Reproductive history and mortality later in life: a comparative study of England & Wales and Austria

Does a woman’s reproductive history influence her life span? This study explores the question on the basis of data from two contemporary female populations: England & Wales and Austria. It is the first comparative study that investigates the relationship between fertility and mortality late in life. We find similar patterns and age-specific trends of excess mortality in both populations: parity significantly influences longevity, as do both an early and a late birth. These differences in longevity are not explained by differences in educational or family status. The impact of a woman’s reproductive history on her life span is minor, however, compared to the influence of her level of education or family status. (AUTHOR)

Trends in educational mortality differentials in Austria between 1981/82 and 2001/2002

Background -- Many studies for European populations found an increase in socio-economic mortality differentials during the last decades of the 20th century, at least in relative terms. The aim of our paper is to explore the situation in Austria, for a wide age range, over a period of 20 years. Methods -- Based on a linkage of census information and death certificates, we computed age and education specific death rates. We calculate life expectancies at age 35 by educational level as well as regression-based measures of absolute (SII) and relative (RII) inequality, for the periods 1981/82, 1991/92, and 2001/2002. Results -- Life expectancy increased faster for the higher educated in the 1980s, whereas this trend reversed in the following decade. For males at working ages an increase in relative mortality differentials was observed during the 1980s. Absolute mortality differentials decreased among elderly females in the 1990s, particularly for circulatory disease mortality. Altogether the educational pattern of mortality was rather stable in Austria at the end of the 20th century. Conclusions -- Compared with results from other countries, trends in educational mortality differentials seem to be rather favorable in Austria in the 1990s. A stable health care system, the healthy migrant effect, and relatively low unemployment rates may have contributed to stable mortality differentials. However, an important explanation is also the inclusion of higher ages in our studyAustria, education, mortality, trends

Seasonal mortality in Denmark

Our paper addresses two questions on seasonal mortality: How do women and men differ with respect to seasonal fluctuations in mortality? How does seasonality in death change with age? The analysis is based on a sample of all Danes aged 50 and older on 1 April 1968 being followed for 30 years. In contrast to previous studies we found remarkable differences between women and men in their seasonal mortality patterns. Men showed larger seasonal fluctuations than women indicating a higher susceptibility to environmental stressful periods. We found that seasonality increases with age. However, we discovered again a sex difference: women's seasonality starts increasing at later ages than men's.age effect, mortality, seasonal fluctuations, sex differentials

Month of birth influences survival up to age 105+: first results from the age validation study of German semi-supercentenarians

Using data from Germany, we examine if month of birth influences survival up to age 105. Since age reporting at the highest ages is notoriously unreliable we draw on age-validated information from a huge age validation project of 1487 alleged German semi-supercentenarians aged 105+. We use month of birth as an exogenous indicator for seasonal changes in the environment around the time of birth. We find that the seasonal distribution of birth dates changes with age. For 925 age-validated semi-supercentenarians the seasonality is more pronounced than at the time of their births (1880-1900). Among the December-born the relative risk of survival from birth to age 105+ is 16 per cent higher than the average, among the June-born, 23 per cent lower. The month-of-birth pattern in the survival risks of the German semi-supercentenarians resembles closely the month-of-birth pattern in remaining life expectancy at age 50 in Denmark.

A Demographic Perspective on Gender, Family and Health in Europe

This open access book examines the triangle between family, gender, and health in Europe from a demographic perspective. It helps to understand patterns and trends in each of the three components separately, as well as their interdependencies. It overcomes the widely observable specialization in demographic research, which usually involves researchers studying either family or fertility processes or focusing on health and mortality

Approaches and Methods for Causal Analysis of Panel Data in the Area of Morbidity and Mortality

We aim to give an overview of the state of the art of causal analysis of demographic issues related to morbidity and mortality. We will systematically introduce strategies to identify causal mechanisms, which are inherently linked to panel data from observational surveys and population registers. We will focus on health and mortality, and on the issues of unobserved heterogeneity and reverse causation between health and (1) retirement, (2) socio-economic status, and (3) characteristics of partnership and fertility history. The boundaries between demographic research on mortality and morbidity and the neighbouring disciplines epidemiology, public health and economy are often blurred. We will highlight the specific contribution of demography by reviewing methods used in the demographic literature. We classify these methods according to important criteria, such as a design-based versus model-based approach and control for unobserved confounders. We present examples from the literature for each of the methods and discuss the assumptions and the advantages and disadvantages of the methods for the identification of causal effects in demographic morbidity and mortality research. The differentiation between methods that control for unobserved confounders and those that do not reveal a fundamental difference between (1) methods that try to emulate a randomised experiment and have higher internal validity and (2) methods that attempt to achieve conditional independence by including all relevant factors in the model. The latter usually have higher external validity and require more assumptions and prior knowledge of relevant factors and their relationships. It is impossible to provide a general definition of the sort of validity that is more important, as there is always a trade-off between generalising the results to the population of interest and avoiding biases in the estimation of causal effects in the sample. We hope that our review will aid researchers in identifying strategies to answer their specific research question. *  This article belongs to a special issue on "Identification of causal mechanisms in demographic research: The contribution of panel data"

Leveling the Playing Field: Applying Federal Corporate Charging Considerations to Individuals

The American prison system is grappling with a well-publicized carceral crisis. In the words of former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, “too many Americans go to too many prisons for far too long, and for no truly good law enforcement reason.” And, as a result of developments in federal law over the past few decades, the power of federal prosecutors to decide when and how to charge individuals with crimes is crucial to when and how American citizens go to prison. Many ideas have been proposed to revise prosecutorial discretionary powers, but few have been heeded by the Department of Justice (DOJ). However, this Note posits that the DOJ has already paved the way to enhanced guidance for federal prosecutors when charging individuals with crimes. This is because the DOJ’s prosecutorial guidance for charging corporations with federal crimes is more robust than the guidance for charging individuals. In particular, a discussion on collateral consequences is included in the corporate charging guidance, yet lacking in the individual charging guidance. This enhanced corporate guidance has had the purposeful impact of curtailing the prosecution of corporate crime. This Note argues that a similar discussion of collateral consequences in the individual charging guidance could have important and far-reaching effects on the federal criminal regime. Perhaps more importantly, such a discussion could remedy some of the unfairness presented by the current system in which federal prosecutors are guided to consider a superior set of factors before charging corporations with crimes

Being born under adverse economic conditions leads to a higher cardiovascular mortality rate later in life: evidence based on individuals born at different stages of the business cycle

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