Three separate research papers have been looking into the impact of wealth – or its lack – on health and longevity.

Not surprisingly, perhaps, being wealthy is a passport for health. Children from poor backgrounds, and in particular of parents who have never worked, are far more likely than their wealthier counterparts to die prematurely from some injury. If they survive their violent childhood, they are still more likely to die sooner than wealthier people if they still remain poor as adults.

The one anomaly is a study that suggests wealthier children are more likely to suffer from leukaemia and other childhood cancers. The study, which examined more than 32,000 cases of cancer in children under the age of 15 years throughout the UK, found disproportionate clusters in wealthier areas.

Prof Alex Elliott, chairman of the Committee on Medical Aspects of Radiation in the Environment (COMARE), which carried out the survey, explained: “If you’re wealthy you tend to live in a big house with more land around it, and have contact with fewer people.” Oh, that wealthy. The biggest cluster of childhood cancer cases was found in the county of Buckinghamshire, described as a ‘well-off county’. It’s a debatable point. There are plenty of areas of Buckinghamshire that aren’t well-off. Relatively speaking, the good people of Buckinghamshire may, in the main, be described as ‘comfortable’, but they certainly don’t all live in big houses with lots of land, and who rarely see other people.

COMARE reckons that some cancers may be viral, and so the wealthy children who never see anyone will not have built up natural immunity by being in regular contact with it.

Let’s just classify it as a theory that’s ‘interesting’, and move on quickly.

Once they reach adulthood, it’s pretty much plain sailing for the wealthy. The same could not be said for the poorer in society. Children from poor backgrounds are 13 times more likely to die before they reach the age of 15 than are children who are better-off. As pedestrians, they are 20 times more likely to die on the street, they are nearly 28 times more likely to die from an accident while cycling, they are 37 times more likely to die in a house fire, and they are 32 times more likely to die from some ‘undetermined intent’, including physical violence.

Finally, poor people who are constantly stressed from having a lack of money, enduring poor self-esteem and being bullied were ‘biologically older’ than people of the same age. Scientists reckon that their cells age more quickly, and were biologically seven years older than someone of their actual age who did not endure the same stresses.

The studies are a chilling reminder that, despite all the advances we appear to have made, longevity and well-being are still not a basic human right for everyone.

(Sources: COMARE study: COMARE 11th Report "The distribution of childhood leukaemia and other childhood cancers in Great Britain 1969-1993". ISBN: 0-85951-578-8; deaths from injury in children: BMJ, 2006; 333: 119-21; biological aging: Aging Cell, August 2006).