Training Workshop ‘Socio-Economic Inequalities in Mortality Over Time’
February 27, 2026 @ 09:00 - 17:30
There is evidence that the relationship between socio-economic status and health, particularly mortality, is not constant. Depending on the context, inequalities in mortality have emerged, widened, or decreased over the past two centuries. It is not yet clear why this is the case.
This workshop will bring together demographers, historians, economists, and other scholars to understand how socio-economic inequalities in mortality change over time. Prof. Sean Clouston is invited to deliver the keynote lecture, and be the trainer, at this workshop. The workshop centers on discussing and testing the four-stage model proposed by Clouston et al. (2016). The model’s four stages are:
1). Natural mortality – characterized by little or no population-level understanding of disease risk factors or treatments.
2). Producing inequalities – marked by unequal access to new knowledge, technologies, or treatments;
3). Reducing inequalities – as innovations become more widely accessible;
4). Reduced mortality/disease elimination – where prevention and treatment are effective and broadly distributed.
We focus particularly welcome submissions examining:
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The timing and mechanisms through which socio-economic inequalities in mortality emerge and evolv
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The diffusion of medical, behavioral, or public health innovations and their differential uptake;
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Whether and when Clouston et al. (2016)’s framework applies when considering different causes of death, time periods, and national or regional contexts;
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Interactions between social policy, health systems, and population health inequalities
Format & Output:
This one-day workshop is designed as a forum for in-depth training, discussion and feedback. We aim to bring together early-career and senior researchers working on aligned questions. Following the workshop, we plan to pursue a collaborative output, either as a joint paper or as a special issue of a journal.
