| 1. |
- Gadeyne, S, et al.
(författare)
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The turn of the gradient? Educational differences in breast cancer mortality in 18 European populations during the 2000s
- 2017
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Ingår i: International Journal of Cancer. - : John Wiley & Sons. - 0020-7136 .- 1097-0215. ; 141:1, s. 33-44
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study aims to investigate the association between educational level and breast cancer mortality in Europe in the 2000s. Unlike most other causes of death, breast cancer mortality tends to be positively related to education, with higher educated women showing higher mortality rates. Research has however shown that the association is changing from being positive over non-existent to negative in some countries. To investigate these patterns, data from national mortality registers and censuses were collected and harmonized for 18 European populations. The study population included all women aged 30-74. Age-standardized mortality rates, mortality rate ratios, and slope and relative indexes of inequality were computed by education. The population was stratified according to age (women aged 30-49 and women aged 50-74). The relation between educational level and breast cancer mortality was predominantly negative in women aged 30-49, mortality rates being lower among highly educated women and higher among low educated women, although few outcomes were statistically significant. Among women aged 50-74, the association was mostly positive and statistically significant in some populations. A comparison with earlier research in the 1990s revealed a changing pattern of breast cancer mortality. Positive educational differences that used to be significant in the 1990s were no longer significant in the 2000s, indicating that inequalities have decreased or disappeared. This evolution is in line with the "fundamental causes" theory which stipulates that whenever medical insights and treatment become available to combat a disease, a negative association with socio-economic position will arise, independently of the underlying risk factors.
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| 2. |
- Kulik, M. C., et al.
(författare)
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Smoking and the potential for reduction of inequalities in mortality in Europe
- 2013
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Ingår i: European Journal of Epidemiology. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0393-2990 .- 1573-7284. ; 28:12, s. 959-971
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Socioeconomic inequalities in health and mortality remain a widely recognized problem. Countries with smaller inequalities in smoking have smaller inequalities in mortality, and smoking plays an important part in the explanation of inequalities in some countries. We identify the potential for reducing inequalities in all-cause and smoking-related mortality in 19 European populations, by applying different scenarios of smoking exposure. Smoking prevalence information and mortality data come from 19 European populations. Prevalence rates are mostly taken from National Health Surveys conducted around the year 2000. Mortality rates are based on country-specific longitudinal or cross-sectional datasets. Relative risks come from the Cancer Prevention Study II. Besides all-cause mortality we analyze several smoking-related cancers and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease/asthma. We use a newly-developed tool to quantify the changes in population health potentially resulting from modifying the population distribution of exposure to smoking. This tool is based on the epidemiological measure of the population attributable fraction, and estimates the impact of scenario-based distributions of smoking on educational inequalities in mortality. The potential reduction of relative inequality in all-cause mortality between those with high and low education amounts up to 26 % for men and 32 % for women. More than half of the relative inequality may be reduced for some causes of death, often in countries of Northern Europe and in Britain. Patterns of potential reduction in inequality differ by country or region and sex, suggesting that the priority given to smoking as an entry-point for tackling health inequalities should differ between countries.
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| 3. |
- Kulik, MC, et al.
(författare)
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Educational inequalities in three smoking-related causes of death in 18 European populations
- 2014
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Ingår i: Nicotine & tobacco research. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 1462-2203 .- 1469-994X. ; 16:5, s. 507-518
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Introduction: Smoking is an important determinant of socioeconomic inequalities in mortality in many countries. As the smoking epidemic progresses, updates on the development of mortality inequalities attributable to smoking are needed. We provide estimates of relative and absolute educational inequalities in mortality from lung cancer, aerodigestive cancers, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)/asthma in Europe and assess the contribution of these smoking-related diseases to inequalities in all-cause mortality.Methods: We use data from 18 European populations covering the time period 1998–2007. We present age-adjusted mortality rates, relative indices of inequality, and slope indices of inequality. We also calculate the contribution of inequalities in smoking-related mortality to inequalities in overall mortality.Results: Among men, relative inequalities in mortality from the 3 smoking-related causes of death combined are largest in the Czech Republic and Hungary and smallest in Spain, Sweden, and Denmark. Among women, these inequalities are largest in Scotland and Norway and smallest in Italy and Spain. They are often larger among men and tend to be larger for COPD/asthma than for lung and aerodigestive cancers. Relative inequalities in mortality from these conditions are often larger in younger age groups, particularly among women, suggesting a possible further widening of inequalities in mortality in the coming decades. The combined contribution of these diseases to inequality in all-cause mortality varies between 13% and 32% among men and between −5% and 30% among women.Conclusion: Our results underline the continuing need for tobacco control policies, which take into account socioeconomic position.
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| 4. |
- Mackenbach, J. P., et al.
(författare)
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Variations in the relation between education and cause-specific mortality in 19 European populations : A test of the "fundamental causes" theory of social inequalities in health
- 2015
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Ingår i: Social Science and Medicine. - : Elsevier BV. - 0277-9536 .- 1873-5347. ; 127, s. 51-62
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Link and Phelan have proposed to explain the persistence of health inequalities from the fact that socioeconomic status is a "fundamental cause" which embodies an array of resources that can be used to avoid disease risks no matter what mechanisms are relevant at any given time. To test this theory we compared the magnitude of inequalities in mortality between more and less preventable causes of death in 19 European populations, and assessed whether inequalities in mortality from preventable causes are larger in countries with larger resource inequalities.We collected and harmonized mortality data by educational level on 19 national and regional populations from 16 European countries in the first decade of the 21st century. We calculated age-adjusted Relative Risks of mortality among men and women aged 30-79 for 24 causes of death, which were classified into four groups: amenable to behavior change, amenable to medical intervention, amenable to injury prevention, and non-preventable.Although an overwhelming majority of Relative Risks indicate higher mortality risks among the lower educated, the strength of the education-mortality relation is highly variable between causes of death and populations. Inequalities in mortality are generally larger for causes amenable to behavior change, medical intervention and injury prevention than for non-preventable causes. The contrast between preventable and non-preventable causes is large for causes amenable to behavior change, but absent for causes amenable to injury prevention among women. The contrast between preventable and non-preventable causes is larger in Central & Eastern Europe, where resource inequalities are substantial, than in the Nordic countries and continental Europe, where resource inequalities are relatively small, but they are absent or small in Southern Europe, where resource inequalities are also large.In conclusion, our results provide some further support for the theory of "fundamental causes". However, the absence of larger inequalities for preventable causes in Southern Europe and for injury mortality among women indicate that further empirical and theoretical analysis is necessary to understand when and why the additional resources that a higher socioeconomic status provides, do and do not protect against prevailing health risks.
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| 5. |
- Vandenheede, H., et al.
(författare)
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Educational inequalities in diabetes mortality across Europe in the 2000s : the interaction with gender
- 2015
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Ingår i: International Journal of Public Health. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1661-8556 .- 1661-8564. ; 60:4, s. 401-410
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Objectives: To evaluate educational inequalities in diabetes mortality in Europe in the 2000s, and to assess whether these inequalities differ between genders. Methods: Data were obtained from mortality registries covering 14 European countries. To determine educational inequalities in diabetes mortality, age-standardised mortality rates, mortality rate ratios, and slope and relative indices of inequality were calculated. To assess whether the association between education and diabetes mortality differs between genders, diabetes mortality was regressed on gender, educational rank and ‘gender × educational rank’. Results: An inverse association between education and diabetes mortality exists in both genders across Europe. Absolute educational inequalities are generally larger among men than women; relative inequalities are generally more pronounced among women, the relative index of inequality being 2.8 (95 % CI 2.0–3.9) in men versus 4.8 (95 % CI 3.2–7.2) in women. Gender inequalities in diabetes mortality are more marked in the highest than the lowest educated. Conclusions: Education and diabetes mortality are inversely related in Europe in the 2000s. This association differs by gender, indicating the need to take the socioeconomic and gender dimension into account when developing public health policies. © 2015 The Author(s)
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