AIMS: Research often fails to ascertain whether men and women are equally hit by the health consequences of unemployment. The aim of this study was to analyze whether men's self-reported health and health behavior were hit more by unemployment than women's in a follow-up of the Northern Swedish Cohort.
METHODS: A follow-up study of a cohort of all school leavers in a middle-sized industrial town in northern Sweden was performed from age 16 to age 42. Of those still alive of the original cohort, 94% (n = 1,006) participated during the whole period. A sample was made of participants in the labor force and living in Sweden (n = 916). Register data were used to assess the length of unemployment from age 40 to 42, while questionnaire data were used for the other variables.
RESULTS: In multivariate logistic regression analyses significant relations between unemployment and mental health/smoking were found among both women and men, even after control for unemployment at the time of the investigation and indicators of health-related selection. Significant relations between unemployment and alcohol consumption were found among women, while few visits to a dentist was significant among men.
CONCLUSIONS: Men are not hit more by the health consequences of unemployment in a Swedish context, with a high participation rate of women in the labor market. The public health relevance is that the study indicates the need to take gendered contexts into account in public health research.
Time trends in population cholesterol levels 1986-2004: influence of lipid-lowering drugs, obesity, smoking and educational level. The northern Sweden MONICA study.
OBJECTIVES: To explore time trends in population total cholesterol. DESIGN AND SETTING: Five population-based cross-sectional surveys, 1986-2004 in the northern Sweden MONICA study included 8827 men and women. RESULTS: Age-adjusted cholesterol level declined in men, 25-64 years old, from 6.38 to 5.78 mmol L(-1) and in women from 6.32 to 5.51 mmol L(-1). Between 1994 and 2004, subjects 65-74 years old were included, and their levels also decreased, in men from 6.35 to 5.76 mmol L(-1) and in women from 7.11 to 6.24 mmol L(-1). The decrease was continuous over surveys and age groups, except in young and middle-aged men where no further decline was found after 1999. Cohorts born 1920-1939 showed decreased cholesterol over the period, whilst no change was noted for those born thereafter. In 2004, one-fourth of men and one-third of women 25-74 years achieved levels below 5.0 mmol L(-1). Subjects with low educational level, body mass index > or =25 or smokers all had higher cholesterol levels which persisted during the 18-year period. In 2004, the 9% who used lipid-lowering drugs are estimated to contribute, at most, to 0.13 mmol L(-1) lower cholesterol in the population. CONCLUSION: Large decreases in cholesterol levels occurred in the 18-year period. Less smoking may contribute to, and increasing obesity attenuate, this trend whilst lipid-lowering drugs have had little effect until recently. Socio-economic inequalities persist.
