Instructors:
Course description:
The course aims to teach students the various theories and empirical findings about socioeconomic differences in health and mortality. This demographic topic is related to sociology and (social) epidemiology. The central question is how we can explain health differences between social groups. One approach is to discuss the different factors that assumingly influence health and mortality, e.g. income, education, occupation, marital status etc. The seminar will provide the participants with the necessary knowledge to understand important research findings and questions. These include questions of measurement, the change of social differences over time and over age, causality in general and reverse causality from health to social status in particular. We will address mortality differences in adult age but especially in old age in order to discuss the interplay between social status and aging. The main course materials are theoretical and empirical readings that help to understand concepts, theories, methods and measures.
Organization:
Instruction is given in one 90-minute lecture per week for 13 weeks, from the third week of October to the last full week of January. In February there is time for writing a paper. Students are expected to read the required material in advance for each week and will be asked to introduce the readings in the following session.
Course prerequisites:
This seminar is designed for doctoral students but also for advanced diploma or master students in social science, demography or related disciplines who are interested in the field of social epidemiology. Course participants should have some prior knowledge of sociology and demography including the understanding of social inequality and the determinants of health and mortality. They should have a sufficient background in social statistics (univariate and multivariate methods) and should be able and willing to learn through English readings and discussion.
Examination:
The final assignment will take place in the form of a paper of 20-25 pages that is due at the end of February. Here students show their knowledge and understanding of relevant ideas and findings in a chosen subfield of the seminar topic. Basis for this knowledge are the course readings and discussions, but this should be extended and advanced by own specializing readings depending on the student’s interest. Students who are interested in empirical work in his field can add analysis of data they have access to, in order to illustrate and test theoretical arguments and ideas. If their topic is appropriate some students may want to take the opportunity to present their own master/diploma/doctoral project in greater detail and integrate the course assignment in this project.
Course material:
Introductory readings:
Davey Smith, George, David Gunnell, Yoav Ben-Shlomo 2001: "Life-Course Approaches to Socio-economic Differentials in Cause-Specific Mortality" in: Poverty, Inequality and Health: an International Perspective. David A. Leon and Gill Walt. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 88-123.
Goldman, Noreen 2001: "Mortality Differentials: Selection and Causation" in: International Encyclopedia of Social and Behavioral Sciences. 10068-10070.
Huisman, Martijn, Anton E. Kunst, Otto Andersen et al. 2004: "Socioeconomic Inequalities in Mortality Among Elderly People in 11 European Populations" in: Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 58(6):468-475.
Hummer, Robert A., Richard G. Rogers, Isaac W. Eberstein 1998: "Sociodemographic Differentials in Adult Mortality: A Review of Analytic Approaches" in: Population and Development Review, 24(3):553-578.
Kunst, Anton E., Vivian Bos, Eero Lahelma et al. 2005: "Trends in Socioeconomic Inequalities in Self-Assessed Health in 10 European Countries" in: International Journal of Epidemiology, 34:295-305.
Mackenbach, Johan P., Anton E. Kunst, Tapani Valkonen 1999: "Socioeconomic Inequalities in Mortality among Women and among Men: An International Study" in: American Journal of Public Health, 89(12):1800-1806.
Smith, James P. 2004: "Unraveling the SES-Health Connection" in: Aging, Health, and Public Policy: Demographic and Economic Perspectives (Population and Development Review), 30, supplement: 108-132.
Other readings will be distributed during the course.