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PubMed1990

Association of country, sex, social class, and life cycle to locus of control in western European countries.

Relatively few studies have focused on causal factors in the development of locus of control. Here nine western European countries are studied to assess the hypothesis that the society in which one lives is important in the scores on locus of control. The data indicate greater variation resulting from country of residence on locus of control than that from the variables of life cycle, sex, and social class. Findings regarding these latter variables are congruent with previous research. In addition, being single was related to having an external locus of control.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1998

Adult female twins' recall of childhood social class and father's education: a validation study for public health research.

To assess recall of childhood socioeconomic position for public health research, the authors conducted a cross-sectional study of 352 adult women twin pairs enrolled in Examination II of the Kaiser Permanente Women Twins Study carried out in 1989-1990 in Oakland, California. Among twin pairs, 91% (95% confidence interval (CI) 89-94%) agreed on their father's educational level and 81% (95% CI 77-85%) on their childhood social class. Recall did not differ by adult socioeconomic position, zygosity, race/ethnicity, or age. Thus, epidemiologic studies can validly use retrospective data on childhood socioeconomic position to study its relation to adult health status.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2000

Interacting effects of nutrition and social class differentials on fertility and infant mortality in the pre-industrial population.

Inadequate nutrition of both the mother and her offspring at each stage of its development - before pregnancy, in the womb, in infancy and during early childhod - played an important role in the patterns of subfertility and infant mortality in a saturated, marginal, preindustrial community. It is suggested that the three social classes had different diets but all were deficient in some essential constituents. Differences in nursing practices in the social groups contributed to differential exogenous mortality and to malnourishment and maternal depletion in the subsistence and (paradoxically) in the elite classes, producing an interacting web of effects and generating a vicious circle from which they could not escape for 150 years. Although the population apparently preferred daughters, the persistent generation effect of low birthweight girls bearing low birthweight daughters probably contributed to the steady-state conditions in this compromised community.

England↗
PubMed1980

The role of race and social class in the psychiatric disorders of treated narcotic addicts.

To test a clinical impression that lower-class Black narcotic addicts from a ghetto "welfare" setting primarily manifest reactive schizophrenia when they become mentally ill, whereas White lower-middle- or working-class addicts primarily manifest reactive depression when they become neurotic or psychotic, a series of 20 consecutive mentally ill addicts from each group were compared with respect to diagnosis. The two groups were matched for age and sex. The findings overwhelmingly supported the hypothesis and are interpreted as confirming it insofar as the nature of our two populations permitted. It was impossible, for example, to separate the effects of racial membership from those of social class or from an interaction between the two variables.

Adjustment Disorders↗
PubMed2004

Area deprivation predicts lung function independently of education and social class.

The cross-sectional association between socioeconomic status (at both the individual and area-based level) and lung function, as measured by forced expiratory volume in one second, in a large population-based cohort was investigated. The study population consisted of 22,675 males and females aged 39-79 yrs. They were recruited from the general community in Norfolk, UK using general practice age/sex registers, as part of the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer (EPIC-Norfolk). It was found that being in a manual occupational social class, having no educational qualifications and living in a deprived area all independently predicted significantly lower lung function, even after controlling for smoking habit. The influence of area-deprivation on lung function, independent of individual socioeconomic status and of individual smoking habit, suggests that apart from targeting individuals who are at high-risk, such as smokers, environmental determinants also need to be examined when considering measures to improve respiratory health.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

Lack of class variation in health in adolescence: an artefact of an occupational measure of social class?

We have previously shown, using a wide range of health measures, that there is little evidence of consistent class gradients in health in adolescence. This paper examines the possibility that those findings were an artefact of the measure of class used. Seven indicators of health, development and functioning are investigated using six different occupationally-based and five non-occupationally based measures of socio-economic status. The results do not alter the conclusion of the earlier paper, namely that in adolescence class gradients are not consistently apparent in most indicators of health.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1987

Why is chest disease so common in South Wales? Smoking, social class, and lung function: a survey of elderly men in two areas.

A respiratory survey was conducted in two British towns, one with a high mortality (Caerphilly) and one with a low mortality (Bath) from respiratory disease. A total of 513 men aged 65-74 years were seen. The Caerphilly men had poorer lung function than the Bath men; the overall difference in FEV1 and FVC for men aged 70 and 1.68m tall was 0.16 1 and 0.17 1 respectively. These differences appeared to be largely due to the greater tendency of the Caerphilly men to smoke and to an effect related to social class. Respiratory symptoms were also more common in Caerphilly, principally because of the effects of smoking and occupational group, although when these factors were allowed for there was still a significantly greater prevalence of breathless wheezing in Caerphilly.

Aged↗
PubMed1983

Factors affecting the duration of breast feeding: 2. Early feeding practices and social class.

Breast milk intake by babies on the third and the sixth postpartum day was measured by a test-weigh procedure in a group of 47 mothers and babies. Women who gave the largest amount of breast milk to their babies on the third postpartum day continued to breast feed for longer than women who gave smaller amounts. These mothers also suckled most frequently, gave least additional fluid to their babies, and their infants regained their birth weight most rapidly. However, an increased early milk intake and duration of breast feeding were both associated with higher social class. These results suggest that, although practices in the initiation of breast feeding are relevant, factors in the background and environment of the mother are also of fundamental importance. Thus recent emphasis on the importance of breast-feeding practices in the immediate puerperium should not divert attention from the equally important task of establishing the optimum conditions for breast feeding in the home environment of mothers.

Body Weight↗
PubMed1990

Social class differences in coping with a physicians' strike in Israel.

The 1983 physicians' strike in Israel lasted 118 days. Striking physicians established alternative medical care centers (ACC) providing primary and specialized medical care on a fee for service basis. This contrasted with the usual pre-paid health insurance system, and provides an interesting natural experiment in health care services. Hospital emergency rooms remained open during the strike. Thus, primary medical care was available in these two settings. This paper compares people of different educational levels as they experienced and adapted to this strike with regard to their expressed need for physicians, their health behavior and outcomes in terms of patterns of utilization of the two services, financial expenses, satisfaction with the ACC's and perceived damage to health caused by the strike. The data were extracted from 719 self-administered questionnaires which were distributed in 14 primary care clinics and among university employees. The results show that the groups with lower levels of education, as compared to groups with higher education levels, reported more need for physicians' care and more damage to health. They were, however, less critical of the parties involved in the strike. When urgent need was reported, all respondents behaved similarly; however, people of lower social classes reported less satisfaction and perceived more damage. In non-urgent need conditions, although lower class respondents had higher utilization rates and higher expenses, they achieved no better results than the higher classes. It is suggested that due to a relative lack of psychological, social and financial resources, people of lower socio-economic classes cope less effectively with sudden changes in the provision of health services.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1996

Influence of social class on the correlation of stature of adult children with that of their mothers and fathers.

Studies of parent-child correlations in stature require data which can be viewed as random samples of some general population and which are large enough to allow partition of the variable and evaluation of non-genetic and genetic influences. In a sample of 4336 individuals drawn from a cohort of all persons born in England, Scotland and Wales in 1 week in 1958, the correlation of statures of the males with their fathers, the females with their fathers, the males with their mothers and the females with their mothers were 0.36, 0.43, 0.41 and 0.47 respectively at age 16 of the offspring and 0.41, 0.41, 0.47 and 0.46 respectively at age 23. Allowance for the occupational social class of the fathers lowers the correlations, but in no case by more than 5%. Allowance for the occupational class achieved by the offspring by age 23 has little effect on the correlations.

Adult↗
PubMed2004

Gender, social class, and the subjective experience of aging: self-perceived personality change from early adulthood to late midlife.

This study explored the applicability of previous research (obtained with groups of college-educated women) about the subjective experience of aging in midlife to men and less-educated people. Two-hundred fifty-nine men and women who graduated from a public high school in 1955-1957 retrospectively assessed their feelings of identity certainty, confident power, generativity, and concern about aging for their 60s, 40s, and 20s. Participants reported higher levels of identity certainty, confident power, and concern about aging at each age, and a leveling off of generativity in their 60s. There were some gender and social class differences. Although men and women recalled the same trajectory of these feelings, men reported higher levels of identity certainty and confident power across age. Non-college-educated men recalled the highest levels of concern about aging across age. We discuss how these findings add to our understanding of the experience of aging in these domains.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

The effect of fluoride consumption and social class on dental caries in 8-year-old children.

School dental service data indicate that whilst Melbourne eight-year-old children had worse dental health than similar children in the Geelong area in 1979, the situation in 1985 was the reverse. In order to investigate this, and determine the effects of socio-economic level (SEL), residential history, and fluoride history on dental caries status, 208 eight-year-old children in the Melbourne area and 209 eight-year-old children in the Geelong area were examined for dental caries. A questionnaire was administered to gain details of subjects' exposure to water and supplement fluorides. The SEL of the subjects' school was used in place of individual SEL. A high proportion (46 per cent) of Geelong subjects used a fluoride supplement at some stage, but few continued this for most of their life. Residential history was important, with 2.4 per cent of the Melbourne subjects living most of their life in a nonfluoridated area and 3.4 per cent of Geelong subjects living most of their life in a fluoridated area. There was a significant difference between the dmft in Melbourne and Geelong when only children who had lived all their life in the city in which they were examined and did not use a fluoride supplement were included. A large part of this difference is attributed to water fluoridation in Melbourne. A substantial number of children would benefit from fluoridation of the reticulated water supply in Geelong, particularly those in the lower social classes.

Analysis of Variance↗
PubMed2005

A socially neutral disease? Individual social class, household wealth and mortality from Spanish influenza in two socially contrasting parishes in Kristiania 1918-19.

The Spanish influenza pandemic of 1918-19 was one of the most devastating diseases in history, killing perhaps as many as 50-100 million people worldwide. Much of the literature since 1918 has favored the view that mortality from Spanish influenza was class neutral. This view has prevailed, even though several contemporary surveys showed that there indeed were clear differences between the classes in disease incidence and that case fatality rates from influenza and pneumonia also varied according to socioeconomic status. Furthermore, studies of more recent influenza epidemics have also shown that there can be clear class differentials in mortality in this type of illness--is there any reason to believe that Spanish influenza was different? This paper is the first study in which individual- and household-level data which are unique for the period are utilized to test the conservative hypothesis that Spanish influenza was a socially neutral disease with respect to mortality. Through the use of Cox regressions in an analysis of two socially contrasting parishes in the Norwegian capital city of Kristiania, it is shown that apartment size as an indicator of wealth of a household, in addition to social status of place of residence, were the only socioeconomic variables that had an independent and significant effect on mortality after controlling for age, sex and marital status.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1986

The relation between overweight and subjective health according to age, social class, slimming behavior and smoking habits in Dutch adults.

Subjective health status was assessed in relation to overweight by administering a list of 51 health complaints to adult men and women who were either chronically overweight as defined by Body Mass Index (BMI) or not overweight, in a continuous morbidity registration in four general practices during the period 1967-83. Responses were received from 455 men (182 overweight) and 790 women (386 overweight), ages 26-66 years. Response rate (71 per cent) and age distribution (mean age 48) were similar in overweight and non-overweight groups of both sexes. BMI was correlated with the total number of complaints in women (r = 0.15) but not in men (r = 0.07). Multiple regression analysis revealed, however, that age was an effect modifier in this relation, there being a negative association between BMI and subjective health in younger men and a positive association in older men, whereas in women the association between BMI and subjective health was much more pronounced at younger ages than at older ages. In addition, current smoking habits and social class (in men and women) and reported slimming behavior (in women) had an independent relation to the total number of health complaints. BMI was also related to specific complaints and groups of complaints, particularly in women.

Adult↗
PubMed1985

Fibrinogen: a possible link between social class and coronary heart disease.

Mortality from coronary heart disease in civil servants in the lowest grade of employment has been found to be about three times that of men in the highest grade of employment. As part of an investigation of this finding several haemostatic variables were measured in a sample of 29 men in lower grades of employment and 45 men in higher grades. There was a significant difference in plasma fibrinogen concentrations between men in lower grades of employment and those in higher grades (mean 3.39 g/l v 2.95 g/l, respectively; p less than 0.01) but not in other haemostatic variables. Multiple regression analyses showed significant independent associations of fibrinogen concentration with smoking (p less than 0.05) and grade of employment (p less than 0.05). The size of the observed difference between the grades of employment was similar to that between those dying of coronary heart disease or surviving during longitudinal study; it may therefore be an important part of the mechanism underlying social class differences in coronary heart disease. The statistical relation between fibrinogen concentrations and other characteristics that may be concerned in the aetiology of coronary heart disease was examined. A summary measure of job stress was significantly related to fibrinogen concentration (p less than 0.01) and made a substantial contribution to explaining the differences between grades of employment. Behaviour type and a score of physical activity were not significantly related to fibrinogen concentration.

Adult↗
PubMed1992

Social class and minor psychiatric disorder in British Civil Servants: a validated screening survey using the General Health Questionnaire.

Major psychiatric disorder is more common in people of lower rather than higher socioeconomic status. This is less clear for the commoner, so-called minor psychiatric disorders, but these are more affected by tendency to report symptoms. To examine this the distribution of minor psychiatric disorder by employment grade measured by the 30-item General Health Questionnaire is reported from the first cross-sectional phase of the Whitehall II Study of 10,314 London-based civil servants, men and women between 35 and 55 years. Validation of the GHQ in a random subsample stratified by grade and sex (N = 201) suggested that people in lower employment grades tend to under-report minor psychiatric disorder on the GHQ relative to those in higher employment grades. The prevalence of minor psychiatric disorder corrected by the coefficients from the validity study was greater in the lower employment grades than the higher employment grades particularly for men. This was echoed in grade differences in well-being measured by the Affect Balance Scale, and in symptoms and recurrent health problems. Overall, for women there were few clear-cut differences in minor psychiatric disorder by employment grade. The lack of social class gradient in women suggests that further exploration should examine women's role at work and their personal lives for the aetiology of minor psychiatric disorder.

Adult↗