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Health, Ageing and Social Differentials: A Case Study of Soweto, South Africa

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Abstract

This article analyses the relationship between health of people over sixty and a range of social differentials in a specific social context of a relatively deprived community in South Africa. Basic measures of social inequality as well as more sophisticated indicators of social relationships and access to social resources and how they are linked to peoples' perception of their own health are explored. The paper is based on a secondary analysis of data collected in a comprehensive social survey of Soweto conducted in 1997 by a team of researchers based mainly in the Department of Sociology at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. The results present an interesting scenario, which, while reaffirming the already established connection between social differentials, social ties and health, also sheds light on a different social context and specific relationships with regard to health.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

    Leah Gilbert

  2. School of Social Work, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel

    Varda Soskolne

  3. Hadassah Medical Organization, Jerusalem, Israel

    Varda Soskolne

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  1. Leah Gilbert
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  2. Varda Soskolne
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Gilbert, L., Soskolne, V. Health, Ageing and Social Differentials: A Case Study of Soweto, South Africa. Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology 18, 105–125 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1025133917517

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