The association between advanced maternal and paternal ages at birth and increased mortality among adult offspring is often attributed to parental reproductive aging, e.g., declining oocyte or sperm quality. Less attention has been paid to alternative mechanisms, including parental...

An inverse association between education and fertility in women has been found in many societies but the causes of this association remain inadequately understood. We investigated whether observed and unobserved family-background characteristics explained educational differences in lifetime...

We used high quality register based data to study the relationship between childhood and adult socio-demographic characteristics and all-cause and cause-specific mortality at ages 35–72 in Finland among cohorts born in 1936–1950. The analyses were based on a 10% sample of households drawn...

In general, women report more physical and mental symptoms than men. International comparisons of countries with different welfare state regimes may provide further understanding of the social determinants of sex inequalities in health. This study aims to evaluate (1) whether there are sex...

Poor physical and mental functioning is more common among people of low socioeconomic status (SES) and those with disadvantaged work and family characteristics. This study aims to clarify whether the SES inequalities in functioning can be explained by the SES differences in work and family...

The common wisdom about gender differences in illhealth has been encapsulated in the phrase ''women are sicker, but men die quicker''. Recently this wisdom has been increasingly questioned. The purpose of this study is first to analyse the patterns and magnitude of gender differences across...

Adverse health behaviors and obesity are key determinants of major chronic diseases. Evidence on work-related determinants of these behavioral risk factors is inconclusive, and comparative studies are especially lacking. We aimed to examine the associations between job strain, working overtime,...

In many countries home ownership is the main form of property and covers a major part of people's possessions. Since overall wealth is difficult to measure, many health studies have used home ownership as an indicator of wealth and material resources. However, most studies have measured housing...

While serious mental disorders typically show socioeconomic differences similar to physical illness--that is, that lower positions imply poorer health--differences for common mental disorders have been inconsistent. We aim to clarify the associations and pathways between measures of...

Continuous decline in functioning is not an inevitable consequence of ageing, as some individuals maintain high levels of functioning to old age. The origins of functional problems in old age are not only related to current circumstances, but may be traced back to earlier life-experiences....