Scandinavian Journal of Public Health

AIMS: Social inequalities in mortality persist or even increase in high-income countries. Most evidence is based on a period approach to measuring mortality - that is, data from individuals born decades apart. A cohort approach, however, provides complementary insights using data from individuals who grow up and age under similar social and institutional arrangements. This study compares income inequalities in cohort life expectancy in two Swedish cohorts, one born before and one born after the expansion of the welfare state...

BACKGROUND: Explanations for the disproportional COVID-19 burden among immigrants relative to host-country natives include differential exposure to the virus and susceptibility due to poor health conditions. Prior to the pandemic, immigrants displayed deteriorating health with duration of residence that may be associated with increased susceptibility over time. The aim of this study was to compare immigrant-native COVID-19 mortality by immigrants' duration of residence to examine the role of differential susceptibility...

AIMS: Health research in Greenlanders is challenged by a small population, few dedicated researchers and limited funding. Some research areas have proven impactful but gaps in knowledge are unknown. We aimed to quantify health research in Greenland, providing insights for researchers, policymakers and funding agencies to guide future research. METHODS: We identified all peer-reviewed health research publications with the term 'Greenland***' in title or abstract from 2001 to 2020 through the platform entitled The Lens ...

AIMS: There are signs of increased stress at work among Norwegian physicians over the last decades, not least among general practitioners (GPs). In this review, we identify trends in both occupational stress and adverse work-related predictors of such stress and burnout in Norwegian physicians. METHODS: We performed an extensive literature search using MEDLINE, Embase and PsycINFO. We included prospective and repeated cross-sectional studies of work stress among Norwegian physicians published in 2007-2019...

AIMS: This paper investigates stress related to schoolwork among students in academic upper secondary schools. The research questions asked are: 1. To what degree does students' schoolwork stress vary between academic classes?; And 2. are perceptions of classroom goal orientation, academic achievement, sex and parental education related to schoolwork stress? METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was done in the final year of upper secondary school in 71 school classes from 13 schools...

AIMS: To examine how a positive change in one to three psychosocial stressors (job demands, job rewards, and workplace social capital) influenced psychological distress. METHODS: The analysis included 3605 Finnish health and social services workers who completed surveys in 2019, 2020 and 2021. A logistic regression model was used to estimate the propensity score of experiencing a positive change in one to three psychosocial stressors between 2019 and 2020. We balanced the baseline characteristics with propensity scoring...

INTRODUCTION: There is evidence that older adults with cancer have a higher risk of functional decline than cancer-free older adults. However, few studies are longitudinal, and none are twin studies. Thus, we aimed to investigate the relationship between cancer and functional decline in older adult (aged 70+ years) twins. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Cancer cases in the Longitudinal Study of Aging Danish Twins were identified through the Danish Cancer Registry. Functional status was assessed using hand grip strength (6 years follow-up), and self-reported questions on mobility (10 years follow-up), and cut-offs were defined to assess functional decline...

AIMS: Mortality associated with mental disorders has been estimated using metrics such as mortality rate ratios and life expectancy. However, the variation around the average life expectancy has never been quantified. The main aim of this study was to measure life disparity for people with mental disorders as a measure of inequality at the time of death. METHODS: Using data from Danish registries, average life disparity was introduced and calculated to measure the lifespan variation associated with major types of mental disorders...

AIMS: To study sex differences in the psychosocial and economic impact of the restrictive measures during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 among the migrant origin and the general population in Finland. METHODS: Cross-sectional MigCOVID Survey data (10/2020-2/2021; n =3668) were used. FinHealth 2017 Follow-up Study participants constituted the general population reference group ( n =3490). Sex differences in self-perceived impact of the restrictive measures during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 on the psychosocial and economic situation were examined with multivariate logistic regression, adjusting for sociodemographics and self-rated health...

Aim: The mechanisms behind the association between adult offspring's socioeconomic position and their parents' mortality are not well understood. This study investigates lifestyle-related diseases as a potential mediating pathway between adult offspring's education and parental mortality. Methods: This nationwide register-based cohort study consists of 963,742 older adults aged 65 years between 2000 and 2018. Lifestyle-related diseases were measured between 60 and 65 years and those with prior lifestyle-related diseases were excluded...

AIM: Older adults are increasingly encouraged to continue living in their own homes with support from home care services. However, few studies have focused on older adults' safety in home care. This study explored associations between the sense of security and factors related to demographic characteristics and home care services. METHODS: The mixed longitudinal design was based on a retrospective national survey. The study population consisted of individuals in Sweden (aged 65+ years) granted home care services at any time between 2016 and 2020 ( n =82,834-94,714)...

AIMS: The aim of this study is to report perceived discrimination among Muslims living in Norway and to address and compare associations between perceived discrimination and health among Muslims with an immigrant background and other-religious with an immigrant background. METHOD: A representative sample of individuals with an immigrant background in Norway was used in a cross-sectional study design that included 5484 respondents aged 16 to 74 years. The respondents were sub-grouped after religious affiliation, and as immigrants and Norwegian-born...

AIM: The aim of this study was to investigate a cohort of Swedish eighth graders' mental health and experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: Participants were 157 eighth graders recruited in junior high schools during 2020 who completed a depression questionnaire and a survey about their psychosocial health in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic, alongside a follow-up assessment in 2021. Analyses were conducted using latent change score and cross-lagged models...

Aims: This systematic review aims to identify and describe how children of parents with mental illness, substance dependence, or severe physical illness/injury, experience and practise their everyday life. Methods: The review followed the four stepwise recommendations of Harden and colleagues when including quantitative and qualitative studies on peoples' experiences and views. In all, 23 studies with data from Norway (2010-2022) have been included. Brown and Clark's thematic analysis was applied. Results: Three themes were constructed from the reviewed articles: (a) Children practice their relational agency by actively doing practical tasks, occasionally jobs to maintain family economy, and organising fun activities with the ill parent...

AIM: The aim was to scrutinize the report in March 2023 that Sweden's excess mortality was lowest in 2020-2022 compared with other European Union and Nordic countries, a report that received great national and international attention. STUDY DESIGN: Comparison of excess mortality in Sweden and Norway. METHODS: Excess mortality for 2020-2022 was calculated for Sweden and Norway, the country with per-capita excess mortality closest to Sweden's, compared with the average mortality for 2017-2019 in the respective country, following the definitions by Statistics Sweden reported in a daily newspaper...

AIMS: The aim was to explore service providers' perspectives on trauma-informed care for women who are forced migrants. METHODS: Service providers ( n =32) employed at one of six centres providing trauma-informed care for forced migrants were recruited by way of managers. Audio-recorded and transcribed semi-structured focus group discussions were analysed with systematic text condensation. RESULTS: The analysis revealed exposure to gender-based violence and abuse within patriarchal structures as the main challenges for women...

AIMS: Adolescents living in vulnerable socioeconomic conditions are confronted with tobacco-related health disparities. As school-based interventions appear to be less effective among these youngsters, other approaches are necessary. One promising avenue is youth social work settings that offer sport and recreational activities (SR-settings). SR-settings have been examined as a levering context for health promotion, but evidence regarding smoking prevention is currently lacking. METHODS: This study describes the protocol of a non-randomised cluster controlled trial evaluating a smoking prevention intervention for adolescents...

AIM: To describe long-term care (LTC) use in Finland and Sweden in 2020, by reporting residential entry and exit patterns including hospital admissions and mortality, compared with the 2018-2019 period and community-living individuals. METHODS: From national registers in Finland and Sweden, all individuals 70+ were included. Using the Finnish and Swedish study populations in January 2018 as the standard population, we reported changes in sex- and age-standardized monthly rates of entry into and exit from LTC facilities, mortality and hospital admission among LTC residents and community-living individuals in 2020...

BACKGROUND: Smoking among immigrants varies by country background and is high in some groups. More detailed information about smoking prevalence by country background and sociodemographic factors is needed to target interventions. METHODS: Data from the Survey on Living Conditions among immigrants 2016 were used, including immigrants from 12 countries and with ⩾2 years of residence ( N = 3565). Data on smoking (daily and occasional) by country of birth, sex, age group, education, duration of residence, age at immigration, proficiency in the Norwegian language, and social support were reported...

AIMS: Press freedom around the globe has deteriorated over the past decade, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper explores the effect of press freedom, as a cornerstone of democracy, on life expectancy. METHODS: Exploring cross-country data, we use the ordinary least square method to estimate the association between press freedom and life expectancy. In addition, we adopt three novel instrumental variables to explore the causal relationship. RESULTS: Our estimations indicate that a freer press leads to higher life expectancy, and the effect exists independently of the level of democracy...