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Sir Michael Gideon Marmot (born 26 February 1945) is Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health at University College London. He is currently the Director of The UCL Institute of Health Equity.[4] Marmot has led research groups on health inequalities for over thirty years, working for various international and governmental bodies. In 2023, he was elected to the American Philosophical Society.[5]
He has won several awards including 2012 Lifetime Award Fellowship Eur Academy of Occupational Health Psychology, 2012 Patron of Medsin-UK, 2010 Manchester Doubleday Award, and 2004 Alwyn Smith Prize Medal.
Early life and education
Marmot was born in London on 26 January 1945. When he was a young child, his family moved to Sydney in Australia,[6] where he attended Sydney Boys High School (1957–1961)[7] and graduated with an MBBS medical degree from the University of Sydney in 1969.[8][9]
Marmot advised the WHO.[12] He was chair of the Commission on Social Determinants of Health (CSDH), which was set up by the World Health Organization 2005, and in August 2008 he produced for the commission a report called Closing the Gap in a Generation.[13]
Marmot is a Foreign Associate Member of the Institute of Medicine (IOM).
Research
Marmot conducted ground-breaking studies of heart disease and stroke, comparing Japanese people in Japan (high stroke rates, low heart attack rates) with those in Hawaii and California, where, especially in later generations, the disease patterns became reversed after adopting lifestyle, stress and diet changes.[10] He has more recently led the Whitehall Studies of British civil servants, again focusing on heart disease and other disease patterns. His department includes the MRC National Survey of Health & Development, a longitudinal study directed by Professor Michael Wadsworth of people born in Britain in 1946 and followed up since. There are 120 other academic staff in the department.[20][21][22][23][24]
Marmot has a special interest in inequalities in health[25][26] and their causes, and has been a government advisor in seeking to identify ways to mitigate them. He served on the Scientific Advisory Group of the Independent Inquiry into Inequalities in Health chaired by Sir Donald Acheson, the former UK chief medical officer. This reported in November 1998.[27]
In The Status Syndrome: How your social standing directly affects your health and life expectancy, he argues that socio-economic position is an important determinant for health outcomes. This result holds even if we control for the effects of income, education and risk factors (such as smoking) on health. The causal pathway Marmot identifies concerns the psychic benefits of "being in control" of one's life. Autonomy in this sense is related to our socio-economic position. Based on comparative studies, Marmot argues that we can make our society more participatory and inclusive to increase overall public health.[citation needed]
On 6 November 2008, Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced that the Secretary of State for Health Alan Johnson had asked Marmot to chair a review of health inequalities in England; to inform policy making and address health inequalities from 2010.[citation needed] The review was announced at the launch of the Commission on Social Determinants of Health report Closing the Gap in a Generation.[citation needed] The review was published in 2010 entitled Fair society, healthy lives: the Marmot Review.[28]
In 2020, Marmot co-authored Health Equity in England: The Marmot Review 10 Years On.[29] It found that life expectancy is falling among the poorest people and particularly amongst women in certain English regions.[30] Published in the same year, Build Back Fairer: The COVID-19 Marmot Review explored connections between inequality in socioeconomic conditions and COVID-19 death tolls, recommending investing in public health. In 2021, a follow-up report looking at Greater Manchester noted a greater fall in life expectancy in the poorer areas of the county.[31][32] It made recommendations around improving living standards, working conditions and increasing prospects for young people.[33]
In 2022, Marmot warned of the risk of "a humanitarian crisis" the next winter caused by "fuel poverty", which could have long-term consequences mostly for the young and least well-off.[34]
Marmot, Michael; Wilkinson, Richard G. (2006) [1999]. Social Determinants of Health (2nded.). Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN9780198565895.
Marmot, Michael; Siegrist, Johannes (2006). Social Inequalities in Health: new evidence and policy implications. Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN9780198568162.
2002 Decade of Behaviour Distinguished Speaker, Gerontological Society of America
2002 Patricia B Barchas Award, American Psychosomatic Society
References
1 2 "Marmot, Prof. Sir Michael (Gideon)". Who's Who 2014, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 2014; online edn, Oxford University Press.(subscription required)
↑ McKeigue, P.M.; Shah, B; Marmot, M.G. (1991). "Relation of central obesity and insulin resistance with high diabetes prevalence and cardiovascular risk in South Asians". Lancet. 337 (8738): 382–86. doi:10.1016/0140-6736(91)91164-p. PMID1671422. S2CID21350831.
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