Stratification and Mortality--A Comparison of Education, Class, Status, and Income

Torssander, Jenny; Erikson, Robert S.

doi:10.1093/esr/jcp034

Cited by 133 publications

(112 citation statements)

References 38 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…A causal link between education and health could, for instance, be the result of health literacy learned at school, such as the ability to make use of health messages (5). Alternatively, the link could be an indirect consequence of having a better job and a higher income (i.e., other circumstances related to good health) (6).…”

Section: Epidemiology | Natural Experimentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Causal effect of education on mortality in a quasi-experiment on 1.2 million Swedes

Lager

Torssander

2012

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

127

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In 1949-1962, Sweden implemented a 1-y increase in compulsory schooling as a quasi-experiment. Each year, children in a number of municipalities were exposed to the reform and others were kept as controls, allowing us to test the hypothesis that education is causally related to mortality. We studied all children born between 1943 and 1955, in 900 Swedish municipalities, with control for birth-cohort and area differences. Primary outcome measures are all-cause and cause-specific mortality until the end of 2007. The analyses include 1,247,867 individuals, of whom 92,351 died. We found lower all-cause mortality risk in the experimental group after age 40 [hazard ratio (HR) = 0.96, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.93-0.99] but not before (HR = 1.03, 95% CI 0.98-1.07) or during the whole follow-up (HR = 0.98, 95% CI 0.95-1.01). After age 40, the experimental group had lower mortality from overall cancer, lung cancer, and accidents. In addition, exposed women had lower mortality from ischemic heart disease, and exposed men lower mortality from overall external causes. In analyses stratified for final educational level, we found lower mortality in the experimental group within the strata that settled for compulsory schooling only (HR = 0.94, 95% CI 0.89-0.99) and compulsory schooling plus vocational training (HR = 0.92, 95% CI 0.88-0.97).

show abstract

Section: Epidemiology | Natural Experimentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Causal effect of education on mortality in a quasi-experiment on 1.2 million Swedes

Lager

Torssander

2012

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

127

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…While existing comparative research on health inequalities has so far focused on objective SES indicators, such as education (Mackenbach et al, 2008), income (Huijts et al, 2010), or class (Eikemo et al, 2008b), our study will extend that line of research by focusing on an innovative SES measure, namely subjective SES. Different indicators of SES cannot be used interchangeably (Torssander and Erikson, 2010), as they all tap at different, loosely related aspects of SES and vary in the strength of their association to health. Given the variation in levels of subjective SES across countries (Lindemann and Saar, 2014), we expect that comparing subjective SES-health gradients across societies is a valuable contribution to the literature.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Subjective socioeconomic status and health in cross-national comparison

Präg

Mills

Wittek

2016

Social Science & Medicine

158

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Research has established a robust association between subjective socioeconomic status (SES) and health outcomes, which holds over and above the associations between objective markers of SES and health. Furthermore, comparative research on health inequalities has shown considerable variation in the relationship between different objective markers of SES and health across countries. Drawing on data from 29 countries, we present the first crossnational study on the subjective SES-health relationship. For two health outcomes, namely self-rated health (SRH) and psychological wellbeing, we are able to confirm that subjective SES is related to health in all countries under study, even when income, education, and occupational prestige are accounted

show abstract

“…However, research on factors other than demographics suggests that socioeconomic conditions may have a profound effect on risk of mortality, both in the general population and after SCI. [3][4][5] This research has typically focused on education and income to the exclusion of gainful employment as a risk factor for mortality.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…9 These studies demonstrated the importance of income and education but did not address gainful employment. Studies in the general population have rarely addressed employment, [3][4][5] as employment is fundamental to adult life and employment rates are typically high. However, given the low employment rates and the relationship of poor employment outcomes with policy factors (particularly work disincentives in the USA), employment may be a critical, yet overlooked, risk factor for mortality.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gainful employment and risk of mortality after spinal cord injury: effects beyond that of demographic, injury and socioeconomic factors

2012

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Objective: To evaluate the association of three levels of gainful employment with the risk of mortality after traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) while controlling for known predictors of mortality status (including education and income). Study design: Prospective cohort study Setting: A total of 20 federally funded SCI Model Systems of care in the United States. Methods: Participants included 7955 adults with traumatic SCI. Preliminary assessments were conducted between 1995 and 2006. Mortality status was determined by the Social Security Death Index (1308 deaths). A two-stage logistic regression model was used to estimate the chance of dying in any given year. Life expectancy was calculated under different economic assumptions. Results: Compared with those who were working 30 þ h per week, the odds of mortality was 1.37 for those who worked 1-29 h and 1.67 for those who were unemployed. The addition of gainful employment only modestly reduced the effects of household income and education, both of which remained significant. For instance, the odds of mortality for household income (referent $75 000 þ) decreased from 1.50 to 1.38 for $25 000-$75 000 and from 2.10 to 1.82 for o$25 000. Life expectancy varied widely depending on socioeconomic characteristics more than doubling under certain assumptions. Conclusion: Substantial variation in mortality is attributable to employment, above and beyond the effects of previously established demographic, injury and socioeconomic predictors. Although some excess mortality may be the inevitable consequence of SCI, risk is substantially increased with poor socioeconomic characteristics.

show abstract

Stratification and Mortality--A Comparison of Education, Class, Status, and Income

Abstract: status -all can be used to show a "social gradient" with mortality, each of them seems to have a specific effect in addition to the general effect related to the stratification of society for either men or women.3

Cited by 133 publications

References 38 publications

Causal effect of education on mortality in a quasi-experiment on 1.2 million Swedes

Causal effect of education on mortality in a quasi-experiment on 1.2 million Swedes

Subjective socioeconomic status and health in cross-national comparison

Gainful employment and risk of mortality after spinal cord injury: effects beyond that of demographic, injury and socioeconomic factors

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About