Intergenerational transmission of long-term sick leave

The aim of this study is to investigate the importance of intergenerational transmission of sick leave using universal Swedish register data on the rate of sickness benefits. We find that there is a positive correlation between parents' and their children's sick leave. The child-parent correlation is of about the same magnitude irrespective of the gender of the parent and the child, but it is larger the more sick leave the parent had when observed. Furthermore, there is a positive correlation between the sick leave level of the children and that of the parents-in-law, implying that persons tend to live with a partner whose sick leave resembles that of their parents. Finally, a comparison between siblings of different birth order shows that firstborn daughters report fewer spells of sick leave than their younger siblings of the same gender. This gap only emerges in the group of daughters with parents who lack sick leave themselves, suggesting that the birth-order effect is only of importance among women with low levels of sick leave

Socioeconomic consequences of obesity : Population-based longitudinal studies of Swedish men

The overall aim of the thesis was to study if Swedish obese male adolescents become socioeconomicly disadvantaged in later life. Among Swedish men born 1951-79, who went through military conscription examination at age 18-20 years, the associations between obesity and attained education, occupation, income, and disability pension have been studied. The target populations were identified in the Multi-Generation Register. A record linkage was made between this register and data from the following national registers: the Register of the Total Population, the Swedish Military Service Conscription Register, the Population and Housing Censuses, the Longitudinal Database of Education, Income and Occupation, Statistics Sweden s Register on School Marks, the Cause of Death Register, the Hospital Discharge Register, the Swedish Twin Register, and the Swedish Young Male Twin Study. The associations between body mass index in late adolescence and later socioeconomic outcomes were analyzed by logistic regression, polytomous logistic regression, and Cox regression among all study subjects and by linear regression estimated with generalized estimating equations and conditional logistic regression within brother pairs. The results showed that obese Swedish men are doing worse in the educational system than their normal weight counterparts even after adjustments for intelligence, parental education and parental socioeconomic position. Compared to normal weight counterparts, obese men were 40% less likely to start a university education (hazard ratio 0.63 95% confidence interval 0.60; 0.66) and 50% less likely to actually graduate (hazard ratio 0.48 95% confidence interval 0.44; 0.52). Second, obese Swedish men had an increased risk of approximately 35% of receiving disability pension (hazard ratio 1.35 95% confidence interval 1.19; 1.52) compared to their normal weight counterparts when own and parental socioeconomic factors were taken into account. Third, obese men were more likely to move downward and less likely to move upward in the social hierarchy compared to normal weight men. In addition, results showed that obesity was longitudinally associated to low educational level, low socioeconomic position and low income, irrespective of own intelligence, environmental and genetic factors shared by brothers, and parental socioeconomic position. In conclusion, the results show that obesity in late adolescence has socioeconomic consequences in later life. Explanations for these consequences may be sought in the non-shared environment and are speculated to be co-morbidities of obesity, personal characteristics of obese individuals such as aspirations and self-esteem, or factors on the societal level such as discrimination

Weight status at age 18 influences marriage prospects. A population-based study of Swedish men

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In a longitudinal population-based study of the relationship between body mass index (BMI) in early adulthood and marital status at 40 years of age, obese men were half as likely to be married compared with men of normal weight. Significant associations between obesity and marital status among men in a longitudinal setting are novel findings.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The study cohort comprised Swedish men born from 1951 to 1961. Height and weight at age 18 was gathered from the Military Service Conscription Register and information on marital status at 40 years of age was obtained from population registers by record-linkage using the unique personal identification number. The odds ratio (OR) for being married was calculated by polytomous logistic regression analysis adjusting for birth year, intellectual performance, education, country of birth, residential area, socioeconomic position in childhood and adulthood, parental education and muscle strength.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Our study included 486 599 Swedish men. Young men who were obese (BMI≥30.0) at 18 years of age had an OR of 0.49 (95% CI: 0.46–0.52) for being married at 40 years of age compared to normal weight men (BMI: 18.5–24.9). Underweight men (BMI≤18.5) had an OR of 0.84 (0.82–0.86) and overweight men (BMI: 25.0–29.9) had an OR of 0.83 (0.80–0.85) for being married at 40 years of age.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Underweight, overweight and obese men were less likely to be married than their normal weight counterparts. Obese men had the lowest likelihood of being married. Stigmatization and discrimination may partly explain these findings, but further research is needed before firm conclusions can be drawn.</p