The aim of this thesis is to gain insight into the role of social inequalities in explaining the differences in health between the United States and Western Europe. The first part of this thesis assesses the contribution of educational inequalities in health to the explanation of the US health disadvantage. The second part of this thesis assesses the contribut

Hedel, K. (Karen) van

Hedel, Karen

EUR Research Repository

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Explaining the US Health Disadvantage: The role of social inequalities

The aim of this thesis is to gain insight into the role of social inequalities in explaining the differences in health between the United States and Western Europe. The first part of this thesis assesses the contribution of educational inequalities in health to the explanation of the US health disadvantage. The second part of this thesis assesses the contribution of work and family factors (separately and jointly) in explaining the US health disadvantage

Erasmus University Digital Repository

Propositions belonging to the thesisExplaining the US Health Disadvantage: The role of social inequalities1. Larger educational disparities in mortality in the United States than in Europe partly explain why US adults have higher mortality than their European counter-parts. (This thesis)2. To reduce the US health disadvantage, it is critical to improve mortality trends among low educated Americans. (This thesis)3. The explanation of educational inequalities in mortality differs between men and women. (This thesis)4. Marriage attenuates the mortality risk associated with labor force inactivity, and labor force activity attenuates the mortality risk associated with being unmarried. (This thesis)5. Work-family histories explain only a small fraction of the higher cardiovascular risk of older American women relative to European women. (This thesis)6. “Alternatives to the experiment will always be needed.” (Cook, Shadish & Wong, 2008)7. “Variation in ages at death, captured by a metric of lifespan variation, should be used to supplement measures of average longevity when comparing or monitoring societies and population subgroups.” (Van Raalte, Sasson & Martikainen, 2018)8. Compared to female fertility, much remains unknown about how male fertility is influenced by individual and external factors.9. Simple answers or solutions cannot be provided in the evaluation of complex social processes and interventions.10. All science has uncertainty, but this uncertainty should be communicated effec-tively to decision makers to facilitate better decisions. (Fischhoff & Davis, 2014)11. The best PhD thesis is a finished one. Karen van Hedel Rotterdam, 02 October 2019

van Hedel, K.

MPG.PuRe

Explaining the US health disadvantage: the role of social inequalities

https://repub.eur.nl/pub/119151/PhDThesis_KvanHedel_Stellingen.pdf

Explaining the US Health Disadvantage: The role of social inequalities

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