Social skiktning och ohälsa i Studien 1913 års män

• The main objective of this thesis is to elucidate the relationship between social stratification and a broad spectrum of health problems covering subjective ill-health, serious illness and mortality. Against the background of a social-epidemiological frame of reference, special attention is alsopaid to other social factors that are related to occupation and stratification and its effect on health.The empirical material used is data from the Study of Men Born in 1913, a clinical-epidemiological prospective population study that begun in 1963 with a sample of 50-year old men from the general population of  Gothenburg, Sweden. These men have been followed up by repeated health-examinations and records. In the present study, which is a type of secondary analysis of the Gothenburg material, the men are followed between the ages of 50 and 71.In a modern welfare society such as that of Sweden, with comprehensive public health care, one should not expect to find any appreciable differences between the social strata with regard to ill-health. The study indicates that differences are most in evidence with regard to perceivedhealth and being on the sick-list. In both these respects the lower social strata are worse off then the higher. The differences concerning perceived ailments tend to even out after retirement. When it comes to serious illness and mortality there is a certain tendency of differences concerningmyocardial infarction and survival after it. The lower social strata appear to be rather more at risk than the higher, but apart from this the differences were small.Constituting a main group of social-epidemiological factors that are both conceptually and empirically related to social stratification arc various circumstances to do with occupation. It is evident from the study that such factors- which can be designated life-events and which comprise first and foremost unemployment, change of occupation and change in earnings- indicate increased risk of suffering myocardial infarction and death. There are also a number of connections between on the one hand various indicators of ill-health, and on the other hand social phenomena such as status incongruence and social mobility across the generations.Many of the social factors that are of interest from the social epidemiological point of view prove to be strongly intercorrelated and form very complex patterns. 1t is a challenge to sqcialepidemiologicalresearch (which in-many respects is still in its initial stage) to elucidate the complex connections between ill-health and various social conditions, life-style and physiological factors.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Annan samhällsvetenskap -- Tvärvetenskapliga studier inom samhällsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Other Social Sciences -- Social Sciences Interdisciplinary (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Social-epidemiolology

Socio-economic factors

Health inequality

Prospective population study

INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH AREAS

TVÄRVETENSKAPLIGA FORSKNINGSOMRÅDEN

Publikations- och innehållstyp

vet (ämneskategori)

dok (ämneskategori)