Research topics

The overarching research paradigm of CHESS covers the life course (also of consecutive generations) and the organization of humans in social groups, communities and strata. Since resources and determinants of health are distributed unequally between these groups, their health risks will also differ. The health and survival of individuals are hence a result of social, psychological and biological processes, intertwined throughout the life course of consecutive generations, resulting in differences in health and survival between groups in society. Hence, our research field requires the multidisciplinary approach that is built into, and permeates, the organizational structure of CHESS.

 This general understanding of how social inequalities in health are generated and sustained is a reflection of and a motivation for the key research areas of the research programme at CHESS. Five central elements of this programme are 1) Early origins of adult disease and later life chances, 2) Intergenerational transmission of health and social risks, 3) Living conditions and health among children and adolescents, 4) Social and economic conditions and contexts and health, and 5) Welfare states, social policies and comparative health.