Umieralność według pojedynczych przyczyn zgonu: rekonstrukcja danych dla Polski, 1970–2009

All around the world every revision of the International Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems of the World Health Organization introduces discontinuities into data concerned with deaths by single causes. In the case of Poland an additional factor contributing to the low quality of data is the rearrangement of death registration system in 1997, in particular by changes of coding practices and the introduction of institution of medical doctor stating the underlying cause of death. This article presents the organization of the system for collecting mortality data in Poland, and discusses the method of reconstructing homogeneous data by single causes of deaths for the period 1970–2009. The description is illustrated by examples of selected causes of deaths

Rodzinna polityka Austrii: lekcja dla Polski

The article presents contemporary family policy in Austria in the context of unfavourable demographic changes, such as the decreasing number of births and the increasing instability of marriage. The extended system of family benefits and the regulations on maternity and parental leaves, being advantageous to parents, make Austria one of the most family-friendly countries in Europe. However, until the 1990s, the Austrian government supported maternal care for children and women’s withdrawal from the labour market by giving priority to the provision of cost compensation of women’s economic inactivity. That policy turned out to be unadjusted to both labour market requirements and social preferences. Since the mid 1990s, several new family policy measures were implemented, aimed at promoting part-time jobs for mothers, or the use of maternal and parental leaves by both parents. However, underdevelopment of institutional care for children, as well as lack of flexible work patterns, make it still difficult, to reconcile work and family in Austria. Austrian experts proved, that the prolonged parental leave had only a temporary impact on fertility. Therefore, financial transfers, which compensate direct costs of children, should be supplemented by measures aimed at improving general conditions to make them more favorable for decisions about having children, like supporting employment of parents, especially employment of young mothers, developing child care services and family-friendly institutions, in general

Institutional Determinants of International Migration from Central-Eastern Europe

The aim of this paper is to present the role of institutional determinants for international migration from Central and Eastern Europe. In the whole post-war period international mobility has been stimulated by economic incentives, such as income disparities and unemployment, and also by particular solutions in migration policies in the receiving countries. Ethnic and asylum procedures, selective labor recruitments, visas barriers, regularization programs have mostly directed and intensified labor migration from CEE countries.Recently the EU enlargement (and, consequently, opening of member states’ labor markets) became another institutional enhancement for migrating. The 2004 accession of eight CEE countries has been followed by a massive flow from CEE to the UK and Ireland that, together with Sweden, opened their labor markets for migrant workers. In 2007 Bulgaria and Romania will gain the access into EU, but the directions of mobility has been already established for Romanian and Bulgarian citizens: the main destination countries are Italy and Spain. The dynamics of migration from Romania and Bulgaria to South Europe has been extraordinary high since around 2000, mainly due to low legislative barriers and high demand for low-paid work. Again, the institutional determinant, such as overall acceptance towards illegal, foreign workers and regularization programs, turned out to be decisive

Investigating multiple-cause mortality in Poland

Progress in life expectancy and the growing number of people living to old age intensify the phenomenon of multi-morbidity, defined as the coexistence of several chronic diseases. By exploiting all the medical information in death certificates, the multiple causes of death (MCoD) approach serves to investigate complex pathological processes that lead eventually to death. This is the first MCoD analysis for Poland and its objective is twofold: to examine the quality of information on contributing causes of death, in particular in the regional dimension, and to assess the scale of multi-morbidity involving conditions that are becoming more and more frequent in ageing populations. The analysis is carried out for all deaths that took place in Poland in 2013. The results show that medical doctors issuing death certificates often define contributing causes of death, but a large part of this information includes unknown or ill-defined conditions. Several conditions favour the certification of well-defined contributing causes: when death occurs in hospital, or is due to underlying causes other than cardiovascular, the number of contributing conditions is higher. Important regional differences are observed in this regard. The analysis highlights the importance of diseases that are rarely certified as the underlying causes, but often contribute to mortal conditions, such as diseases of the blood and the blood-forming organs, diseases of the skin and subcutaneous tissue, diseases of the genitourinary system or mental and behavioural disorders

Przestrzenny wzorzec osiedlania się cudzoziemców w Polsce

The article presents the spatial distribution of foreigners living in Poland. The data used come from the Office for Repatriations and Aliens and refer to all foreigners who were legally residing in Poland as on 1th September 2004 (84,7 thousand persons). The main countries of origin of immigrants are states of the former Soviet Union (mostly Ukraine, Russia and Belarus), next countries of the Western Europe (Germany, France, the United Kingdom) and finally countries of the East-Central Europe (Bulgaria, Serbia and Montenegro). Depending on a region of origin, foreigners form different spatial patterns of settlement and show different levels of concentration, evaluated by use of the Gini index and the Lorenz curve. Foreigners coming from the countries of the former Soviet Union settled in all regions of Poland and did not form spatial clusters. The degree of the spatial concentration is moderate for the citizens of East-European states and profoundly high for the immigrants from Far East states (above all the Vietnamese). The latter constitute ethnic enclaves in the biggest Polish cities

Emigration From Post-Communist Central Europe After 1989 Interpreted Within the Aspirations/Capabilities Framework

In the period of post-communist transition, Central Europe witnessed complex and multifaceted mobility processes; permanent outmigration, of an ethnic or labour-related nature, coexisted with temporary, seasonal, or cross-border movements and an increasing influx of foreigners. To study these complex processes, we have chosen to apply a holistic and comprehensive approach, rather than limit conceptual considerations to one theory of migration determinants. We focus on eleven post-communist countries that joined the European Union (EU-11) and on the period extending from around 1989, covering the EU's eastward enlargement, to the present. The aim of this study is twofold: first, we propose a general conceptual framework, based on the aspirations/capabilities approach, to present the main determinants of emigration from this part of the European continent. Second, in relation to each determinant, we formulate research questions postulated by selected theories of international migration and present the evidence, based on existing empirical studies, that addresses these questions. The paper contributes to the literature by providing a broad interpretation of post-transition mobility and pointing to commonly overlooked explanatory factors. We highlight the importance of economic factors that have enhanced and directed the outward migration from the EU-11 to selected EU member states and selected economic sectors; in particular, as regards capabilities, these factors include the lifting of labour market restrictions, high demand in the secondary sector of labour markets, and the roles of migration networks and the migration industry. Emphasis is also placed on aspirational factors, such as labour market failures and the substantial aspirational gap resulting from improvements in high educational attainment in the countries of origin. The aspirations/capabilities approach serves well as a general framework of migration determinants, but its explanatory power is enhanced by reference to other, more specific theories of migration. We show that a combination of the complementary approaches provides a more refined and in-depth picture of migration from the region

Determinanty spadku płodności w Polsce – próba syntezy

This paper presents a theoretic synthesis of determinants of fertility decline in Poland in the post-war period. The differences in fertility determinants between the communist and post-communist periods are of particular interest. First, we present the changes in the number of births and their direct determinants: the number of women in reproductive age, forming lasting heterosexual relationships and the quantum and timing of fertility. The births’ decline in Poland is attributed to both quantum and timing effects and changes of union formation. In the second part, we discuss indirect determinants of fertility change by referring to main theoretical approaches to nuptiality and fertility, and by making use of research conducted in Poland. In the last section, we present a conceptual model distinguishing fertility determinants operating on the interconnected levels of production and reproduction system (the macro level), labour market and family (the meso level), and work and family social roles (the micro level). By showing how different factors operated differently in the Polish People’s Republic (until 1989) and during the post-communist transition, we analyse links between these determinants and importance of each of them

Umieralność z przyczyn nieznanych i niedokładnie określonych oraz jej trwałe zróżnicowanie terytorialne w Polsce

An effective health policy can be only conducted on the basis of complete and up-to-date statistical data referring to, among others, causes of deaths. The share of deaths due to unknown and ill-defined causes constitutes one of quality indicators of data on mortality. As compared to other European countries, in Poland this share is relatively high, especially in some regions of the country. Presented analysis is devoted to spatial differences of mortality due to unknown and ill-defined causes in 1991–1995 and 2006–2010. Despite the introduction of the 10th revision of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, as well as despite the modernization of data collecting system in 1997, spatial differences remained at a constant and moderate level, which probably results from the prevalence of local coding practices. We propose possible solutions that could contribute to decrease in share of death due to unknown and ill-defined causes in Poland, among them standardization of local coding procedures concerning causes of death

Using multiple cause of death information to eliminate garbage codes

Background: International comparisons of mortality largely depend on the quality of data. With more than 20Š of deaths annually assigned to ill-defined cardiovascular conditions, the mortality level due to well-defined causes of death is under-registered in Poland. Objective: We aim to reclassify cardiovascular garbage codes (GCs) into well-defined causes based on multiple causes of death (MCoD) data and to approximate mortality levels due to well-defined causes of death in Poland. We examine the usefulness of the MCoD approach for correcting low-quality data on causes of death. Methods: Based on the unique MCoD dataset for Poland, death counts due to cardiovascular GCs were reassigned to well-defined underlying causes in two steps: (1) manually for death records that included MCoD information constituting a logical chain of conditions leading to death and (2) with coarsened exact matching for the remaining death records. Age-specific and age-standardised death rates for large groups of causes were calculated before and after redistribution and compared to those of other Eastern European countries with relatively good data quality. Results: Of deaths originally assigned to cardiovascular GCs, 86,856 were reclassified, mostly to well-defined cardiovascular diseases, cancers, endocrine, nutritional and metabolic diseases, and respiratory diseases. The age-standardised death rate due to well-defined ischaemic heart diseases increased by 43Š, and the rate due to cerebrovascular diseases by 22Š. Cardiovascular mortality structure by large groups of causes became similar to the structure registered in other Eastern European countries characterised by a low prevalence of GCs. Conclusions: Coarsened exact matching performs relatively well when abundant MCoD information is available and enhances the comparability of cause-of-death data between countries. Contribution: Redistribution of GCs improves the quality of cause-of-death data and enhances their comparability between countries