Childhood Family Income and Violent Victimization During Youth and Young Adulthood: Trends in Hospital Care During 1988-2007 in Finland.

The purpose of the current study was to examine whether the relationship between childhood family income and risk of violent victimization has changed between 1988 and 2007 in Finland, as prior studies have suggested that socioeconomic differences in exposure to violence have increased during the recent decades. Existing studies have mostly relied on survey data, while such trends in hospital discharge data-a data source that covers the total population well and is not compromised by attrition or self-report bias-have not been thoroughly investigated before. The current study used register-based individual-level data from 1988-2007 (n = 283,505) to study changes in the relationship between childhood family income and victimization risk among 15- to 30-year-old Finnish men and women.

Educational inequalities in diabetes mortality across Europe in the 2000s: the interaction with gender.

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.

The contribution of national disparities to international differences in mortality between the United States and 7 European countries.

Objectives: This study examined to what extent the higher mortality in the United States compared to many European countries is explained by larger social disparities within the United States. We estimated the expected US mortality if educational disparities in the United States were similar to those in 7 European countries.

Methods: Poisson models were used to quantify the association between education and mortality for men and women aged 30 to 74 years in the United States, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland for the period 1989 to 2003.

Minimum prices for alcohol and educational disparities in alcohol-related mortality.

Background: Minimum price of alcohol is one of the proposed set of alcohol policies in many high-income countries. However, the extent to which alcohol-related harm is associated with minimum prices across socioeconomic groups is not known.

Methods: Using Finnish national registers in 1988-2007, we investigated, by means of time-series analysis, the association between minimum prices for alcohol overall, as well as for various types of alcoholic beverages, and alcohol-related mortality, among men and women ages 30-79 years across three educational groups.

Socioeconomic inequalities in cause-specific mortality in 15 European cities.

Background: Socioeconomic inequalities are increasingly recognised as an important public health issue, although their role in the leading causes of mortality in urban areas in Europe has not been fully evaluated. In this study, we used data from the INEQ-CITIES study to analyse inequalities in cause-specific mortality in 15 European cities at the beginning of the 21st century.

Methods: A cross-sectional ecological study was carried out to analyse 9 of the leading specific causes of death in small areas from 15 European cities.

Social class inequalities in health among occupational cohorts from Finland, Britain and Japan: a follow up study.

We examined whether relative occupational social class inequalities in physical health functioning widen, narrow or remain stable among white collar employees from three affluent countries. Health functioning was assessed twice in occupational cohorts from Britain (1997-1999 and 2003-2004), Finland (2000-2002 and 2007) and Japan (1998-1999 and 2003). Widening inequalities were seen for British and Finnish men, whereas inequalities among British and Finnish women remained relatively stable.

Socioeconomic differences in the use of ill-defined causes of death in 16 European countries.

Background: Cause-of-death data linked to information on socioeconomic position form one of the most important sources of information about health inequalities in many countries. The proportion of deaths from ill-defined conditions is one of the indicators of the quality of cause-of-death data. We investigated educational differences in the use of ill-defined causes of death in official mortality statistics.

Socioeconomic inequalities in cause-specific mortality after disability retirement due to different diseases.

Aims: Socioeconomic inequalities in both disability retirement and mortality are large. The aim of this study was to examine socioeconomic differences in cause-specific mortality after disability retirement due to different diseases.

Methods: We used administrative register data from various sources linked together by Statistics Finland and included an 11% sample of the Finnish population between the years 1987 and 2007.

Childhood family background and mortality differences by income in adulthood: fixed-effects analysis of Finnish siblings.

Background: Events and conditions during childhood have been found to affect health and mortality at later stages in life. We studied whether childhood conditions explain the observed all-cause and cause-specific mortality disparity between income groups in adulthood.

Methods: We used a 10% register linked sample of Finnish households in the 1950 census identifying 51 647 children aged 0-14 with at least one sibling of the same sex and followed them for mortality from the age 35 until ages 57-72.

How can inequalities in mortality be reduced? A quantitative analysis of 6 risk factors in 21 European populations.

Background: Socioeconomic inequalities in mortality are one of the greatest challenges for health policy in all European countries, but the potential for reducing these inequalities is unclear. We therefore quantified the impact of equalizing the distribution of six risk factors for mortality: smoking, overweight, lack of physical exercise, lack of social participation, low income, and economic inactivity.

Methods: We collected and harmonized data on mortality and risk factors by educational level for 21 European populations in the early 2000s.

The effects of marriage and separation on the psychotropic medication use of non-married cohabiters: a register-based longitudinal study among adult Finns.

Non-marital cohabitation has become increasingly common and is suggested to offer similar mental-health benefits as marriage does. We studied levels and changes in cohabiters' mental health five years before and five years after entering into marriage or separating, and compared long-term non-married and married cohabiters. We analysed changes in the three-month prevalence of psychotropic medication use (psycholeptics and psychoanaleptics, excluding medication for dementia) by proximity to non-marital transition and gender, using register data on 189,394 Finns aged 25 to 64.

Occupational class inequalities in all-cause and cause-specific mortality among middle-aged men in 14 European populations during the early 2000s.

This study analyses occupational class inequalities in all-cause mortality and four specific causes of death among men, in Europe in the early 2000s, and is the most extensive comparative analysis of occupational class inequalities in mortality in Europe so far. Longitudinal data, obtained from population censuses and mortality registries in 14 European populations, from around the period 2000-2005, were used. Analyses concerned men aged 30-59 years and included all-cause mortality and mortality from all cancers, all cardiovascular diseases (CVD), all external, and all other causes.

Assessing the potential impact of increased participation in higher education on mortality: evidence from 21 European populations.

Although higher education has been associated with lower mortality rates in many studies, the effect of potential improvements in educational distribution on future mortality levels is unknown. We therefore estimated the impact of projected increases in higher education on mortality in European populations. We used mortality and population data according to educational level from 21 European populations and developed counterfactual scenarios.

Amenable mortality by household income and living arrangements: a linked register-based study of Finnish men and women in 2000-2007.

Background: Mortality amenable to healthcare interventions has increasingly been used as an indirect indicator of the effect of healthcare on health inequalities. Studies have consistently shown socioeconomic differences in amenable mortality, but evidence on the joint effects of multiple socioeconomic and demographic factors is limited. We examined whether income and living arrangements have an independent effect on amenable mortality taking into account other dimensions of social position.

The association between advanced maternal and paternal ages and increased adult mortality is explained by early parental loss.

The association between advanced maternal and paternal ages at birth and increased mortality among adult offspring is often attributed to parental reproductive aging, e.g., declining oocyte or sperm quality.

Trends in inequalities in premature mortality: a study of 3.2 million deaths in 13 European countries.

Background: Over the last decades of the 20th century, a widening of the gap in death rates between upper and lower socioeconomic groups has been reported for many European countries. For most countries, it is unknown whether this widening has continued into the first decade of the 21st century.

Methods: We collected and harmonised data on mortality by educational level among men and women aged 30-74 years in all countries with available data: Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, England and Wales, Belgium, France, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, Hungary, Lithuania and Estonia.

Effect of family background on the educational gradient in lifetime fertility of Finnish women born 1940-50.

An inverse association between education and fertility in women has been found in many societies but the causes of this association remain inadequately understood. We investigated whether observed and unobserved family-background characteristics explained educational differences in lifetime fertility among 35,212 Finnish women born in 1940-50. Poisson and logistic regression models, adjusted for measured socio-demographic family-background characteristics and for unobserved family characteristics shared by siblings, were used to analyse the relationship between education and the number of children, having any children, and fertility beyond the first child.

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.

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.

Non-employment histories of middle-aged men and women who died from alcohol-related causes: a longitudinal retrospective study.

Background: Long-term patterning of non-employment among problem drinkers is poorly understood. We determined the level and timing of non-employment, and the relative contribution of various types of non-employment among middle-aged persons who died of alcohol-related causes.

Methods: We conducted a longitudinal retrospective register-based study of Finnish men and women aged 45-64 years who died of alcohol-related causes (n = 15,552) or other causes (n = 39,166) in the period 2000-07, or who survived (n = 204,422) until the end of 2007.

The potential for reducing differences in life expectancy between educational groups in five European countries: the effects of obesity, physical inactivity and smoking.

Introduction: This study assesses the effects of obesity, physical inactivity and smoking on life expectancy (LE) differences between educational groups in five European countries in the early 2000s.

Methods: We estimate the contribution of risk factors on LE differences between educational groups using the observed risk factor distributions and under a hypothetically more optimal risk factor distribution. Data on risk factor prevalence were obtained from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe study, and data on mortality from census-linked data sets for the age between 50 and 79 according to sex and education.

Social differences in avoidable mortality between small areas of 15 European cities: an ecological study.

Background: Health and inequalities in health among inhabitants of European cities are of major importance for European public health and there is great interest in how different health care systems in Europe perform in the reduction of health inequalities. However, evidence on the spatial distribution of cause-specific mortality across neighbourhoods of European cities is scarce. This study presents maps of avoidable mortality in European cities and analyses differences in avoidable mortality between neighbourhoods with different levels of deprivation.

Socioeconomic inequalities in mortality in 16 European cities.

Aims: To explore inequalities in total mortality between small areas of 16 European cities for men and women, as well as to analyse the relationship between these geographical inequalities and their socioeconomic indicators.

Methods: A cross-sectional ecological design was used to analyse small areas in 16 European cities (26,229,104 inhabitants). Most cities had mortality data for a period between 2000 and 2008 and population size data for the same period.

Income differences in life expectancy: the changing contribution of harmful consumption of alcohol and smoking.

Background: Social differences in mortality have increased in high-income countries, but the causes of these changes remain unclear. We quantify the contribution of alcohol and smoking to trends in income differences in life expectancy from 1988 through 2007 in Finland.

Methods: An 11% sample from the population registration data of Finns 25 years and older was linked with an 80% oversample of death records.

Household income and health problems during a period of labour-market change and widening income inequalities - a study among the Finnish population between 1987 and 2007.

Income inequalities widened considerably from 1987 to 2007 in Finland. We compared the association between household income and health problems across three periods and in several different ways of modelling the dependence. Our aim was to find out whether the change in the distribution of income might have led to wider income-related inequalities in health problems.