The privilege to heal? Mapping patients’ unequal mobilisation of health capital in a Nordic welfare context

In the Nordic egalitarian countries, relative equality is expected in relation to individual health in-vestments and outcomes. This study explores a heterogeneous sample of patients’ bodily investment strategies when illness occurs. A questionnaire was conducted with 503 patients from the Capital Region of Denmark. Using Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA), the study identifies unequal and distinct patterns of bodily health capital investment. Two dimensions emerged: disruption vs. continuity and liberal vs. conservative. These dimensions revealed opposing patient groups. Active engagement in bodily investment strategies was associated with younger, female, highly educated patients with chronic or disruptive conditions such as heart transplants or psychiatric illnesses. Con-versely, lower engagement was observed among older, less educated patients with lower incomes, particularly those treated in departments of comorbidity, geriatrics, or orthopaedics. The analysis further demonstrates that a high volume of health capital is closely tied to social class through the conversion of capitals: we see emerging distinctions of economic and cultural resources which provide patients the dispositions needed, to recognise and mobilise body investment. Thus, the study shows that classed, gendered, and age-based inequalities in healing persist even within a universal welfare system, revealing the enduring social structuring of health capital.