To assess the prevalence of low back pain (LBP) in adolescents and the clinical features of LBP in 2 European countries and to evaluate the effect of LBP on health-related quality of life (HRQOL) using standardized validated generic and disease-specific instruments.

Our findings highlight the potential health consequences of social class positions defined by power relations within the labour process. They also confirm that social class taps into parts of the social variation in health that are not captured by conventional measures of social stratification and education.

In this study, we report a consistent pattern of socioeconomic inequalities in mortality in 16 European cities. Future studies should further explore specific causes of death, in order to determine whether the general pattern observed is consistent for each cause of death.

Metric analysis supported the integrity and general adequacy of this very short tool included in a population health survey. The global index proposed could be a good measure for assessing and monitoring the adequacy of part of the PC experiences in first-contact care and person-focused care over time, under population perspective. On the other hand, the loss of content as a consequence of the selection of items, suggesting use of the expanded versions of the PCAT-AE whenever a global evaluation of PC is desired and it is possible.

Study objective-To investigate the association between material deprivation and 10 leading causes of death by gender. Design-Small area cross sectional ecological study using two dimensions of material deprivation (Index 1 and Index 2) drawn from 1991 census and cause specific mortality data aggregated for 1987-1995. Setting-2218 small areas in Spain. Main results-Strong detrimental associations of two deprivation indices were found with top six leading causes of death for men and top seven leading causes of death for women, except breast cancer. For men, the highest percentages of excess mortality (between 40% and 60%) were found for smoking and alcohol related causes of death such as lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases, and cirrhosis while for women the highest percentages of excess mortality (between 40% and 60%) were found for diet related causes such as diabetes and ischaemic heart disease. Conclusions-Health inequality is a widespread phenomenon in the majority of the top leading causes of deaths of the nation. Increasing levels of deprivation indices are associated with mortality risk diVerently by both cause and gender. Results suggest that deprivation eVects mainly captured by Index 2 may manifest largely as unfavourable health behaviours leading to gender specific sets of causes of deaths. Findings of this study are consistent with the idea that material deprivation determines health inequality through both an increase of general susceptibility to ill health, leading to excess mortality in a wide range of causes, and a set of specific factors, resulting in an increased risk of death from a specific set of causes in each gender. (J Epidemiol Community Health 2001;55:239-245)

The fact that inequalities in AIDS mortality by SES group remained fairly stable for the whole period suggests that perhaps access to HAART, or adherence, is lower than desirable, in people of lower SES groups. These results ought to be taken into account when implementing treatment and prevention strategies.

BackgroundThe aim of the present study was to describe the use of prescribed and non prescribed medicines in a non-institutionalised population older than 15 years of an urban area during the year 2000, in terms of age and gender, social class, employment status and type of Primary Health Care.MethodsCross-sectional study. Information came from the 2000 Barcelona Health Interview Survey. The indicators used were the prevalence of use of prescribed and non-prescribed medicines in the two weeks prior to the interview. Descriptive analyses, bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were carried out.ResultsMore women than men took medicines (75.8% vs. 60% respectively). The prevalence of use of prescribed medicines increased with age while the prevalence of non-prescribed use decreased. These age differences are smaller among those with poor perceived health. In terms of social class, a higher percentage of men with good health in the more advantaged classes took non-prescribed medicines compared with disadvantaged classes (38.7% vs 31.8%). In contrast, among the group with poor health, more people from the more advantaged classes took prescribed medicines, compared with disadvantaged classes (51.4% vs 33.3%). A higher proportion of people who were either retired, unemployed or students, with good health, used prescribed medicines.ConclusionThis study shows that beside health needs, there are social determinants affecting medicine consumption in the city of Barcelona.

Relative inequalities in total mortality by sex in Barcelona did not change during the 12 years studied, whereas absolute inequalities tended to decrease in men. Our study fills an important gap in southern Europe and Spanish literature on trends during this period.