Scandinavian Journal of Public Health最新文献

Background: Norwegian youth smoking has, to a larger extent than snus use, been associated with lower socioeconomic strata, and research has pointed at ideas in the youth population about the popularity and normality of snus use that are not found for smoking. The objective of this study was to investigate the association between socioeconomic status and other risk factors with snus use and smoking among people in their late teens.

Methods: Based on data from the longitudinal MyLife school survey, collected in five yearly waves between 2017 and 2021 (N = 1830, age 16.8-20.6 years in 2021, 64% girls), logistic regressions were performed with monthly snus use and smoking as dependents, and parents' education, psychological characteristics and earlier smoking or snus use as independent variables.

Results: High socioeconomic status (parents' education) was associated with less smoking and snus use also after controlling for psychological characteristics and earlier smoking and snus use. Higher age increased the risk of snus use and reduced the risk of smoking.

Conclusions: Youth snus use and smoking are associated with lower socioeconomic background. This supports the idea that snus use may have lost some of its position as a mainstream activity among youth.

Aims: This study aims to investigate trends in self-reported daily smoking and quitting by relationship status in 1973-2022.

Methods: Repeated and representative cross-sectional tobacco surveys of the adult population in Norway were analysed in the age group 25-74 years. Logistic regression was used to estimate the adjusted predicted probability of daily smoking and former smoking for persons in a formalised relationship (married or cohabitant) and persons not in a formalised relationship.

Results: Since the 1970s, the decline in daily smoking has been present for men regardless of relationship status, but with more smoking among men not in a relationship from the 2000s onward. For women not in a relationship, daily smoking increased among those not in a relationship from the mid-1980s, surpassing the smoking rate among men in a relationship. From the 1990s, daily smoking was higher in women not in a relationship compared with women in a relationship. In the past decade (2013-2022), the adjusted odds ratio of daily smoking was 0.49 for people in a relationship compared with those not in a relationship.

Conclusions: Downward trends in daily smoking have been substantial the past 50 years, but differences by relationship status persist. Continued monitoring of smoking behaviour at the population level is crucial to uncover which demographic groups are lagging in the last phase of the tobacco epidemic.

Background: Little is known about associations between occupational prestige, that is, the symbolic evaluation and social positioning of occupations, and sickness absence (SA) or disability pension (DP). We explored whether occupational prestige was associated with future SA or DP among women and men.

Methods: A Swedish 4-year prospective cohort study of all those in paid work and aged 25-59 in 2010 (N = 2,605,227; 47% women), using linked microdata from three nationwide registers and Standard International Occupational Prestige Scale values, categorised as 'very low', 'low', 'medium', 'high', or 'very high'. Odds ratios (ORs), 95% confidence intervals (CIs), crude and adjusted for several sociodemographic factors, were calculated for three outcomes: at least one SA spell (>14 days), >90 SA days, or DP occurrence, during follow-up (2011-2013).

Results: The mean number of SA days in 2010 varied by occupational prestige group, for example, 'very high': 3.0, 'very low': 6.5. Compared to those in occupations with 'very high' prestige, all other groups had higher adjusted ORs for all three outcomes. Among men, those with 'very low' occupational prestige had the highest OR for at least one SA spell: OR 1.51 (95% CI 1.47-1.56); among women, the 'medium' group had the highest OR: 1.30 (1.27-1.32). The results were similar for SA >90 days. OR for DP among women with 'very low' occupational prestige was 2.01 (1.84-2.19), and 3.55 (3.15-4.01) for men.

Conclusions: Working in lower occupational prestige occupations was generally associated with higher odds of future SA/DP than working in higher prestige occupations; these associations were stronger for men than for women.

Aims: Mortality influences the composition of the surviving population. Higher mortality among low-income individuals than high-income individuals may result in lower poverty rates in the surviving population. The objective of this study was to describe poverty rates for both survivors and deceased individuals in a cohort born in 1926.

Methods: We used Swedish total population data on the 1926 birth cohort (n = 83,382), calculating annual poverty rates from 1991 to 2016. We compared poverty rates for the entire cohort, those who died the next year, and those who survived for 5, 10, or 20+ years, measuring the impact of selective mortality as the differences in poverty rates between the cohort and these subgroups.

Results: Individuals who died the following year had higher poverty rates than the cohort at ages 65-90. Conversely, individuals who survived 5, 10, or 20+ years had lower poverty rates, with relatively small differences (1.1% to 6.9% lower) for survivors of 5 years or longer, and larger differences (26.4% to 32.8% lower) for those who survived 20+ years.

Conclusions: Despite differences in mortality rates by income, selective mortality had only a modest impact on poverty rates. If life expectancy rises for all, and a more diverse population reaches old age, our findings indicate a potential slight increase in poverty rates due to reduced mortality as a selective factor. These findings emphasise the need to consider mortality selection when addressing future poverty rates in older adults.

Over the past century, the Earth's climate has undergone rapid and unprecedented changes, manifested in a noticeable increase in average global temperature. This has led to shifts in precipitation patterns, increased frequency of extreme weather events (e.g. hurricanes, heatwaves, droughts and floods), alterations in ecosystems, and rising sea levels, impacting both natural environments and human societies, health and wellbeing. Without deep and urgent emission cuts and effective adaptation, the toll of climate change on human health and wellbeing is likely to grow. Here, we address the complex relationship between climate change and health, and discuss ways forward for transdisciplinary research and collaboration that can motivate more ambitious mitigation policies and help develop solutions to adapt to the crisis.

Aims: A multidisciplinary group of experts and patients developed the Model for ASsessing the value of Artificial Intelligence (MAS-AI) to ensure an evidence-based and patient-centered approach to introducing artificial intelligence technologies in healthcare. In this article, we share our experiences with meaningfully involving a patient in co-creating a research project concerning complex and technically advanced topics.

Methods: The co-creation was evaluated by means of initial reflections from the research team before the project started, in a continuous logbook, and through semi-structured interviews with patients and two researchers before and after the active co-creation phase of the project.

Results: There were initial doubts about the feasibility of including patients in this type of project. Co-creation ensured relevance to patients, a holistic research approach and the debate of ethical considerations. Due to one patient dropping out, it is important to foresee and support the experienced challenges of time and energy spent by the patient in future projects. Having a multidisciplinary team helped the collaboration. A mutual reflective evaluation provided insights into the process which we would otherwise have missed.

Conclusions: We found it possible to create complex and data-intense research projects with patients. Including patients benefitted the project and gave researchers new perspectives on their own research. Mutual reflection throughout the project is key to maximise learning for all parties involved.

Aims: We aimed to investigate the association between being an immigrant and long-term prescription opioid use in Norway in 2010-2019.

Methods: Nested case-control study. The cases were all persons 18 years of age or older with long-term opioid use - that is, the use of prescription opioids longer than 3 months (N=215,642). Cases were matched to four controls who filled at least one opioid prescription, but never developed long-term opioid use in the study period (N=862,568) on sex, age and year of starting long-term/short-term opioid use. Being an immigrant was defined as being born outside of Norway to two foreign-born parents and four foreign-born grandparents. Adjusting for socioeconomic variables and clinical confounders, analyses were stratified on three age groups (18-44 years, 45-67 years and ⩾68 years).

Results: For the youngest age group, being an immigrant was inversely associated with long-term opioid use (adjusted odds ratio 0.75; 95% confidence interval [0.72-0.77]) compared with being native-born people. For this age group, the odds ratio differed between people born in Africa (0.56 [0.52-0.62]), Central or South America (0.70 [0.62-0.79]), Europe outside the European Union (EU) (0.71 [0.65-0.77]), Asia including Turkey (0.80 [0.77-0.84]) and EU/European Economic Area (EEA) (0.81 [0.77-0.85]). For the middle age group, increased odds were found for immigrants versus natives (1.05 [1.02-1.08]) in particular for those born in North America (1.26 [1.13-1.40]) and the EU/EEA (1.13 [1.09-1.18]). There was no association in the oldest group.

Conclusions: Compared with native-born people, immigrants had lower odds of long-term opioid use among younger adults, higher odds among middle-aged and similar odds among older adults.