SummaryBackgroundDetailed assessments of mortality by occupation are scarce. We aimed to assess mortality by occupation in the UK, differences in rates between England and Wales and Scotland, and changes over time in Scotland.MethodsWe analysed adults of working age (20–59 years) using linked census and death records. Main occupation was coded into more than 60 groups in the 2001 census, with mortality follow-up until Dec 31, 2011. Comparable occupation data were available for Scotland in 1991, allowing assessment of trends over time. We calculated age-standardised all-cause mortality rates (per 100 000 person-years), stratified by sex. We used Monte Carlo simulation to derive p values and 95% CIs for the difference in mortality over time and between England and Wales and Scotland.FindingsDuring 4·51 million person-years of follow-up, mortality rates by occupation differed by more than three times between the lowest and highest observed rates in both men and women. Among men in England and Wales, health professionals had the lowest mortality (225 deaths per 100 000 person-years [95% CI 145–304]), with low rates also shown in managers and teachers. The highest mortality rates were in elementary construction (701 deaths per 100 000 person-years [95% CI 593–809]), and housekeeping and factory workers. Among women, teachers and business professionals had low mortality, and factory workers and garment trade workers had high rates. Mortality rates have generally fallen, but have stagnated or even increased among women in some occupations, such as cleaners (337 deaths per 100 000 person years [95% CI 292–382] in 1991, rising to 426 deaths per 100 000 person years in 2001 [371–481]). Findings from simulation models suggested that if mortality rates by occupation in England and Wales applied to Scotland, 631 fewer men (95% CI 285–979; a 9·7% decrease) and 273 fewer women (26–513; 6·7% decrease) of working age would die in Scotland every year. Excess deaths in Scotland were concentrated among lower skilled occupations (eg, female cleaners).InterpretationMortality rates differ greatly by occupation. The excess mortality in Scotland is concentrated among low-skilled workers and, although mortality has improved in men and women in most occupational groups, some groups have experienced increased rates. Future research investigating the specific causes of death at the detailed occupational level will be valuable, particularly with a view to understanding the health implications of precarious employment and the need to improve working conditions in very specific occupational groups.FundingNone.
This study explores how researchers’ analytical choices affect the reliability of scientific findings. Most discussions of reliability problems in science focus on systematic biases. We broaden the lens to emphasize the idiosyncrasy of conscious and unconscious decisions that researchers make during data analysis. We coordinated 161 researchers in 73 research teams and observed their research decisions as they used the same data to independently test the same prominent social science hypothesis: that greater immigration reduces support for social policies among the public. In this typical case of social science research, research teams reported both widely diverging numerical findings and substantive conclusions despite identical start conditions. Researchers’ expertise, prior beliefs, and expectations barely predict the wide variation in research outcomes. More than 95% of the total variance in numerical results remains unexplained even after qualitative coding of all identifiable decisions in each team’s workflow. This reveals a universe of uncertainty that remains hidden when considering a single study in isolation. The idiosyncratic nature of how researchers’ results and conclusions varied is a previously underappreciated explanation for why many scientific hypotheses remain contested. These results call for greater epistemic humility and clarity in reporting scientific findings.
NEET is a contested concept in the literature. However, it is consistently used by policy makers and shown in research to be associated with negative outcomes. In this paper we examine whether NEET status is associated with subsequent occupational scarring using the Scottish Longitudinal Study which provides a 5.3% sample of Scotland, based on the censuses of 1991, 2001 and 2011. We model occupational position, using CAMSIS, controlling for the influence of sex, limiting long term illness, educational attainment and geographical deprivation. We find the NEET categorization to be a strong marker of subsequent negative outcomes at the aggregate level. This appears to be redolent of a Matthew effect, whereby disadvantage accumulates to the already disadvantaged. Our results also show that negative NEET effects are variable when stratifying by educational attainment and are different for men and women. These findings confirm that there are negative effects on occupational position associated with prior NEET status but that outcomes are heterogeneous depending on levels of education and gender. Dr Kevin Ralston (corresponding author) 1Bibliographical note: I have a methodological focus on longitudinal data analysis and quantitative methods, interests include population and fertility, mortality and inequality with a particular interest in occupational classifications. Dr Zhiqiang FengBibliographical note: His research interests cover population geography, health geography, health inequalities,
We compared a group of people with learning disabilities who have been deinstitutionalized with a control group remaining in an institution on measures of adaptive and maladaptive behaviour, community living skills, social skills, and quality of life. In general, there was no change over 30 months for the control group. Changes for the experimental group were either not seen or were generally modest in scale, and tended to occur within 6 months of moving, the measures staying relatively stable thereafter. Implications for detailed examination of the effects of deinstitutionalization were discussed.
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