The State Socialist Mortality Syndrome

Abstract

Death rates for working-age men in European state socialist countries deviated from general improvements in survival observed in the rest of Europe during the 20th century. The magnitude of structural labor force changes across countries correlates with lagged increases in death rates for men in the working ages. This pattern is consistent with a hypothesis that hyper-development of heavy industry and stagnation (even contraction) of the service sector created anomic conditions leading to unhealthy lifestyles and self-destructive behavior among men moving from primary-sector to secondary-sector occupations. Occupational contrasts within countries similarly show concentration of rising male death rates among blue collar workers. Collapse of state socialist systems produced rapid corrections in labor force structure after 1990, again correlated with a fading of the state socialist mortality syndrome in following decades.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s11113-010-9192-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Understanding the impacts of industrial change and area-based deprivation on health inequalities, using Swidler’s concepts of cultured capacities and strategies of action

“…One issue is that mortality rates for some groups (particularly men) in eastern Europe were rising before the imposition of neoliberalism (Marmot, 2007;Carlson and Hoffmann, 2010), making it difficult for quantitative analyses to determine plausible cause and effect relationships (Earle and Gehlbach, 2011). While it is fairly clear that wealth inequality has widened since neoliberalisation, which in and of itself has been shown to have had a detrimental effect on health outcomes and health inequalities (Muntaner et al, 2002;Thomson et al, 2002;Navarro et al, 2003;Navarro et al, 2006;Leinsalu et al, 2008;Beckfield and Krieger, 2009;Klomp and de Haan, 2009;Tracy et al, 2009), other pathways from neoliberalisation to health still lack clarity, particularly in this region.…”

Regional Mortality Disparities in Germany

“…1 ). The emergence of an east-west life expectancy gap, and its subsequent reduction since the 1990s, are issues that have been frequently studied and discussed (Carlson and Hoffmann 2011 ; Diehl 2008 ; Luy 2004 ; Nolte et al 2000a ). In West Germany there was a strong rise in life expectancy between 1970 and 1990 due to falling mortality in almost all age groups and causes of death.…”

“…182–183) noted that the communist regimes relied heavily on “the centralised administration of modern health care, whereas the struggle against cardiovascular diseases, unlike that against infectious diseases, requires important changes in individual behaviour and the active participation of citizens in the management of their own health care.” In addition, reducing mortality from cardiovascular diseases requires substantial investments in the health care system and medical technologies, for which the GDR government lacked the necessary resources. As a result, the GDR health care system—like the systems in the other state socialist countries—was quite efficient in tackling infectious diseases and reducing the mortality of infants and children in the early years of the GDR, but it could not compete with the West German system in reducing levels of cardiovascular mortality (Carlson and Hoffmann 2011 ; Nolte et al 2000a ). Pollution levels in West Germany first started to decline in the 1960s, partly as a result of the introduction of higher environmental standards, and partly because heavy industries declined in importance.…”

Hungarian trends and gender differences in the global smoking epidemic

“…This is called the East-West divergence by the authors (Meslé and Vallin, 2017). It is also known as the "State Socialist Mortality Syndrome," as defined by Carlson and Hoffmann (2011). In his detailed research, Józan (2008) describes the situation as it applied to Hungary.…”