Health disparities, such as substantial differences in life expectancy or infant mortality across and within countries, are the result of inequalities in health. The social determinants of health range from financial, educational, occupational and are also linked to gender, race and socio-economic status.

“Inequalities in Health provides a platform to consider how social factors impact health. This section aims to propose a place where we can organize and structure our ideas to push knowledge forward and hopefully bring clarity,” state the Chief Editors Michelle Kelly-Irving and Cyrille Delpierre both of INSERM (France).

Access to research on Inequalities in Health 

Chief Editors Michelle Kelly-Irving and Cyrille Delpierre both of INSERM (France) have seen an abundance of papers published on the complex relationship between society, biology and health, but the research is spread across a wide number of journals.

The Chief Editors see open access as crucial to furthering research in the field, and represents an equal playing field:

“We work on health inequalities. The underlying issue is how poverty and social disadvantage affect people’s health. No one should have to pay to access knowledge, least of all in this area.”

Socio-economic inequalities in childhood obesity

“While the rates of childhood obesity may be moderating, there is good evidence that the rate of moderation has not been equal across socio-economic groups. This may serve to exacerbate inequalities,” comment Michelle Kelly-Irving and Cyrille Delpierre.

Their inaugural Research Topic Socio-economic inequalities in childhood obesity will explore the epidemic rise of obesity, one of the greatest challenges of the 21st century.

This Research Topic is now open for submissions.

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Frontiers journals have some of the highest citation rates. Among the world’s 20 largest publishers in 2017, Frontiers ranks 4th most-cited with an average of 3.65 citations per article.  In total, Frontiers articles have received more than 700,000 citations to date.