Acheson Report

The Acheson Report, fully titled the Independent Inquiry into Inequalities in Health Report, was a report published in 1998 by a United Kingdom inquiry headed by Donald Acheson.

Like earlier reports on health disparities in the United Kingdom including the Black Report and the Whitehall Study, the Acheson report demonstrates the existence of health disparities and their relationship to social class. Among the report's findings are that despite an overall downward trend in mortality from 1970–1990, the upper social classes experienced a more rapid mortality decline. The report contains 39 policy suggestions in areas ranging from taxation to agriculture, for ameliorating health disparities. It had some influence on the 1998 government green paper Our Healthier Nation: A Contract for Health which had a stated aim of reducing health inequalities; and the 1999 white paper Saving Lives: Our Healthier Nation.