators (own and spouse educations, childhood living standard), for explaining inequalities in health and wellbeing. The study provides new insight into the mechanisms that are widening health inequalities over the life course.

The seminar was well received, with a strong attendance both in person and online.