Michael Marmot

Professor Sir
Michael Marmot
CH FRCP FFPM FMedSci FBA
Born
Michael Gideon Marmot

(1945-01-26) 26 January 1945 (age 81)
London, England
Education
Known for
SpouseAlexandra Naomi Ferster
Awards
Scientific career
FieldsEpidemiology
Workplaces
ThesisAcculturation and Coronary Heart Disease in Japanese-Americans (1975)

Sir Michael Gideon Marmot (born 26 January 1945) is professor of epidemiology and public health at University College London (UCL), director of the UCL Institute of Health Equity, advisor to the Director-General of the World Health Organisation (WHO) on social determinants of health, and a leading researcher in the field of health inequalities. He leads the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) and is a former president of the British Medical Association and the World Medical Association.

Marmot is known for using epidemiological studies to investigate how social, cultural and environmental factors influence health. His early studies found that Japanese-American men who maintained traditional Japanese lifestyles had lower rates of heart disease, while research on French migrants suggested that health related behaviours may continue after migration. His work found that unlike Irish migrants, Italian, Polish and Caribbean male migrants had lower overall death rates than people in their countries of origin, suggesting that healthier individuals may have been more likely to migrate. Later, his Whitehall II study showed that lower ranking civil servants had poorer health and higher death rates than senior employees, highlighting the link between socioeconomic status and health inequalities. He subsequently served on the Scientific Advisory Group of the "Independent Inquiry into Inequalities in Health" chaired by Sir Donald Acheson, the former UK chief medical officer.

Marmot's awards and honours include around 20 honorary doctorates, the Balzan Prize (2004) for epidemiology, the Harveian Oration (2006), the Jenner Medal of the Royal Society of Medicine (2010), and the Prince Mahidol Award (2015) for public health. In the 2023 New Year Honours he was appointed a Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour for services to public health. His publications include Fair Society, Healthy Lives (2010), The Health Gap: The Challenge of an Unequal World (2015), The Status Syndrome: How your social standing directly affects your health and life expectancy (2015), and Health Equity in England: The Marmot Review 10 Years On (2020).

Early life and education

Michael Marmot was born in London on 26 January 1945. When he was a young child, his family moved to Sydney in Australia, where he attended Sydney Boys High School between 1957 and 1961. In either 1968 or 1969 he graduated with an MBBS medical degree from the University of Sydney.

Marmot earned a MPH degree in 1972. He gained a PhD in 1975 from the University of California, Berkeley for research into acculturation and coronary heart disease in Japanese Americans.

Career

Marmot was a member of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution for six years[when?] and in the New Year Honours 2000 he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II, for services to epidemiology and the understanding of health inequalities.

Marmot advised the WHO. He was chair of the Commission on Social Determinants of Health (CSDH), which was set up by the World Health Organization 2005, and in August 2008 he produced for the commission a report called Closing the Gap in a Generation.

He leads the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA), and is engaged in several international research efforts on the social determinants of health. He served as president of the British Medical Association (BMA) from 2010 to 2011, and is the new president of the British Lung Foundation.

Marmot served as president of the World Medical Association for 2015–16. During his tenure he faced calls to eject the Israeli Medical Association (IMA) from the World Medical Association, owing to the evidence of Israeli doctors complicity with the torture of Palestinians. He received criticism for not only refusing to eject the IMA but also accepting the IMA's stated commitment to medical ethics without investigating any of the torture claims.

Marmot was elected member of the Academia Europaea in 1995.

Marmot was appointed Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) in the 2023 New Year Honours for services to public health.

Memberships

Marmot was elected as a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (FRCP) in 1989. He became a fellow of the Faculty of Public Health (FFPHM) in 1989, a fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci) in 1998, and was elected an honorary fellow of the British Academy (Hon FBA) also in 2008.

He has been furthermore elected an honorary fellow of the Royal Society of Public Health (Hon FRSPH) in 2008, an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists (Hon FRCPsych) in 2013, and an honorary fellow of the Faculty of Public Health (Hon FFPH).

In 2023 he was elected to the American Philosophical Society.

Research

Marmot's epidemiological studies have investigated how social, cultural and environmental factors influence health. In the 1970s he led research that found that Japanese-American men who retained traditional Japanese cultural practices had lower rates of coronary heart disease than those who adopted more Western lifestyles. The most Westernised group had three to five times higher rates of heart disease, even after accounting for major risk factors such as diet, cholesterol, blood pressure and smoking. The disease patterns became reversed after adopting lifestyle, stress and diet changes.

In 1984, Marmot noted that motor vehicle accident deaths were common in both France and French migrants living in England, suggesting that behaviours or cultural influences from their home country may continue after migration. In the same year he published his study that found that unlike the Irish migrants, Italian, Polish and Caribbean male migrants had lower overall death rates than people in their countries of origin, suggesting that healthier individuals may have been more likely to migrate.

Between 1985 and 1988, Marmot led the second Whitehall Study, which examined the health of over 10,000 middle aged British civil servants across 20 Whitehall departments. The study found that employees in lower grades had poorer health, higher rates of angina and chronic bronchitis, and higher death rates than those in senior positions. These inequalities were associated with differences in lifestyle, income, working conditions and social support, highlighting the influence of socioeconomic circumstances on health and life expectancy.

His department includes the MRC National Survey of Health & Development, a longitudinal study directed by Professor Michael Wadsworth of people born in Britain in 1946 and followed up since. There are 120 other academic staff in the department.

He served on the Scientific Advisory Group of the Independent Inquiry into Inequalities in Health chaired by Sir Donald Acheson, the former UK chief medical officer. This reported in November 1998.

In The Status Syndrome: How your social standing directly affects your health and life expectancy, he argues that socio-economic position is an important determinant for health outcomes. This result holds even if we control for the effects of income, education and risk factors (such as smoking) on health. The causal pathway Marmot identifies concerns the psychic benefits of "being in control" of one's life. Autonomy in this sense is related to our socio-economic position. Based on comparative studies, Marmot argues that we can make our society more participatory and inclusive to increase overall public health.[citation needed]

In 2008, Marmot appeared in Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making Us Sick?, an American documentary series examining the social determinants of health that drew heavily from Marmot's work on the Whitehall Studies.

In November 2008, Marmot was asked by the Secretary of State for Health to chair an independent review of health inequalities in England, tasked with proposing the most effective evidence based strategies for reducing them after 2010. The review reported in February 2010 as Fair Society, Healthy Lives.

In 2020, Marmot co-authored Health Equity in England: The Marmot Review 10 Years On. It found that life expectancy is falling among the poorest people and particularly amongst women in certain English regions. Published in the same year, Build Back Fairer: The COVID-19 Marmot Review explored connections between inequality in socioeconomic conditions and COVID-19 death tolls, recommending investing in public health. In 2021, a follow-up report looking at Greater Manchester noted a greater fall in life expectancy in the poorer areas of the county. It made recommendations around improving living standards, working conditions and increasing prospects for young people.

In 2022, Marmot warned of the risk of "a humanitarian crisis" the next winter caused by "fuel poverty", which could have long-term consequences mostly for the young and least well-off.

Selected publications

Books

  • Marmot, Michael (2015). The Health Gap: The Challenge of an Unequal World. Vol. 386. Bloomsbury. pp. 2442–4. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(15)00150-6. ISBN 978-1-4088-5799-1. PMID 26364261. S2CID 27066898.
  • Marmot, Michael (2015). The Status Syndrome: How Social Standing Affects Our Health and Longevity. Bloomsbury. ISBN 978-1-4088-7268-0.
  • Marmot, Michael; Wilkinson, Richard G. (2006) [1999]. Social Determinants of Health (2nd ed.). Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-856589-5.
  • Marmot, Michael; Siegrist, Johannes (2006). Social Inequalities in Health: new evidence and policy implications. Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-856816-2.
  • Marmot, Michael (2004). The Status Syndrome: How Social Standing Affects Our Health and Longevity. New York: Times Books. ISBN 978-0-8050-7370-6.
  • Marmot, Michael; Wilkinson, Richard G. (2003). The Solid Facts. Copenhagen: World Health Organization, Regional Office for Europe. ISBN 978-0-585-49252-0.

Journal articles and reports

Awards and honours

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Marmot, Prof. Sir Michael (Gideon)". Who's Who 2014, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 2014; online edn, Oxford University Press.
  2. 1 2 "Professor Sir Michael Marmot - Institute of Health Equity". Institute of Health Equity. Archived from the original on 7 October 2026. Retrieved 7 October 2026.
  3. ↑ "Sir Michael G. Marmot". www.iarc.who.int. World Health Organization. Retrieved 16 October 2026.
  4. ↑ Profile Archived 23 March 2019 at the Wayback Machine, shsobu.org.au. Retrieved 31 January 2016.
  5. 1 2 Westin, Steinar (1 November 2017). "Meeting Sir Michael Marmot – another 'Marmot Review'". Scandinavian Journal of Public Health. 45 (7). SAGE Publications Ltd STM: 694–711. doi:10.1177/1403494817717449. ISSN 1403-4948.
  6. 1 2 "M. Marmot's Academic Background". Archived from the original on 13 October 2026. Retrieved 8 September 2022.
  7. 1 2 3 4 "Michael Marmot CV". World Medical Association. Archived from the original on 13 October 2026. Retrieved 31 December 2022.
  8. 1 2 Marmot, Michael Gideon (1975). Acculturation and Coronary Heart Disease in Japanese-Americans (PhD thesis). University of California, Berkeley. ProQuest 302770471.
  9. ↑ "No. 55710". The London Gazette (Supplement). 30 December 1999. p. 1.
  10. ↑ Rise in life expectancy has stalled since 2010, research shows The Guardian
  11. ↑ "M. Marmot, Chair of CSDH". 13 March 2015. Retrieved 8 September 2022.
  12. ↑ "M. Marmot, President of BMA". Retrieved 8 September 2022.
  13. ↑ "M. Marmot, President of British Lung Foundation". Retrieved 8 September 2022.
  14. ↑ "M. Marmot, President of WMA". Retrieved 8 September 2022.
  15. ↑ Summerfield, Derek A. (12 February 2016). "Sir Michael Marmot, the World Medical Association, and medical complicity with torture in Israel". The BMJ.
  16. ↑ "M. Marmot, member of Accademia Europaea". Retrieved 8 September 2022.
  17. ↑ "No. 63918". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 December 2022. p. N6.
  18. ↑ Professor Sir Michael Marmot Hon FBA - website of the British Academy
  19. ↑ "The American Philosophical Society Welcomes New Members for 2023".
  20. 1 2 3 4 5 Jasso, Guillermina; Massey, Douglas S.; Rosenzweig, Mark R.; Smith, James P. (2004). "7. Immigrant Health: Selectivity and Acculturation National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine". Critical Perspectives on Racial and Ethnic Differences in Health in Late Life 2004. Washington DC: The National Academies Press. pp. 227–266. doi:10.17226/11086. ISBN 978-0-309-09211-1.
  21. ↑ Fonagy, Peter; Higgit, Anna (2007). "1. The early social and emotional determinants of inequalities in health". In Baruch, Geoffrey; Fonagy, Peter; Robins, David (eds.). Reaching the Hard to Reach: Evidence-based Funding Priorities for Intervention and Research. John Wiley & Sons. p. 8. ISBN 978-0-470-03328-9.
  22. ↑ Jetten, Jolanda; Selvanathan, Hema Preya (2025). Political Psychology: Revisiting the Classic Studies. SAGE Publications. p. 217. ISBN 978-1-5296-9105-4.
  23. ↑ Valles, Sean (2018). "2. A brief history of the social context of health and its role in population health science". Philosophy of Population Health: Philosophy for a New Public Health Era. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. pp. 36–37. ISBN 978-1-351-67078-4.
  24. ↑ Marmot, M.G.; Smith, G.D.; Stansfeld, S; Patel, C; North, F; Head, J; White, I; Brunner, E; Feeney, A (1991). "Health inequalities among British civil servants: The Whitehall II study". Lancet. 337 (8754): 1387–93. Bibcode:1991Lanc..337.1387M. doi:10.1016/0140-6736(91)93068-k. PMID 1674771. S2CID 2791924.
  25. ↑ "Independent Inquiry into Inequalities in Health Report" (PDF). www.gov.uk. Retrieved 30 May 2019.
  26. ↑ "Unnatural causes" (PDF). California newsreel. 2008. Retrieved 16 October 2026.
  27. 1 2 "Fair Society, Healthy Lives (The Marmot Review)". Institute of Health Equity, University College London. 2010. Archived from the original on 13 October 2026. Retrieved 16 August 2026.
  28. ↑ "Marmot review". Policy Navigator. The Health Foundation. Retrieved 16 August 2026.
  29. ↑ "The Marmot Review: national and local policies to redress social inequalities in health". University College London. Retrieved 16 August 2026.
  30. ↑ Phelan, Amanda; Lloyd, Helen (2026). Community Centred Health and Well-being: Approaches and Cases. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. p. 64. ISBN 978-1-040-72188-9.
  31. 1 2 "Health Equity in England: The Marmot Review 10 Years On | The Health Foundation". www.health.org.uk. 25 February 2020. Retrieved 30 June 2021.
  32. ↑ Boseley, Sarah (25 February 2020). "Austerity blamed for life expectancy stalling for first time in century". The Guardian. Retrieved 25 February 2020.
  33. 1 2 Marmot, Michael (2021). "Build Back Fairer in Greater Manchester - Main Report".
  34. ↑ "'Jaw-dropping' fall in life expectancy in poor areas of England, report finds". The Guardian. 30 June 2021. Retrieved 30 June 2021.
  35. ↑ "Michael Marmot and Jessica Allen: Building back fairer in Greater Manchester". The BMJ. 30 June 2021. Retrieved 30 June 2021.
  36. ↑ "A generation of Britons face long term illness from being cold and poor this winter". The Guardian. 1 September 2022. Retrieved 8 September 2022.
  37. ↑ "Fair society, healthy lives : the Marmot Review: strategic review of health inequalities in England post-2010". GOV.UK. Retrieved 30 June 2021.
  38. ↑ "Laureation Address: Professor Sir Michael Marmot CH MBBS MPH PhD FRCP FFPHM FMedSci FBA".
  39. ↑ "UCL's New Year Honours including a prestigious Companion of Honour". University College London. 30 December 2022. Archived from the original on 11 October 2026. Retrieved 16 August 2026.
  40. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Professor Sir Michael Marmot". Institute of Health Equity, University College London. Archived from the original on 11 October 2026. Retrieved 16 August 2026.
  41. ↑ "Patrons". Students for Global Health. 17 September 2016. Retrieved 16 October 2026.
  42. ↑ "New Years Honours List". The London Gazette. 55710: 2. 30 December 1999. Archived from the original on 20 April 2010. Retrieved 10 July 2008.
  43. ↑ Green, Jackie; Cross, Ruth; Woodall, James; Tones, Keith (2019). Health Promotion: Planning & Strategies. SAGE Publications. p. 632. ISBN 978-1-5264-7100-0.
  44. ↑ "Michael Marmot: 2004 Balzan Prize for Epidemiology". www.balzan.org. International Balzan Prize Foundation. September 2012. Archived from the original on 11 October 2026. Retrieved 16 August 2026.
  45. ↑ "Witness statement of Sir Michael Gideon Marmot" (PDF). Royal Commission into Victoria's Mental Health System. Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 December 2025. Retrieved 18 October 2026.
  46. ↑ "Patricia R. Barchas Award in Social Psychophysiology". Society for Biopsychosocial Science and Medicine. Retrieved 18 October 2026.