Life circumstances: overview

The circumstances in which people live impact directly on their health, both mental and physical. Its importance as a determinant of health has long been acknowledged, and is reflected in Government policy documents such as Better Health, Better Care (2007), Equally Well (2008), Achieving Our Potential: A Framework to tackle poverty and income inequality in Scotland (2008) and The Early Years Framework (2009).

This part of the web site tries to reflect some of the more influential aspects of life circumstances, with a range of important, and often overlapping, topics. These include: the physical environment; income and economy; deprivation; the social environment (with associated topics such as education and crime); and community well-being (another topic which overlaps with much of the above).

Page update: The last update of this page was completed in February 2009. The next review is due to be carried out by end February 2010.