There has been much speculation about a possible association between the social and built environment and health, but the empirical evidence is still elusive. The social and built environments are best seen as contextual concepts but they are usually estimated as an aggregation of individual...

Perceptions that rural populations are inevitably healthier and live longer than urban populations are increasingly being challenged. But very few publications have investigated the extent to which these putative differences can be explained by variation in area composition. Existing...

Common health problems (CHPs) such as pain, depressed mood and fatigue are often cited as causes of disability and incapacity for work. The aim of this qualitative study was to investigate beliefs about CHPs in relation to work. Focus groups (n = 16) were undertaken with 79 people aged...

The expansion of GP fundholding (GPFH) is central to the British government's attempt to maintain the revolution under way in the National Health Service (NHS). Evaluations of the NHS reforms have portrayed GPFH as an important mechanism for competition, and GPFH's bargaining power is reported...

This paper explores the links between lay knowledge, place and health related social action (or agency) at the individual and collective level. It is based on an analysis of in-depth interviews and neighbourhood survey data across four localities in two cities in the North West of England. The...