| 1. |
- Meinow, Bettina, 1972-
(författare)
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Capturing health in the elderly population : Complex health problems, mortality, and allocation of home-help services
- 2008
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis investigates health trends among very old people and the allocation of public home-help services. A further aim is to examine methodological issues in mortality analysis. Three data sources are used: (1) The Tierp study of community-dwelling persons (n=421, ages 75+), (2) the SWEOLD nationally representative samples (n=537 in 1992 and n=561 in 2002, ages 77+), and 3) SNAC-K comprised of home-help recipients in a district of Stockholm (n=1108, ages 65+).Study I suggests that the length of the follow-up period may explain some of the differences found in predictor strength when comparing mortality studies. Predictors that can change rapidly (e.g., health) were found to be strongest for the short term, with a lower average mortality risk for longer follow-ups. Stable variables (e.g., gender) were less affected by length of follow-up.Studies II and III present a measure of complex health problems based on serious problems in at least two of three health domains. These were diseases/symptoms, mobility, and cognition/communication. Prevalence of complex health problems increased significantly between 1992 and 2002. Older age, female gender, and lower education increased the odds of having complex problems. Complex problems strongly predicted 4-year mortality. Controlled for age, gender, health, and education, mortality decreased by 20% between 1992 and 2002. Men with complex problems accounted for this decrease. Thus, in 2002 the gender difference in mortality risk was almost eliminated among the most vulnerable adults.Study IV revealed that physical and cognitive limitations, higher age, and living alone were significantly related to home-help allocation, with physical and cognitive limitations dominating. Psychiatric symptoms did not affect the assessment.The increased prevalence of complex health problems and increased survival among people with complex needs have important implications concerning the need for collaboration among service providers.
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| 2. |
- Bolin, Malin, 1974-
(författare)
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The importance of organizational characteristics for psychosocial working conditions and health
- 2009
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The importance of organizations for understanding differences in the working conditions and health of employees is often emphasized but rarely explored empirically. The general aim of this thesis is to describe organizational characteristics of workplaces, and to assess their impact on the psychosocial working conditions and health of employees. In modern working life, it is assumed that employees' working conditions and health are affected by a general transformation of workplaces from bureaucracy to post-bureaucracy. The organizational data used are based on structured interviews with managers at workplaces in different types of operations in mid-Sweden, whereas the individual data consist of a questionnaire to all employees working in the participating workplaces, resulting in a dataset of 90 workplaces and 4306 individuals. Descriptive analysis was carried out for comparison of organizational characteristics in different types of operations, while multilevel analysis was applied to investigate the magnitude of the organizational impact on psychosocial working conditions, and to analyze associations between organizational characteristics, psychosocial working conditions and health. The results showed that the workplaces were mainly displayed by a combination of bureaucratic and post-bureaucratic characteristics, and these were unequally distributed between types of operations. A systematic variation in the psychosocial working conditions and health of employees was found between workplaces, and the variation in psychosocial working conditions was attributed to several organizational levels. The variation between workplaces was explained by both organizational characteristics of the workplaces and individual characteristics of the employees. Formalization, centralization, job enrichment, individual responsibility, soft control systems, and performance control were associated with psychosocial working conditions when controlled for occupational class, gender and age of employees, and a high degree of customer adaptation was associated with increased sickness absence of employees. It is concluded that bureaucracy and post-bureaucracy should not be regarded as dichotomies. Organizational characteristics of workplaces have an impact on the psychosocial working conditions and health of employees beyond occupational class. This has implications for both the theory and the practice of occupational health research.
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| 3. |
- Brännström, Lars, 1972-
(författare)
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Phantom of the Neighbourhood : Longitudinal Studies on Area-based Conditions and Individual Outcomes
- 2006
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This dissertation consists of three self-contained but interrelated empirical studies focusing on theoretical, empirical and political questions in the multidisciplinary field of neighbourhood effect research. Along with a comprehensive introductory essay, each study addresses questions concerning the potential influence of neighbourhood characteristics on individual social and economic outcomes at different life stages. Study I combines longitudinal register and survey data from the ‘golden era’ of Swedish welfare policy to evaluate a hypothesised impact of neighbourhood poverty during adolescence on a wide range of outcomes (including, but not limited to, educational and employment status) within a counterfactual model framework based on matching on propensity scores. Extensive empirical analyses indicate that, when two groups of children who are identical according to observed factors before age 10 (including household income, family structure and welfare receipt) live in different types of neighbourhood in adolescence, the outcome for those who grow up in a poor neighbourhood is not more likely to be worse than for those who grow up in a more affluent neighbourhood. Study II considers the maximum theoretical scope of unique neighbourhood influence experienced during the years of growth on individuals’ later life income and social assistance recipiency. A three-level hierarchical linear model is applied to simultaneously distinguish variation in the outcomes over time from variation that is attributable to differences between neighbourhoods. By utilising longitudinal register data derived from a birth cohort who grew up in Stockholm at a time when Swedish welfare policy ambitions were at a peak, this study attempts to estimate the long-term significance of neighbourhood origin in the Swedish setting. The analyses clearly show that prior place of residence accounts for an exceedingly modest proportion of the variation in cohort members’ subsequent income and receipt of social assistance. Study III explores the hypothesised negative impact of disadvantaged neighbourhood conditions, individual disadvantage, and degree of labour market establishment on levels of social trust. Using data from the Swedish Longitudinal Survey among Unemployed, ordered logit regression analyses indicate that low levels of social trust are contingent upon perceived neighbourhood disorder, personal powerlessness, perceived fear of victimisation, and accumulated episodes of temporary employment. The tentative results also indicate that neighbourhood disorder, powerlessness, and fear of victimisation interact, magnifying the negative impact on social trust.
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| 4. |
- Bäckman, Olof, 1965-
(författare)
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Longitudinal Studies on Sickness Absence in Sweden
- 1998
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The research object of this thesis is sickness absence taking behavior in Sweden. In four empirical studies, using longitudinal data, the thesis investigates sickness absence taking behavior as a result of the impact of specific structural factors.The first empirical study (Chapter II) examines the relationship between the annual national sickness absence and unemployment rates for the period 1935-1990. The effects of changes of the replacement level are also studied. The analyses show that the widespread notion of an inverse relationship between the unemployment rate and the sickness absence rate cannot be verified by a closer analysis of available data.The remaining three empirical studies use micro-data to study sickness absence behavior. Chapter III closely examines the effect of the reduction in sickness cash benefits of March 1 1991 on the short-term absence rate. The theoretical perspective is derived from rational choice theory. Intensity regressions on duration data show that the objectives that were linked to the reduction of benefits-lower sickness absence rates and an equal distribution of the burdens brought about by the reduction-are incompatible. The weaker groups that are likely to have the greatest need for sickness absence reduce their absence taking more than stronger groups in the labor market.Chapter IV, co-authored with Joakim Palme, addresses the question of how conditions in childhood affect absence taking in adulthood. Analyses of data of a Stockholm cohort reveal how conditions in childhood and early adolescence structure the absence taking behavior of individuals. The chapter shows the endurance of these effects, a finding that is most clearly manifested in what has been labeled "the social imprint effect".The fourth of the empirical studies (Chapter V) treats the issue of gender differences in short-term absence rates. The study focuses on the impact of the gender composition of work places, but hierarchical positioning and integration among workers are also investigated. The results indicate that numerical representation conditions the short-term absence rate of women in the sense that women at workplaces where they constitute a small minority have a lower short-term absence rate than other women. For men, the hierarchical position in which they work is a more important determinant for the short-term absence rate.The results provide new insights for the study of sickness absence from a sociological perspective by specifying the mechanisms through which the social structure, in terms of institutional constraints, incentives, social stratification, and organizational traits of job sites, influences the behavior of individuals.
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| 5. |
- Thalberg, Sara, 1974-
(författare)
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Students and Family Formation : Studies on educational enrolment and childbearing in Sweden
- 2013
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis explores the impact of educational enrolment on family formation in Sweden. The aim is to identify factors that are important for students’ childbearing and to find potential explanations as to why so few students have children while enrolled in education. Three independent studies are carried out, two quantitative and one qualitative. Study I examines the associations between age, earnings, a student financial aid reform, and female students’ first, second and third birth risks. Study II takes a gender perspective and compares the influence of mothers’ and fathers’ enrolment and earnings on parental couples’ propensities to have a second or a third child. In both these studies the analyses are performed using longitudinal register data. Study III explores male and female students’ childbearing intentions, and the motivations behind them, through individual in-depth interviews with childless students. Several findings point towards the significance of economic factors. The results in Study I show that earnings have a clear impact on female students’ birth risks, and in Study III economic security is found to be an important motive behind the students’ childbearing intentions. However, the student financial aid reform investigated in Study I had no noticeable impact on students’ childbearing behaviour. The negative effect of educational enrolment on childbearing risks, as well as the significance of earnings and economic security, is clearly weakened by age. In addition to economic security, the interview accounts indicate that non-material aspects, such as the biological risks of postponement, knowing one’s future prospects and being content with life, are also important for the timing of childbearing. The implications of educational enrolment for family formation are also found to be largely dependent on gender, as in Study II mothers’ educational enrolment had a much stronger negative impact on couples’ continued childbearing than fathers’ enrolment. Further, compared to the males, the female respondents in Study III had much more knowledge about the parental leave system, and parental leave and their benefit level were also things they took into account to a much larger extent when discussing their childbearing intentions. The gender differences are likely associated with the Swedish earnings-related parental leave insurance and mothers still taking the largest part of the leave. The fact that both economic security and the biological risks associated with postponement are seen as crucial factors for timing of family formation implies that some students, particularly females above age 30, find themselves in a difficult situation.
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| 6. |
- Örestig, Johan, 1979-
(författare)
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The long and winding road : A life course approach to retirement behaviour
- 2013
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Background: This thesis explores the retirement behaviour of older people approaching retirement decisions. The research questions in focus deal with the attitudes toward work, the retirement preferences and the subjective well-being of the "youngest old", i.e. people aged 55–64. The included studies analyse the social determinants of these subjective evaluations and how they predict the timing of retirement and post-retirement well-being.Methods: In the included studies, methods are used that allow us to follow developments over time. Repeated cross-sectional analyses are employed to examine general developments pertaining to the older work force. These include OLS and logistic regression analysis. Longitudinal analyses are used to follow individual developments over time. These include Structural equation modelling and Cox regression analysis.Results: The results indicate that subjective evaluations such as attitudes to work and retirement preferences, as well as subjective well-being, are closely related to the structural conditions to which individuals are exposed, i.e. class position and work environment. The results also indicate that subjective evaluations such as preferred exit age and subjective well-being reported while in the work force are determinants of both the timing of retirement (in the case of preferred exit age and pre-retirement subjective well-being) and post-retirement subjective well-being (in the case of pre-retirement subjective well-being).Also, results indicate that recent policy changes in the Swedish pension systems are reflected in the retirement preferences of the older work force. A comparison of two time-points representing the incentive structure of the old and the new pension systems indicates that preferences were delayed with pension reform.Conclusion: The thesis contributes a temporal perspective to a research field that is dominated by research studying retirement behaviour at a single point of in time. The included studies underline the value of understanding retirement behaviour as a process rather than an isolated event. The way people evaluate their work, their well-being and their retirement prospects is intimately intertwined with their earlier experience. These subjective evaluations affect future retirement outcomes. Life course approaches offer illuminating tools for examining and explaining the significance of the biographies behind retirement behaviour.
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