Health, mortality and the standard of living: introduction

This chapter introduces a two-volume collection of seminal essays dealing with different aspects of the economic and social history of health and welfare. The organisation of the chapter corresponds to that of the two volumes. After a brief introductory section, it includes sections on the following topics: the decline of mortality; factors associated with mortality change; early-life origins of adult disease; living standards, income and wealth; anthropometric studies; height, weight and mortality; and the economic and social implications of health changes.