East-West Life Expectancy Gap in Europe: Environmental and Non-Environmental Determinants / Edition 1

by C. Hertzman, Shona Kelly, Martin Bobak

Overview

This volume presents the procedings of an "Advanced Research Workshop," held under the auspices of the NATO International Scientific Exchange Programme, on the Environmental and Non-environmental Determinants of the East-West Life Expectancy Gap in Europe. The workshop brought together individuals from Eastern and Western Europe and North America who had a common interest in understanding the evolution of the relative declines in life expectancy in Central and Eastern Europe, compared to the West, over the past 30 years. Between 1989 and 1993, I carried out a series of investigations into the effects of environmental pollution on human health in Central and Eastern Europe, at first, under the auspices of the World Bank, and later, under a broader multilateral, multi-agency arrangement known as the "Environment for Europe" Process. These investigations provided unparalleled access to environmental health data from the region, and offered a glimpse of what the contribution of pollution to health status was, and what it was not. At the same time, the Program in Population Health of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIAR) and the International Centre for Health and Society (ICHS) at University College, London, were embarking upon multi-disciplinary inquiries into the broad determinants of health in modern societies. The work of the CIAR provided a framework for conceptualizing the East-West life expectancy gap and its potential determinants; the work of the ICHS provided specific insights into the relative contributions of these determinants.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780792342076
Publisher:	Springer Netherlands
Publication date:	08/31/1996
Series:	NATO Science Partnership Subseries: 2 , #19
Edition description:	1996
Pages:	236
Product dimensions:	8.27(w) x 11.69(h) x 0.36(d)

About the Author

Hertzman, Clyde (Univ of British Columbia); Kelly, Shona (Univ of British Columbia); Bobak, Martin (Charles Univ of Prague)

This book contains the proceedings of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Environmental and Non-Environmental Determinants of the East-West Life Expectancy Gap held in the U.K. in March 1995. Most of the participants are specialists in epidemiology and public health, population and health sciences, medical psychology, and social medicine. They are from universities, research institutes, and government agencies in the U.K., the U.S., Canada, Hungary, and Poland. Institutions represented include National Institute for Health Promotion in Hungary and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Health.

Table of Contents

I Overview of the East-West Life Expectancy Gap in Europe.- East West Life Expectancy Gap and Socio-Economic Change.- East-West Health Divide and Potential Explanations.- II Contribution of Differences in the Quality of Medical Care.- The East-West Life Expectancy Gap.- The Contribution of Differences in Mortality From Conditions Ammenable To Medical Intervention.- III Contribution of Environmental Pollution.- Environmental Pollution and Human Health in Central and Eastern Europe During the Soviet Period.- Air Pollution and Mortality in Central and Eastern Europe.- IV Contribution Of Lifestyle and Behaviour Differences.- Determinants of the East-West Life Expectancy Gap: Contribution of Lifestyle and Behaviour: Evidence From The Monica Study.- Contribution of Smoking.- V Contribution Of The Socioeconomic/Psychosocial Environment.- Evidence from Studies Within Central and Eastern Europe.- Biological, Maternal, and Life Style Interactions with the Psychosocial Environment: Primate Models.- Marriage and Mortality in Eastern Europe.- Differences in Mortality Between Lithuanian and Dutch Middle-Aged Men: Results from the Kaunas-Rotterdam Intervention Study (KRIS).- High Cost- Low Gain Conditions at Work as a Determinant of Cardiovascular Disease Morbidity and Mortality.- Different Patterns of Psychosocial Strain; etc.- Health and Civic Society in Eastern Europe Before 1989.- The Leading Hypothesis and Its Discontents: etc.- Policy Implications Of Our Understanding Of The East-West Life Expectancy Gap.

Editorial Reviews

Proceedings of the March 1995 workshop. Seventeen articles explore the "life expectancy gap" between Central and Eastern Europe, and the West. The authors examine the contributions of environmental pollutants, adverse lifestyle choices, inadequate health care services, and the stresses of the social and economic environment in creating the life expectancy gap. The picture which emerges highlights the primary role of the social and economic environment, but affirms the subsidiary influences of the other determinants of health, and illustrates how societies can produce and undermine the health of their citizens. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

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