http://ije.oupjournals.org/cgi/content/full/30/2/292

The present issues of the International Journal of Epidemiology (IJE) contain eight reports of socioeconomic differences in health. These articles illustrate a number of traditional themes and point to new directions. There is a growing consensus that health inequalities need to be explained, as well as described, and that a life course perspective is required to explain them as biologically plausible phenomena. Significant incremental gains in knowledge can be achieved by studies that eliminate possible explanations of earlier findings. The work reported in the present issue demonstrates that a similar process is under way internationally. Second, efforts to reduce health inequalities should benefit from an appropriate knowledge base on which to form policy; for example, should early life be prioritized, or instead, critical transitions during the whole life course? The way we answer such questions may influence policy in the coming decades. (Au)(Sign-in/subscription is necessary for full-text)