Social Epidemiology

BrooklynDodger(s) comments: Those of us on the chemical exposure side of public health tend to be weak on social epidemiology. Beyond the "healthy worker effect" we don't think about the impact of social environment on health very much.



The healthy worker effect is likely partially an artifact for short duration of observation, but it also reflects the association between improved social class and improved health and reduced mortality. Educational level may reflect improved social class, independent of income although confounded with income. This Israeli study indicates that higher education in your spouse improves your mortality experience.



[The Dodger(s) confess not to have read the full text, and to have found some of the abstract confusing.]



Social Science & MedicineVolume 62, Issue 8, April 2006, Pages 2014-2023


Effects of husbands’ and wives’ education on each other's mortality

Dena H. Jaffe, , Zvi Eisenbach, Yehuda D. Neumark and Orly Manor





"We found that the educational attainment of both spouses were significant predictors of one's own overall mortality. For CVD mortality, however, a wife's educational attainment was a stronger predictor of her husband's risk of dying than his own educational level, while for women a husband's education had little affect. Educational discrepancy between partners did not affect overall mortality ... highly educated women had an almost two-fold increased risk of CVD mortality when married to less educated husbands, while lesser-educated women were not affected by their spouses’ educational attainment."