Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 July 2004
The publication of the Black Report in 1980 is rightly seen as a landmark in the acknowledgement of an association between poverty and increased incidence of and premature mortality from a wide range of diseases. However, an increased incidence of disease with certain lifestyles or habits has been recognized since the time of Hippocrates, who identified ‘the mode in which inhabitants live, and what are their pursuits, whether they are fond of drinking and eating in excess’ as determinants of illness.