Search PubMed⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search PubMed

Results for “SOCIAL CLASS”

Search indexed PubMed citations on genomics, clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health. Explore titles, authors and supplied subject terms, then open the PubMed record.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 1,657 records · Page 92Linked to original sources
PubMed1982

A comparison between children of alcoholic fathers from excellent versus poor social conditions.

In a longitudinal research project, the authors have followed up the children of male alcoholics from the lowest social class. The results of these studies have shown that, when they are still small, the children exhibit signs of mental disturbances and that the boys, when they become adults, develop social maladjustment problems and addictions, and have a high rate of both somatic and psychiatric diseases. In comparison to their controls, the values found for these variables are consistently higher for the probands. In the present study, a comparison was made between 85 children of alcoholic fathers from the highest social class and 100 children of alcoholic fathers from the lowest social class. The results indicated that the former group was just as likely to develop social maladjustment problems, including abuse of alcohol and drugs, while they were growing up as the latter group of children. Viewed from this standpoint, it is apparent that, regardless of which social background they grow up in, children are in a risk-zone if the father is an alcoholic.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1996

Premature ageing: the link between psychosocial risk factors and disease.

In epidemiological studies from different countries, morbidity and mortality have been found to be increased in populations exposed to adverse psychosocial factors, e.g. low social class or poor social networks. Biological mechanisms must be operative to mediate this influence of social factors on clinical outcome. As increasing age is the common denominator for different categories of chronic disease, the ageing process itself in individuals may be studied in connection with data on exposure to negative psychosocial and lifestyle factors. A hypothesis is stated that premature ageing is the result of social pathology working on human physiology if buffering, health-preserving (salutogenic) mechanisms are not sufficient to counteract this effect. One measurable variable of the ageing process may be melatonin, known to decrease with age and to be lower in patients with coronary heart disease than in normal individuals.

Aging↗
PubMed2003

The use of quantitative medical sociology.

The present article reviews, in relation to quantitative work on the social structure, papers published in Sociology of Health and Illness during its first 25 years. Each issue published during the years 1979-2002 has been examined; and quantitative papers, relating to various aspects of the social structure, have been identified. Such papers are found to have formed a minor but substantively significant theme within the Journal. These contributions situate the journal between sociology and social epidemiology. Articles in the Journal, for example, have been part of sociological debates about the measurement of social class, and of social epidemiological debates about the relationship between income distribution and population health. The contribution of Sociology of Health and Illness to a number of such debates is reviewed. The article concludes that the present situation, in particular the intellectual crisis in social epidemiology and social science investment in large data sets, gives the Journal the chance to build on this distinguished tradition by encouraging, through its publication policy, the further development of quantitative medical sociology.

Bibliometrics↗
PubMed1979

Ethnicity and drug use among urban junior high school youths.

Data from a survey of youths attending a New York City junior high school were used to examine three perspectives of their drug involvement: (1) ethnic subculture, (2) social class, and (3) social adjustment. The results support the social adjustment view, although important differences were found in the demographic, attitude, and value correlates of drug involvement for the Black, Puerto Rican, and White students who were studied.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1991

Disability and social stratification.

This paper suggests that, for a variety of reasons, the sociology of social stratification--and, as a consequence, mainstream sociology more generally--has neglected the topic of disability. Using material drawn from a range of sources, it is argued that disability is related in definite ways to social class. Further, it is also argued that disability must be considered as a factor contributing to the production and reproduction of stratification in its own right, independently of class relations. These arguments are further advanced in the course of a more detailed consideration of research evidence concerned with mental handicap. The paper ends with a consideration of the role of non-class factors--specifically social status and citizenship--in the stratification systems of modern industrial societies.

Persons with Disabilities↗
PubMed1998

[Seroprevalence of human T-cell lymphotropic virus type I in Curaçao and predictive variables for that infection].

OBJECTIVE: To determine the seroprevalence of human T-cell leukaemia virus (HTLV) type I and predictive variables in Curaçao. DESIGN: Descriptive. SETTING: St. Elisabeth Hospital, Curaçao. METHODS: A total of 2531 sera were randomly collected from a total population of approximately 145,000 over a period of three months (of seven the sex was not known). An initial ELISA test was performed to detect anti-HTLV-I antibodies. If this test was positive an ELISA re-test (in duplicate) was performed. If one of these re-tests was found positive a western blot confirmation test was performed. The association with age, sex, social class and history of syphilis were analysed with multiple logistic regression models and adjusted for confounding. RESULTS: The estimated prevalence of HTLV-I was 1.9% (49/2524). No significant sex differences were observed (odds ratio (OR): 1.13; 95% confidence interval (95% CI): 0.62-2.05). Increasing age (p for trend = 0.0003) and lower social class (OR: 1.86; 95% CI: 1.03-3.38) were important predictive factors for HTLV-I infection. Members of the lower social classes and persons 50 years or older were at relatively high risk (OR: 3.91; 95% CI: 2.21-6.94). CONCLUSION: HTLV-I infection is endemic in the island of Curaçao, as in other Caribbean islands. The estimated prevalence is 1.9%. Age and lower social class were important predictive factors for HTLV-I infection.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2000

The influence of childhood weight and socioeconomic status on change in adult body mass index in a British national birth cohort.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of childhood weight and childhood socioeconomic status on the pattern of change in body mass index (BMI) between 20 and 43 years. METHODS: A British birth cohort study where the survey members have been followed up regularly since their birth in 1946, with the most recent of 19 follow-ups when the cohort were aged 43 years. BMI was available at 20, 26, 36 and 43 years of age and thus multilevel models for repeated outcome measures were used to model the patterns of change in BMI. RESULTS: The rate of increase in BMI with age was non-linear, with the rate of increase in mean BMI accelerating with increasing age at different rates for men and women. The mean BMI for men was higher than that for women at all ages. Childhood manual social class, defined in terms of father's occupation, and high relative weight at 14 years of age were associated with higher mean BMI across adult life, and these effects increased with age. The effects of childhood relative weight and social class were independent of educational attainment and adult social class. CONCLUSION: The study provides evidence of a long-term effect of childhood social and biological circumstances on BMI. The pathways underlying these relationships may be social or biological, but are not yet fully understood.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1983

[Mortality by socio-occupational categories in urban and rural areas].

Mortality data in France are studied by a cross sectional analysis including both population density (urban or rural aggregates) and socio-economic groups. The socio-economic differentials in mortality increase with the size of localities. Specific social class distribution partly explains the excess of mortality in rural areas and the lowest mortality in the parisian agglomeration. On the contrary social class distribution does not affect mortality in small towns. Nevertheless, the expected effect of social class does not explain all the discrepancies in mortality between urban and rural areas. The population density is a parameter that should be taken into account when analyzing mortality.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1993

Socioeconomic distribution of noncommunicable disease risk factors in urban Brazil: the case of Pôrto Alegre.

The study reported here sought to assess the degree to which the prevalences of five risk factors for noncommunicable diseases--hypertension, smoking, obesity, sedentary lifestyle, and excessive alcohol consumption--varied individually and in combination for urban Brazilians with differing socioeconomic status in terms of educational achievement, income, and social class. For this purpose, 1986-1987 data from a cross-sectional household survey of 1,157 randomly selected adults 15-64 years of age residing in the major Brazilian city of Pôrto Alegre were analyzed. In general, it was found that less privileged socioeconomic situations tended to be associated with higher risk factor prevalences. However, this was not the case for obesity and sedentary lifestyle among men, and may not have been the case with respect to hypertension among women. When the effects of education, income, and social class were considered simultaneously, higher risk factor prevalences were most strongly associated with low educational attainment. Important exceptions to this rule were found for smoking among women and excessive alcohol consumption among men, where higher risk factor prevalences were most associated with social class. Once the effects of education and social class were accounted for, low income generally tended to be associated with lower prevalences of the risk factors studied.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

The use of logit models to investigate social and biological factors in infant mortality. II: Stillbirths.

Infant mortality data for England and Wales cross-classified by mother's age, parity and social class have only been published for 1949/50 and 1975. Appropriate statistical methodology for the analysis of such data has been described in Paper I, which used the 1975 stillbirth data for illustration. This paper examines the stillbirth data from both years by formally incorporating the year of data collection into the statistical model, enabling changes in the age, parity and social class effects with time to be investigated. Despite a marked reduction in stillbirth mortality from 21.1 to 10.1 per thousand over the period, the relative contribution of social class has increased. In particular there has been a relative increase in risk for mothers in the lower social classes. By contrast the effects of age and parity, although remaining important, have diminished over the period.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Social and environmental factors influencing contraceptive use among black adolescents.

In 1979 survey among sexually active unmarried black adolescents from Chicago found that 28 percent of the young women and 18 percent of the young men used a contraceptive at first intercourse. Statistically significant differences in such contraceptive use among teenage women were found for three social and environmental characteristics: social class, parents' marital status and neighborhood quality. Thus, 41 percent of the young women from the highest social class used contraceptives at first intercourse, but only 17 percent of those from the lowest class did so. The proportions were 35 percent for young women from neighborhoods of high socioeconomic status and 17 percent for those from ghetto neighborhoods. Thirty-six percent of teenage women whose parents had intact marriages as of the adolescent's 11th birthday used contraceptives at first intercourse, compared with 23 percent of those from single-parent and divorced families. Among males, social class was the only one of these three characteristics that was statistically significant; 32 percent of adolescents from the highest class and 11 percent from the lowest practiced contraception at first intercourse. For teenagers of both sexes, career aspirations were of marginal statistical significance in the practice of contraception. Thirty-six percent of young women with high aspirations used contraceptives at first intercourse and 19 percent of those with low aspirations did so. Only four percent of the young men with low career aspirations used contraceptives, compared with 25 percent of those with high aspirations. Number of siblings, parental supervision of dating and having a sister who had become a teenage mother showed no association with contraceptive use.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Adolescent↗
PubMed1987

Effects of feeding and social factors on diarrhoea and vomiting in infants.

In a prospective study of infants and their feeding in south east Queensland, Australia, the incidences of reported diarrhoea and/or vomiting in breast, bottle, and mixed (breast and bottle) fed infants were compared from birth to 1 year. Up to 6 months infants who were given breast feeds, with or without other milks, had less diarrhoea and/or vomiting than those given bottle feeds only. Breast feeding seemed to protect the infant against possible introduced infections even when other milks were given along with the breast milk. After 6 months breast feeding did not reduce the incidence of gastrointestinal infection. In both upper and lower social class families infants given solids before 3 months had less diarrhoea and/or vomiting than those given solids later. Bottle fed infants aged 3-6 months in upper social class families had fewer gastrointestinal problems than those of lower social class families. This study suggests that up to the age of 6 months, in this population, breast feeding protects the infant against diarrhoea and/or vomiting, but other milks and solids can safely be given to supplement the breast milk. Breast feeding conferred no significant protection after 6 months.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1995

CAMCOG--a concise neuropsychological test to assist dementia diagnosis: socio-demographic determinants in an elderly population sample.

The CAMCOG, which forms part of the CAMDEX interview (Roth et al., 1986, 1988), is a brief neuropsychological battery designed to assess the range of cognitive functions required for a diagnosis of dementia, and to detect mild degrees of cognitive impairment. It was administered to a population sample of 418 elderly people (aged 77 and above) in their place of residence. The data show that in contrast to the Mini-Mental State Examination, total CAMCOG scores are well distributed and there is no ceiling effect. Examination of the association between CAMCOG scores and socio-demographic variables (age, sex, education and social class) shows that each exerts a significant, and independent, effect upon performance. CAMCOG also includes a number of subscale which assess individual areas of cognitive function. Of the eight major subscales (orientation, language, memory, attention, praxis, calculation, abstract thinking, perception), age was significantly related to all but attention; sex with attention, praxis, calculation and perception; education with language and abstract thinking; and social class with language and perception. In all these analyses, the results were adjusted for the effects of the other socio-demographic variables using analysis of variance. However, education and social class are highly correlated variables and when the association with education is examined without adjusting for social class, attention and praxis are also found to be significantly related to education. Caution must therefore be taken when using the CAMCOG (or any other cognitive test) as a screening test for dementia, using a single, predetermined cutpoint. In general, the combination of brevity and breadth of the CAMCOG, along with its distributional properties, makes it an attractive neuropsychological test for use in the community or the clinic.

Aged↗
PubMed1976

Peptic ulceration in men. Epidemiology and medical care.

Estimates of the population prevalence of peptic and duodenal ulceration in men aged between 25 and 64 years were made in the London borough of Lambeth. The sampling frame for these estimates was a 20% private census. The lifetime prevalence rate of proved peptic ulcer (haematemesis, gastric and duodenal ulcers as validated by operation or barium meal), adjusted for age and social class, was estimated to be 6-7%, while the similarly adjusted lifetime prevalence for duodenal ulcer was 4-4%. The lifetime prevalences increased with age but not significantly so. A social class gradient was demonstrated with the highest prevalence in social class I and II. Previously described associations with blood group, secretor status, and serum pepsinogen were confirmed. Reported use of medical services increased with increasing severity of symptoms. A large number of respondents, however, who reported symptoms reported no medical care. It seemed unlikely that those men who reported symptoms and no medical care had demonstrable peptic ulcers.

Adult↗
PubMed1976

Ethnic differences in family attitudes towards psychotic manifestations, with implications for treatment programmes.

The tolerance of Irish-American and Jewish-American families towards psycho-social dysfunction in a psychotic family member was studied. As predicted, significantly more Irish families than Jewish families tolerated deviant thinking in a psychotic relative, while significantly more Jewish families than Irish families tolerated deviant verbal emotionality. These and other findings are discussed in terms of psycho-social and socio-cultural theory and lead to a consideration of the goals of treatment programmes. Differences in family attitudes have been shown to affect the decision to send relatives to a mental hospital, or accept them on discharge. Cultural factors are known to be related to attitudes on a variety of health-related issues, but studies have not focused generally on ethnic contributions to family differences in attitudes towards mentally disturbed family members. One reason for this neglect of cultural factors has been the emphasis on sociological phenomena, stimulated by investigations of social class and mental illness. Yet is has been shown that ethnic factors may be responsible for at least some of the correlations that have been found between community, social class and mental illness. Every social class, furthermore, can muster a variety of patterns for seeking professional assistance for psycho-social dysfunctions, and some of these patterns may be differentiated along cultural lines. The present study attempts such a differentiation. It deals with two ethnic groups and their family attitudes towards disturbing symptoms in relatives.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

Health and social inequities in Ireland.

This paper attempts to discuss the shape of inequalities in health in the Republic of Ireland by focusing on social class, gender and regional inequalities in health outcomes as shown in annual publications of vital statistics and in various research studies. The Republic of Ireland has a demographic profile of rapid population increase, unique in Europe. While the birth rate is the highest in Europe, the infant mortality rate is relatively low, yet the perinatal mortality rate is relatively high. Attempts are made to analyse social class variations in mortality and morbidity rates but, except for psychiatric care, Irish data on health by social class are scarce. There exist more data on gender inequalities which pinpoint the particular vulnerability of Irish women to ischaemic heart disease and certain types of cancer. Regional analysis of vital statistics reveals the vulnerability of people in urban areas (compared to rural areas) to cancer of the trachea, bronchus and lung, cirrhosis of the liver, tuberculosis of the respiratory system, pneumonia, and bronchitis, emphysema and asthma. In comparison to several European countries, Irish standardized mortality rates were the worst for urban women dying from lung cancer, and for urban men and women, Irish standardized mortality rates were the worst for non-rheumatic heart disease and respiratory tuberculosis. Various studies of morbidity of the elderly clearly reveal the hidden clinical iceberg of symptoms which are not presented to the health care system. Unfortunately, there is relatively little evidence of the health situation of disabled people, the travelling community or the long term unemployed.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Age Factors↗
PubMed2000

[Prevalence of Helicobacter pylori infection in primary health care].

OBJECTIVES: To find the prevalence of Helicobacter pylori (Hp) infection in the population as a whole. To assess its relationship with the associated factors described in other studies. DESIGN: Transversal study of an urban population of 20,000. PARTICIPANTS: Between 14 and 80 years old. Randomised sampling of the computerised records (640 clinical histories). Necessary sample n = 384 (alpha = 0.05, prior prevalence = 50%, precision 0.05). MEASUREMENTS: Breath test with urea marked (13C), age, sex, alcohol and tobacco consumption, social class and dyspepsia and/or gastro-duodenal pathology. RESULTS: 123 exclusions. 122 losses (23%). 397 people screened, 43.6% male. Average age: 42.6. 41.6% consumed alcohol. 30.5% smoked. Prevalence of dyspepsia, gastritis, gastric ulcer and duodenal ulcer, 14%, 2.8%, 2.8% and 2.0%, respectively. Hp prevalence: 56.1% (95% CI, 51.2-60.1). There were no significant differences between prevalence of Hp+ and sex, dyspepsia, peptic ulcer history, gastritis, alcohol consumption and tobacco consumption. Greatest prevalence of Hp+ in over-70s (73%). Significant linear tendency between presence of Hp+ and age (p < 0.05) and low social class (p < 0.05). The logistic regression analysis found a statistically significant relationship only between the presence of H. pylori and age and social class. CONCLUSIONS: Prevalence was similar to that in other studies. The relationship between low social class and age and greater Hp prevalence was confirmed. Dyspepsia is not a justification for empirical treatment of Hp. Patients with and without the infection must be followed to evaluate morbidity longitudinally.

Adolescent↗