Social science & medicine
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Social science & medicine · Feb 2008
Comparative StudyThe incidence and characteristics of volatile substance use related ambulance attendances in metropolitan Melbourne, Australia.
While there has been substantial community discussion and concern expressed about volatile substance use (VSU), there has been little research on the use and related harms of these substances compared to other drugs. In this study we address a need in existing epidemiological research on VSU harms by describing the incidence and characteristics of VSU ambulance attendances between August 1998 and May 2004 across metropolitan Melbourne relative to heroin attendances, a drug class that has received more research attention. Our analysis showed that the crude rate of VSU attendance (5.03 per 100,000 population) over the period was substantially lower than the rates of heroin "involved" and heroin "overdose" attendances (33.40 and 54.87 per 100,000, respectively). ⋯ VSU attendances were geographically more evenly distributed than heroin attendances, with VSU cases more likely to occur at public and outdoor spaces. VSU cases were also less likely to be in an altered conscious state than heroin cases, but more likely to be co-attended by police and accept transportation to hospital. We conclude that VSU and heroin related harms occurred in different cohorts across metropolitan Melbourne, and that ambulance data can supplement existing data sources to inform policy and programme development, and the monitoring of VSU harms.
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Social science & medicine · Feb 2008
A broader perspective on education and mortality: are we influenced by other people's education?
The objective of this study was to find out whether the educational achievements of family members and people in the municipality have an impact on a person's mortality, net of the well-known strong influence of his or her own education. Using register data, discrete-time hazard models for all-cause mortality in 1980-2003 were estimated for all Norwegian men and women born between 1950 and 1973 (i.e. age 30-53). There were 23,692 deaths during the 19.1 million person-years of follow-up. ⋯ On the other hand, having better-educated family members or living in a community with many better-educated people, who typically also have higher incomes, may trigger psychosocial stress. However, one should be careful to interpret the observed relationships as reflecting purely causal effects. Various unobserved factors may influence the person's choice of spouse and place of residence as well as mortality, and having parents with higher (lower) education may signal that the person has had special problems (resources) during childhood or adolescence, which also may have implications for later health.