Health, health risks and inequalities: an exploratory study of women's perceptions

Recent theoretical and empirical research has highlighted the importance of understanding the relationship between social structure and health beliefs. The empirical study described here explores the relationships between occupational social class and two dimensions of health beliefs which were concepts of health and perception of vulnerability to disease. Both the dimensions are claimed to be associated with decisions to carry out health behaviour and thus one of the aims was to shed some light on the social class gradient in patterns of preventive health behaviour and risk-taking behaviour. The findings showed a more marked social class differentiation in concepts of health when they were defined in the abstract compared with when they were defined in relation to personal health. The concept of personal vulnerability itself was shown to be problematic and theories about vulnerability were similar for both classes. Explanations for the findings are discussed.