This selection of scientific papers and books presents an overview of factors that affect the health of a population, concentrating on income distribution, which has been found to be perhaps the most significant component when considering health as measured by life expectancy or infant mortality. Income distribution acts as a summary of contributors to relative deprivation and is closely related to psychosocial variables likely to impact on health. Many studies within populations find socioeconomic or psychosocial factors strongly affect health, making income distribution a good measure to use in beginning to look at what affects a population's health. The book Unhealthy Societies is the best place to begin further study.

1. Wilkinson RG. Unhealthy Societies: the afflictions of inequality. London: Routledge, 1996.

2. Kawachi I, Kennedy BP, Wilkinson RG, eds. The Society and Population Health Reader, Volume I: Income Inequality and Health. New York: New Press, 1999.

3.  Wilkinson R, Marmot M, eds. Social Determinants of Health:  The Solid Facts. Copenhagen: World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe, 1998.

4.   Marmot M, Wilkinson RG, eds. Social Determinants of Health. Oxford: Oxford University Press,1999.

5.  Kindig DA. Purchasing Population Health:  Paying for Results. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1997

6. Lynch J, Kaplan GA. Understanding how inequality in the distribution of income affects health. Journal of Health Psychology 1997; 2: 297-314

7. Wilkinson RG. Unfair Shares: the effects of widening income differentials on the welfare of the young. London: Barnardos, 1994

8. Wilkinson RG. The epidemiological transition: from material scarcity to social disadvantage?In: Daedalus. (Journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences). 1994; 123 (4):61-77

9. Kawachi I, Levine S, Miller M, Lasch K, Amick III B. Income inequality and life expectancy - theory, research, and policy. Society and Health Working Paper Series No. 94-2; Boston: Harvard School of Public Health, 1994.

10. Blane D, Brunner E, Wilkinson R. (editors). Health and Social organization: Towards a health  policy for the twenth-first century. London: Routledge, 1996

11. Davey Smith G, Egg$ M. Commentary: understanding it all - health, meta-theories, and mortality trends. British Medical Journal 1996; 313: 1584-5

12. Quick A, Wilkinson RG. Income and health. London: Socialist Health Association, 1991.

13. Kaplan GA, Lynch JW. Editorial. Whither studies on the socioeconomic foundations of  population health? American Journal of Public Health. 1997; 87: 1409-11.

14. Raphael, D. (2001). Inequality is Bad for Our Hearts: Why Low Income and Social Exclusion are Major Causes of Heart Disease in Canada. Toronto: North York Heart Health Network.