The decennial allows researchers to examine health outcomes by social class. The five class scheme Registrar was created in 1911 and was still used until 2001. The National Statistics Socio-Economic Classification (NS-SEC) replaced the RGSC.
Table 1: Classifications of Social Classes.
RGSC
NC-SEC
I Professional occupations
1 Senior professionals/senior managers
II Managerial and technical occupations
2 Associate professionals/junior managers
III Skilled occupations
3 Other administrative and clerical workers manual (M) and non-manual (N)
4 Own account non-professional
IV Partly-skilled occupations
5 Supervisors, technicians and related workers
V Unskilled occupations
6 Intermediate workers 7 Other workers 8 Never worked/other inactive
http://www.healthknowledge.org.uk/public-health-textbook/medical-sociology-policy-economics/4c-equality-equity-policy/inequalities-distribution.13/03/2015
The Black Report, published in 1980 shows social class health inequalities in overall mortality and it also showed that health inequalities were widening. The four possible explanations for widening socio-economic health inequalities are:
Artefact: Population statistics came from the decennial census however death and cause of death information came from other sources such as death certificates. In many cases a person’s details may have been described differently in the two sources leading to contrasting data. The report also suggests widening inequalities may be explained by the shrinking of completely unskilled employees in social class V. With fewer people who were completely unskilled, on average health of social class V moved further from social class I. The report also noted that the meaning of social class may have changed over time as some jobs disappear and others emerge. http://www.healthknowledge.org.uk/public-health-textbook/medical-sociology-policy-economics/4c-equality-equity-policy/inequalities-distribution.