Premature Mortality in Slovenia in Relation to Selected Biological, Socioeconomic, and Geographical Determinants

Aim: To determine biological (sex and age), socioeconomic (marital status, education, and mother tongue) and geographical (region) factors connected with causes of death and lifespan (age at death, years-of-potential-life-lost, and mortality rate) in Slovenia in the 1990s. Methods: In this population-based cross-sectional study, we analyzed all deaths in the 25-64 age group (N = 14 816) in Slovenia in 1992, 1995, and 1998. Causes of death, classified into groups according to the 10th revision of International Classification of Diseases, were linked to the data on the deceased from the 1991 Census. Stratified contingency-table analyses were performed. Years-of-potential-life-lost (YPLL) were calculated on the basis of population life-tables stratified by region and linearly modeled by the characteristics of the deceased. Poisson regression was applied to test the differences in mortality rate. Results: Across all socioeconomic strata, men died at younger age than women (index of excess mortality in men exceeded 200 for all studied years) and from different prevailing causes (injuries in men aged 35 years). For men, higher education was associated with fewer deaths from digestive and respiratory system diseases. The least educated women died relatively often from circulatory diseases, but rarely from neoplasms. Single people died from neoplasms less often. Marriage in comparison with divorce reduced the mortality rate by 1.9-fold in both men and women (P<0.001). Mortality rate in both men and women decreased with increasing education level (P<0.001). Mortality rate of ethnic Slovenians was half the mortality rate of ethnic minority members and immigrants (P<0.001). Analysis of YPLL revealed limited and nonlinear impact of education level on premature mortality. The share of neoplasms was the highest in the cluster of socioeconomically prosperous regions, whereas the share of circulatory diseases was increased in poorer regions. Significant differences were found between individual regions in age at death and mortality rate, and the differences decreased over the studied period. Conclusion: These data may aid in understanding the nature, prevalence and consequences of mortality as related to socioeconomic inequalities, and thus serve as a basis for setting health and social policy goals and planning health measures

Gender as a determinant of social status - towards an androgynous society?

Due to a number of factors, among others the feminist movement, female and male realities have been changing intensively. The changes benefiting women have been among the greatest social changes seen in the 20th and 21st centuries. Demographic shifts reflected the processes of industrialisation and urbanisation, which also stimulated changes in socio-economic realities. Mortality and fertility rates started falling, while the economic participation rates of women began to increase. The social context, influenced by these trends, became a framework for creating, developing and perceiving the demands of the feminist movement - the right to vote and be elected, the inclusion of women in the labour market on equal grounds as men, education, changed ownership structure, making decisions over one's body etc. Yet despite all these changes the androcentric (male oriented) culture is still prevailing, which through the established societal control mechanisms enables the continuing reproduction of patriarchalism. The article discusses some economic aspects of the subordination of women; it challenges the petrification of the mechanisms of regeneration and reproduction of misogynous development patterns and tackles the still dominant androcentric social order

Gender mainstreaming in the public employment service

During the 90s Slovenia was experiencing a period of changes that influenced both its economy and social security system, and caused changes in the position of men and women. However, it could be assessed that those changes in general did not worsen the employment and social security position (social and economic inclusion) of women significantly more compared to men. The equal access to fulltime employment for women in Slovenia (compared to most ‘Western’ countries) can be seen as a legacy of the former system, which supported the inclusion of women in the public sphere, welldeveloped social child-care provisions and liberal family planning policies. Female employment has traditionally represented a high proportion of total employment and that has not been changed even in critical period of transition. Yet, intensification of working conditions in paid work and insecurity at the labour market (experienced by both women and men) have proven harder for women, particularly because of the burden of unpaid work