Miething, A., & Juárez, S. P. (2024). Income mortality paradox by immigrants’ duration of residence in Sweden: a population register-based study. J Epidemiol Community Health, 78(1), 11-17.

Östergren, O., Rehnberg, J., Lundberg, O., Miething, A. (2023), Disruption and selection: the income gradient in mortality among natives and migrants in Sweden, European Journal of Public Health, Volume 33, Issue 3, June 2023, Pages 372–377.

Almquist, Y.B., Miething, A.(2022) The impact of an unemployment insurance reform on incidence rates of hospitalisation due to alcohol-related disorders: a quasi-experimental study of heterogeneous effects across ethnic background, educational level, employment status, and sex in Sweden. BMC Public Health 22, 1847.

Gustafsson N-K, Rydgren J, Rostila M, Miething A (2021) Social network characteristics and alcohol use by ethnic origin: An ego-based network study on peer similarity, social relationships, and co-existing drinking habits among young Swedes. PLoS ONE 16(4): e0249120.

Beller, J., Miething, A., Regidor, E., Lostao, L., Epping, J., & Geyer, S. (2019). Trends in grip strength: Age, period, and cohort effects on grip strength in older adults from Germany, Sweden, and Spain. SSM-Population Health, 9, 100456.

Giordano, G. N., Mewes, J., & Miething, A. (2019). Trust and all-cause mortality: a multilevel study of US General Social Survey data (1978–2010). J Epidemiol Community Health.

Miething, A., Rostila, M., Edling, C., & Rydgren, J. (2018). The Peer Context of Dieting: The Relationship between Young Adults’ Dieting Frequency and Their Friends’ Weight-Related Characteristics. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health.

Miething, A., Rostila, M., & Rydgren, J. (2017). Access to occupational networks and ethnic variation of depressive symptoms in young adults in Sweden. Social Science & Medicine, 190, pp. 207-216.

Miething, A., Almquist, Y. B., Edling, C., Rydgren, J., & Rostila, M. (2017). Friendship trust and psychological well-being from late adolescence to early adulthood: A structural equation modelling approach. Scand J Public Health, 45(3), pp. 244-252 .

Miething, A., Rostila, M., Edling, C., & Rydgren, J. (2016). The Influence of Social Network Characteristics on Peer Clustering in Smoking: A Two-Wave Panel Study of 19-and 23-Year-Old Swedes. PLOS ONE, 11(10).

Miething, A., Almquist, Y. B., Östberg, V., Rostila, M., Edling, C., & Rydgren, J. (2016). Friendship networks and psychological well-being from late adolescence to young adulthood: a gender-specific structural equation modeling approach. BMC Psychology, 4(1), 34.

Miething, A., & Åberg Yngwe, M. (2014). Stability and variability in income position over time: exploring their role in self-rated health in Swedish survey data. BMC Public health, 14(1), 1.

Miething, A. (2014). Others’ income, one’s own fate: How income inequality, relative social position and social comparisons contribute to disparities in health. Doctoral thesis. Health Equity Studies 19.

Miething, A. (2013). A matter of perception: Exploring the role of income satisfaction in the income–mortality relationship in German survey data 1995–2010. Social Science & Medicine, 99, 72-79.

Miething, A. (2013). The relevance of objective and subjective social position for self-rated health: A combined approach for the Swedish context. Social Indicators Research, 111(1), 161-173.

Miething, A., Lundberg, O., & Geyer, S. (2013). Income and health in different welfare contexts: a comparison of Sweden, East and West Germany. Scandinavian Journal of Public Health, 41(3), 260-268.

A selection from Stockholm University publication database

• Income mortality paradox by immigrants' duration of residence in Sweden: a population register-based study

  2023. Alexander Miething, Sol Pia Juárez. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health

  Article

  Background: Studies have shown that, compared with the general native population, immigrants display weaker or absent income gradients in mortality. The aim of this study is to examine the extent to which the income gradient is modified by immigrants' duration of residence in Sweden.

  Methods: Swedish register data from 2004 to 2016 were used to study the association between individual income and all-cause mortality among foreign-born and Swedish-born individuals at ages 25-64 years. Based on relative indices of inequality (RIIs) and slope indices of inequality (SIIs) derived from Poisson regressions, we measured relative and absolute mortality differentials between the least and most advantaged income ranks. The analyses were stratified by sex, immigrants' European or non-European origin, and immigrants' duration of residence in Sweden.ResultsThe relative income inequality in mortality among immigrant men was less than half (RII: 2.32; 95% CI: 2.15 to 2.50) than that of Swedish-born men (RII: 6.25; 95% CI: 6.06 to 6.44). The corresponding RII among immigrant women was 1.23 (95% CI: 1.13 to 1.34) compared with an RII of 2.75 (95% CI: 2.65 to 2.86) among Swedish-born women. Inequalities in mortality were lowest among immigrants who resided for less than 10 years in Sweden, and most pronounced among immigrants who resided for more than 20 years in the country. Corresponding analyses of absolute income inequalities in mortality based on the SII were largely consistent with the observed relative inequalities in mortality.

  Conclusions: Income inequalities in mortality among immigrants differ by duration of residence in Sweden, suggesting that health inequalities develop in the receiving context.

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• Disruption and selection: the income gradient in mortality among natives and migrants in Sweden

  2023. Olof Östergren (et al.). European Journal of Public Health 33 (3), 372-377

  Article

  Background 

  The income gradient in mortality is generated through an interplay between socio-economic processes and health over the life course. International migration entails the displacement of an individual from one context to another and may disrupt these processes. Furthermore, migrants are a selected group that may adopt distinct strategies and face discrimination in the labour market. These factors may have implications for the income gradient in mortality. We investigate whether the income gradient in mortality differs by migrant status and by individual-level factors surrounding the migration event.

  Methods

  We use administrative register data comprising the total resident population in Sweden aged between 30 and 79 in 2015 (n = 5.7 million) and follow them for mortality during 2015-17. We estimate the income gradient in mortality by migrant status, region of origin, age at migration and country of education using locally estimated scatterplot smoothing and Poisson regression.

  Results

  The income gradient in mortality is less steep among migrants compared with natives. This pattern is driven by lower mortality among migrants at lower levels of income. The gradient is less steep among distant migrants than among close migrants, migrants that arrived as adults compared with children and migrants that received their education in Sweden as opposed to abroad.

  Conclusions

  Our results are consistent with the notion that income inequalities in mortality are generated through life-course processes that may be disrupted by migration. Data restrictions prevent us from disentangling life-course disruption from selection into migration, discrimination and labour market strategies.

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• The impact of an unemployment insurance reform on incidence rates of hospitalisation due to alcohol-related disorders: a quasi-experimental study of heterogeneous effects across ethnic background, educational level, employment status, and sex in Sweden

  2022. Ylva Brännström Almquist, Alexander Miething. BMC Public Health 22

  Article

  Background: Many Western countries have scaled back social and health expenditure, including decreases in the generosity and coverage of unemployment insurance, resulting in negative effects on general health and well-being at the aggregate level. Yet, research has not sufficiently looked into heterogeneity of such effects across different subgroups of the population. In Sweden, the 2006 unemployment insurance reform, implemented on the 1st of January 2007, encompassed a drastic increase of insurance fund membership fees, reduced benefit levels, and stricter eligibility requirements. As this particularly affected already socioeconomically disadvantaged groups in society, such as foreign-born and low-educated individuals, the current study hypothesise that the reform would also have a greater impact on health outcomes in these groups.

  Methods: Based on register data for the total population, we utilise a quasi-experimental approach to investigate heterogeneous health effects of the reform across ethnic background, educational level, employment status, and sex. Due to behaviourally caused diseases having a relatively shorter lag time from exposure, hospitalisation due to alcohol-related disorders serves as the health outcome. A series of regression discontinuity models are used to analyse monthly incidence rates of hospitalisation due to alcohol-related disorders among individuals aged 30–60 during the study period (2001–2012), with the threshold set to the 1st of January 2007.

  Results: The results suggest that, in general, there was no adverse effect of the reform on incidence rates of hospitalisation due to alcohol-related disorders. A significant increase is nonetheless detected among the unemployed, largely driven by Swedish-born individuals with Swedish-born or foreign-born parents, low-educated individuals, and men.

  Conclusions: We conclude that the Swedish 2006 unemployment insurance reform generally resulted in increasing incidence rates of hospitalisation due to alcohol-related disorders among unemployed population subgroups known to have higher levels of alcohol consumption.

  Read more about The impact of an unemployment insurance reform on incidence rates of hospitalisation due to alcohol-related disorders

• Social network characteristics and alcohol use by ethnic origin

  2021. Nina-Katri Gustafsson (et al.). PLOS ONE 16 (4)

  Article

  The study explores how social network determinants relate to the prevalence and frequency of alcohol use among peer dyads. It is studied how similar alcohol habits co-exist amongpersons (egos) and their peers (alters) when socio-demographic similarity (e.g., in ethnicorigin), network composition and other socio-cultural aspects were considered. Data was ego-based responses derived from a Swedish national survey with a cohort of 23-year olds.The analytical sample included 7987 ego-alter pairs, which corresponds to 2071 individuals(egos). A so-called dyadic design was applied i.e., all components of the analysis refer to ego-alter pairs (dyads). Multilevel multinomial-models were used to analyse similarity in alcohol habits in relation to ego-alter similarity in ethnic background, religious beliefs, age, sex, risk-taking, educational level, closure in network, duration, and type of relationship, as well as interactions between ethnicity and central network characteristics. Ego-alter similarity in terms of ethnic origin, age and sex was associated with ego-alter similarity in alcohol use. That both ego and alters were non-religious and were members of closed networks also had an impact on similarity in alcohol habits. It was concluded that network similarity might be an explanation for the co-existence of alcohol use among members of peer networks.

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• Decline of depressive symptoms in Europe

  2021. Johannes Beller (et al.). Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology 56, 1249-1262

  Article

  Purpose: We examined changes in the burden of depressive symptoms between 2006 and 2014 in 18 European countries across different age groups.

  Methods: We used population-based data drawn from the European Social Survey (N = 64.683, 54% female, age 14–90 years) covering 18 countries (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Ireland, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland) from 2006 to 2014. Depressive symptoms were measured via the CES-D 8. Generalized additive models, multilevel regression, and linear regression analyses were conducted.

  Results: We found a general decline in CES-D 8 scale scores in 2014 as compared with 2006, with only few exceptions in some countries. This decline was most strongly pronounced in older adults, less strongly in middle-aged adults, and least in young adults. Including education, health and income partially explained the decline in older but not younger or middle-aged adults.

  Conclusions: Burden of depressive symptoms decreased in most European countries between 2006 and 2014. However, the decline in depressive symptoms differed across age groups and was most strongly pronounced in older adults and least in younger adults. Future studies should investigate the mechanisms that contribute to these overall and differential changes over time in depressive symptoms.

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• Childhood peer status and circulatory disease in adulthood

  2020. Alexander Miething, Ylva Brännström Almquist. BMJ Open 10 (9)

  Article

  Read more about Childhood peer status and circulatory disease in adulthood

• Trust, happiness and mortality: Findings from a prospective US population-based survey

  2020. Alexander Miething, Jan Mewes, Giuseppe N. Giordano. Social Science and Medicine 252

  Article

  There has been an abundance of research discussing the health implications of generalised trust and happiness over the past two decades. Both attitudes have been touted as independent predictors of morbidity and mortality, with strikingly similar trajectories and biological pathways being hypothesised. To date, however, neither trust nor happiness have been considered simultaneously as predictors of mortality. This study, therefore, aims to investigate the effects of generalised trust and happiness on all-cause and cause-specific mortality. The distinction between different causes of death (i.e. cardiovascular vs. cancer-related mortality) allowed us to assess if psychosocial mechanisms could account for associations between generalised trust, happiness and mortality. The study sample was derived from US General Social Survey data from 1978 to 2010 (response rates ranged from 70 to 82 per cent), and combined with death records from the National Death Index. The analytical sample comprised 23,933 individuals with 5382 validated deaths from all-cause mortality by 2014. Analyses were performed with Cox regression models and competing-risk models. In final models, generalised trust, but not happiness, showed robust and independent associations with all-cause mortality. Regarding cause-specific mortality, trust only showed a significant relationship with cardiovascular mortality. The distinct patterns of association between generalised trust and all-cause/cause-specific mortality suggest that their relationship could be being driven by cardiovascular mortality. In turn, this supports the feasibility of psychosocial pathways as possible biological mechanisms from distrust to mortality.

  Read more about Trust, happiness and mortality

Show all publications by Alexander Miething at Stockholm University