Skip to main content
Key Specialties
Cardiology Diabetology Endocrinology Gastroenterology Geriatrics and Gerontology Gynecology and Obstetrics Hematology Infectious Disease Internal Medicine Nephrology Neurology Oncology Pediatrics Respiratory Medicine Rheumatology Surgery
Congress Coverage
2024 ACC Congress 2023 ESMO Congress 2023 EASD Congress 2023 ERS Congress 2023 ESC Congress
Clinical Collections
Advances in Alzheimer’s

At a glance: The STEP trials

A round-up of the STEP phase 3 clinical trials evaluating semaglutide for weight loss in people with overweight or obesity.
ADVANCED SEARCH
Log in
Top
BMC Public Health
Published in: BMC Public Health 1/2005

Open Access 01-12-2005 | Research article

Evaluating the evidence for models of life course socioeconomic factors and cardiovascular outcomes: a systematic review

Authors: Ricardo A Pollitt, Kathryn M Rose, Jay S Kaufman

Published in: BMC Public Health | Issue 1/2005

Login to get access

Abstract

Background

A relatively consistent body of research supports an inverse graded relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and cardiovascular disease (CVD). More recently, researchers have proposed various life course SES hypotheses, which posit that the combination, accumulation, and/or interactions of different environments and experiences throughout life can affect adult risk of CVD. Different life course designs have been utilized to examine the impact of SES throughout the life course. This systematic review describes the four most common life course hypotheses, categorizes the studies that have examined the associations between life course SES and CVD according to their life course design, discusses the strengths and weaknesses of the different designs, and summarizes the studies' findings.

Methods

This research reviewed 49 observational studies in the biomedical literature that included socioeconomic measures at a time other than adulthood as independent variables, and assessed subclinical CHD, incident CVD morbidity and/or mortality, and/or the prevalence of traditional CVD risk factors as their outcomes. Studies were categorized into four groups based upon life course design and analytic approach. The study authors' conclusions and statistical tests were considered in summarizing study results.

Results

Study results suggest that low SES throughout the life course modestly impacts CVD risk factors and CVD risk. Specifically, studies reviewed provided moderate support for the role of low early-life SES and elevated levels of CVD risk factors and CVD morbidity and mortality, little support for a unique influence of social mobility on CVD, and consistent support for the detrimental impact of the accumulation of negative SES experiences/conditions across the life course on CVD risk.

Conclusions

While the basic life course SES study designs have various methodologic and conceptual limitations, they provide an important approach from which to examine the influence of social factors on CVD development. Some limitations may be addressed through the analysis of study cohorts followed from childhood, the evaluation of CVD risk factors in early and middle adulthood, and the use of multiple SES measures and multiple life course analysis approaches in each life course study.
Appendix
Available only for authorised users
Literature
1.
Aronowitz RA: Making Sense of Illness: Science, Society, and Disease. Cambridge history of medicine. 1998, Cambridge, U.K., Cambridge University Press
2.
Labarthe D: Causation and prevention of cardiovascular diseases: An overview of the contributions of 20th-century epidemiology. Epidemiology and prevention of cardiovascular diseases : a global challenge. 1998, Gaithersburg, Md., Aspen Publishers, 17-25.
3.
Kuh D, Smith GD: The life course and adult chronic disease: an historical perspective with particular reference to coronary heart disease. A life course approach to chronic disease epidemiology. Edited by: Kuh D and Ben-Shlomo Y. 1997, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 15-41.
4.
Kaplan GA, Keil JE: Socioeconomic factors and cardiovascular disease: a review of the literature. Circulation. 1993, 88: 1973-1998.CrossRefPubMed
5.
Labarthe D, Heiss G: Epidemiology and prevention of cardiovascular diseases : a global challenge. 1998, Gaithersburg, Md., Aspen Publishers, xix, 681-
6.
Lenfant C: Conference on Socioeconomic Status and Cardiovascular Health and disease. Circulation. 1996, 94: 2041-2044.CrossRefPubMed
7.
Hinkle LEJ, Whitney LH, Lehman EW, Dunn J, Benjamin B, King R, Plakun A, Flehinger B: Occupation, education, and coronary heart disease. Risk is influenced more by education and background than by occupational experiences, in the Bell System. Science. 1968, 161: 238-246.CrossRefPubMed
8.
Stamler J: Established major coronary risk factors. Coronary Heart Disease Epidemiology: From Aetiology to Public Health. Edited by: Marmot M and Elliott P. 1992, Oxford, England, Oxford University Press, 35-66.
9.
Marmot M, Kogevinas M, Elston MA: Social/economic status and disease. Ann Rev Public Health. 1987, 8: 111-135. 10.1146/annurev.pu.08.050187.000551.CrossRef
10.
Sorlie PD, Backlund E, Keller JB: US mortality by economic, demographic, and social characteristics: the National Longitudinal Mortality Study. Am J Public Health. 1995, 85: 949-956.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral
11.
Marmot MG, Smith GD, Stansfeld S, Patel C, North F, Head J, White I, Brunner E, Feeney A: Health inequalities among British civil servants: the Whitehall II study. Lancet. 1991, 337: 1387-1393. 10.1016/0140-6736(91)93068-K.CrossRefPubMed
12.
Martikainen P, Makela P, Koskinen S, Valkonen T: Income differences in mortality: a register-based follow-up study of three million men and women. Int J Epidemiol. 2001, 30: 1397-1405. 10.1093/ije/30.6.1397.CrossRefPubMed
13.
Kuh D, Ben-Shlomo Y: A life course approach to chronic disease epidemiology. 1997, Oxford, Oxford University Press
14.
Power C, Hertzman C: Social and biological pathways linking early life and adult disease. Br Med Bull. 1997, 53: 210-221.CrossRefPubMed
15.
Bartley M, Plewis I: Does health-selective mobility account for socioeconomic differences in health? Evidence from England and Wales, 1971 to 1991. J Health Soc Behav. 1997, 38: 376-386.CrossRefPubMed
16.
Doornbos G, Kromhout D: Educational level and mortality in a 32-year follow-up study of 18-year-old men in The Netherlands. Int J Epidemiol. 1990, 19: 374-379.CrossRefPubMed
17.
Elder GH: The life course paradigm: Social change and individual development. Examining lives in context : perspectives on the ecology of human development. Edited by: Moen P, Elder GH and Lüscher K. 1995, Washington, DC, American Psychological Association, xx, 708-1st
18.
Hertzman C: The lifelong impact of childhood experiences: A population health perspective. Daedalus. 1994, 123: 167-180.
19.
Kuh D, Smith GD: When is mortality risk determined? Historical insights into a current debate. Soc Hist Med. 1993, 6: 101-123.CrossRefPubMed
20.
Kuh D, Power C, Blane D, Bartley M: Social pathways between childhood and adult health. A life course approach to chronic disease epidemiology. Edited by: Kuh D and Ben-Shlomo Y. 1997, Oxford ; New York, Oxford University Press, 169-198.
21.
Repetti RL, Taylor SE, Seeman TE: Risky families: family social environments and the mental and physical health of offspring. Psychol Bull. 2002, 128: 330-366. 10.1037//0033-2909.128.2.230.CrossRefPubMed
22.
23.
Smith GD, Gunnell D, Ben-Shlomo Y: Lifecourse approaches to socio-economic differentials in cause-specific adult mortality. Poverty, inequality and health : an international perspective. Edited by: Leon DA and Walt G. 2001, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 88-124.
24.
25.
Beckett M: Converging health inequalities in later life--an artifact of mortality selection. J Health Soc Behav. 2000, 41: 106-119.CrossRefPubMed
26.
Ben-Shlomo Y, Kuh D: A life course approach to chronic disease epidemiology: conceptual models, empirical challenges and interdisciplinary perspectives. Int J Epidemiol. 2002, 31: 285-293. 10.1093/ije/31.2.285.CrossRefPubMed
27.
Halfon N, Hochstein M: Life course health development: an integrated framework for developing health, policy, and research. Milbank Q. 2002, 80: 433-79, iii. 10.1111/1468-0009.00019.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral
28.
Hertzman C, Power C, Matthews S, Manor O: Using an interactive framework of society and lifecourse to explain self-rated health in early adulthood. Soc Sci Med. 2001, 53: 1575-1585. 10.1016/S0277-9536(00)00437-8.CrossRefPubMed
29.
Stansfeld SA, Marmot MG: Stress and the heart : psychosocial pathways to coronary heart disease. 2002, London, BMJ Books, xi, 304-
30.
Stern J: Social mobility and the interpretation of social class mortality differentials. J Soc Policy. 1983, 12: 27-49.CrossRefPubMed
31.
Blane D: The life course, the social gradient, and health. Social Determinants of Health. Edited by: Marmot M and Wilkinson RG. 1999, , Oxford University Press, 65-80.
32.
Forsdahl A: Living conditions in childhood and subsequent development of risk factors for arteriosclerotic heart disease. The cardiovascular survey in Finnmark 1974-75. J Epidemiol Community Health. 1978, 32: 34-37.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral
33.
West P: Rethinking the health selection explanation for health inequalities. Soc Sci Med. 1991, 32: 373-384. 10.1016/0277-9536(91)90338-D.CrossRefPubMed
34.
Blane D, Smith GD, Bartley M: Social selection: what does it contribute to social class differences in health?. Sociology of Health and Illness. 1993, 15: 1-15. 10.1111/1467-9566.ep11343777.CrossRef
35.
Smith GD, Ben-Shlomo Y, Lynch J: Life course approaches to inequalities in coronary heart disease risk. Stress and the heart : psychosocial pathways to coronary heart disease. Edited by: Stansfeld SA and Marmot MG. 2002, London, BMJ Books, 21-49.
36.
Greenland S: Meta-Analysis. Modern Epidemiology. Edited by: Rothman KJ, Greenland S and Sonis J. 1998, Philadelphia, Pa., Lippincott-Raven, xiii, 737-2nd
37.
Coggon D, Margetts B, Barker DJ, Carson PH, Mann JS, Oldroyd KG, Wickham C: Childhood risk factors for ischaemic heart disease and stroke. Paediatr Perinat Epidemiol. 1990, 4: 464-469.CrossRefPubMed
38.
Lynch JW, Kaplan GA, Cohen RD, Kauhanen J, Wilson TW, Smith NL, Salonen JT: Childhood and adult socioeconomic status as predictors of mortality in Finland. Lancet. 1994, 343: 524-527. 10.1016/S0140-6736(94)91468-0.CrossRefPubMed
39.
Gliksman MD, Kawachi I, Hunter D, Colditz GA, Manson JE, Stampfer MJ, Speizer FE, Willett WC, Hennekens CH: Childhood socioeconomic status and risk of cardiovascular disease in middle aged US women: a prospective study. J Epidemiol Community Health. 1995, 49: 10-15.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral
40.
Notkola V, Punsar S, Karvonen MJ, Haapakoski J: Socio-economic conditions in childhood and mortality and morbidity caused by coronary heart disease in adulthood in rural Finland. Soc Sci Med. 1985, 21: 517-523. 10.1016/0277-9536(85)90035-8.CrossRefPubMed
41.
Lamont D, Parker L, White M, Unwin N, Bennett SM, Cohen M, Richardson D, Dickinson HO, Adamson A, Alberti KG, Craft AW: Risk of cardiovascular disease measured by carotid intima-media thickness at age 49-51: lifecourse study. Bmj. 2000, 320: 273-278. 10.1136/bmj.320.7230.273.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral
42.
43.
44.
Smith GD, Hart C, Blane D, Hole D: Adverse socioeconomic conditions in childhood and cause specific adult mortality: prospective observational study. Bmj. 1998, 316: 1631-1635.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral
45.
Wamala SP, Lynch J, Kaplan GA: Women's exposure to early and later life socioeconomic disadvantage and coronary heart disease risk: the Stockholm Female Coronary Risk Study. Int J Epidemiol. 2001, 30: 275-284. 10.1093/ije/30.2.275.CrossRefPubMed
46.
Marmot M, Shipley M, Brunner E, Hemingway H: Relative contribution of early life and adult socioeconomic factors to adult morbidity in the Whitehall II study. J Epidemiol Community Health. 2001, 55: 301-307. 10.1136/jech.55.5.301.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral
47.
Smith GD, McCarron P, Okasha M, McEwen J: Social circumstances in childhood and cardiovascular disease mortality: prospective observational study of Glasgow University students. J Epidemiol Community Health. 2001, 55: 340-341. 10.1136/jech.55.5.340.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral
48.
49.
50.
Vagero D, Leon D: Effect of social class in childhood and adulthood on adult mortality. Lancet. 1994, 343: 1224-1225. 10.1016/S0140-6736(94)92432-5.CrossRefPubMed
51.
Lundberg O: The impact of childhood living conditions on illness and mortality in adulthood. Soc Sci Med. 1993, 36: 1047-1052. 10.1016/0277-9536(93)90122-K.CrossRefPubMed
52.
Smith GD, Hart C: Life-course socioeconomic and behavioral influences on cardiovascular disease mortality: the collaborative study. Am J Public Health. 2002, 92: 1295-1298.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral
53.
Claussen B, Davey Smith G, Thelle D: Impact of childhood and adulthood socioeconomic position on cause specific mortality: the Oslo Mortality Study. J Epidemiol Community Health. 2003, 57: 40-45. 10.1136/jech.57.1.40.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral
54.
Frankel S, Smith GD, Gunnell D: Childhood socioeconomic position and adult cardiovascular mortality: the Boyd Orr Cohort. Am J Epidemiol. 1999, 150: 1081-1084.CrossRefPubMed
55.
Osler M, Andersen AMN, Due P, Lund R, Damsgaard MT, Holstein BE: Socioeconomic position in early life, birth weight, childhood cognitive function, and adult mortality. A longitudinal study of Danish men born in 1953. J Epidemiol Community Health. 2003, 57: 681-686. 10.1136/jech.57.9.681.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral
56.
Dedman DJ, Gunnell D, Davey Smith G, Frankel S: Childhood housing conditions and later mortality in the Boyd Orr cohort. J Epidemiol Community Health. 2001, 55: 10-15. 10.1136/jech.55.1.10.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral
57.
Robins JM, Greenland S: Identifiability and exchangeability for direct and indirect effects. Epidemiology. 1992, 3: 143-155.CrossRefPubMed
58.
Cole SR, Hernan MA: Fallibility in estimating direct effects. Int J Epidemiol. 2002, 31: 163-165. 10.1093/ije/31.1.163.CrossRefPubMed
59.
Poole C, Kaufman JS: What does standard adjustment for downstream mediators tell us about social effect pathways?. Am J Epidemiol. 2000, 151: S52-
60.
Robins JM: General methodological considerations. Journal of Econometrics. 2003, 112: 89-106. 10.1016/S0304-4076(02)00151-3.CrossRef
61.
Lynch JW, Kaplan GA, Salonen JT: Why do poor people behave poorly? Variation in adult health behaviours and psychosocial characteristics by stages of the socioeconomic lifecourse. Soc Sci Med. 1997, 44: 809-819. 10.1016/S0277-9536(96)00191-8.CrossRefPubMed
62.
Manor O, Matthews S, Power C: Comparing measures of health inequality. Soc Sci Med. 1997, 45: 761-771. 10.1016/S0277-9536(96)00412-1.CrossRefPubMed
63.
van de Mheen H, Stronks K, Looman CW, Mackenbach JP: Does childhood socioeconomic status influence adult health through behavioural factors?. Int J Epidemiol. 1998, 27: 431-437. 10.1093/ije/27.3.431.CrossRefPubMed
64.
Blane D, Hart CL, Smith GD, Gillis CR, Hole DJ, Hawthorne VM: Association of cardiovascular disease risk factors with socioeconomic position during childhood and during adulthood. Bmj. 1996, 313: 1434-1438.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral
65.
Arnesen E, Forsdahl A: The Tromso heart study: coronary risk factors and their association with living conditions during childhood. J Epidemiol Community Health. 1985, 39: 210-214.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral
66.
Peck MN: The importance of childhood socio-economic group for adult health. Soc Sci Med. 1994, 39: 553-562. 10.1016/0277-9536(94)90098-1.CrossRefPubMed
67.
Brunner E, Shipley MJ, Blane D, Smith GD, Marmot MG: When does cardiovascular risk start? Past and present socioeconomic circumstances and risk factors in adulthood. J Epidemiol Community Health. 1999, 53: 757-764.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral
68.
Lawlor DA, Ebrahim S, Davey Smith G: Socioeconomic position in childhood and adulthood and insulin resistance: cross sectional survey using data from British women's heart and health study. BMJ. 2002, 325: 805-10.1136/bmj.325.7368.805.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral
69.
Lawlor DA, Davey Smith G, Ebrahim S: Life Course Influences on Insulin Resistance: Findings from the British Women's Heart and Health Study. Diabetes Care. 2003, 26: 97-103.CrossRefPubMed
70.
Parker L, Lamont DW, Unwin N, Pearce MS, Bennett SM, Dickinson HO, White M, Mathers JC, Alberti KG, Craft AW: A lifecourse study of risk for hyperinsulinaemia, dyslipidaemia and obesity (the central metabolic syndrome) at age 49-51 years. Diabet Med. 2003, 20: 406-415. 10.1046/j.1464-5491.2003.00949.x.CrossRefPubMed
71.
Braddon FE, Rodgers B, Wadsworth ME, Davies JM: Onset of obesity in a 36 year birth cohort study. Br Med J (Clin Res Ed). 1986, 293: 299-303.CrossRef
72.
Wadsworth ME, Cripps HA, Midwinter RE, Colley JR: Blood pressure in a national birth cohort at the age of 36 related to social and familial factors, smoking, and body mass. Br Med J (Clin Res Ed). 1985, 291: 1534-1538.CrossRef
73.
Poulton R, Caspi A, Milne BJ, Thomson WM, Taylor A, Sears MR, Moffitt TE: Association between children's experience of socioeconomic disadvantage and adult health: a life-course study. Lancet. 2002, 360: 1640-1645. 10.1016/S0140-6736(02)11602-3.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral
74.
Brunner E, Davey Smith G, Marmot M, Canner R, Beksinska M, O'Brien J: Childhood social circumstances and psychosocial and behavioural factors as determinants of plasma fibrinogen. Lancet. 1996, 347: 1008-1013. 10.1016/S0140-6736(96)90147-6.CrossRefPubMed
75.
Hart CL, Smith GD, Blane D: Social mobility and 21 year mortality in a cohort of Scottish men. Soc Sci Med. 1998, 47: 1121-1130. 10.1016/S0277-9536(98)00061-6.CrossRefPubMed
76.
Kaplan BH, Cassel JC, Tyroler HA, Cornoni JC, Kleinbaum DG, Hames CG: Occupational mobility and coronary heart disease. Arch Intern Med. 1971, 128: 938-942. 10.1001/archinte.128.6.938.CrossRefPubMed
77.
Gillum RF, Paffenbarger RSJ: Chronic disease in former college students. XVII. Sociocultural mobility as a precursor of coronary heart disease and hypertension. Am J Epidemiol. 1978, 108: 289-298.PubMed
78.
Faresjo T, Svardsudd K, Tibblin G: Social mobility and health in a prospective study of middle-aged men. Scand J Soc Med. 1994, 22: 86-89.PubMed
79.
Pensola TH, Martikainen P: Cumulative social class and mortality from various causes of adult men. J Epidemiol Community Health. 2003, 57: 745-751. 10.1136/jech.57.9.745.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral
80.
Heslop P, Smith GD, Macleod J, Hart C: The socioeconomic position of employed women, risk factors and mortality. Soc Sci Med. 2001, 53: 477-485. 10.1016/S0277-9536(00)00350-6.CrossRefPubMed
81.
Smith GD, Hart C, Blane D, Gillis C, Hawthorne V: Lifetime socioeconomic position and mortality: prospective observational study. Bmj. 1997, 314: 547-552.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral
82.
Berkman LF, Macintyre S: The measurement of social class in health studies: old measures and new formulations. IARC Sci Publ. 1997, 51-64.
83.
Krieger N, Williams DR, Moss NE: Measuring social class in US public health research: concepts, methodologies, and guidelines. Annu Rev Public Health. 1997, 18: 341-378. 10.1146/annurev.publhealth.18.1.341.CrossRefPubMed
84.
Liberatos P, Link BG, Kelsey JL: The measurement of social class in epidemiology. Epidemiol Rev. 1988, 10: 87-121.PubMed
85.
Phillips AN, Smith GD: Bias due to measurement imprecision. Lancet. 1992, 339: 1418-1419. 10.1016/0140-6736(92)91242-Z.CrossRefPubMed
86.
Phillips AN, Smith GD: How independent are "independent" effects? Relative risk estimation when correlated exposures are measured imprecisely. J Clin Epidemiol. 1991, 44: 1223-1231. 10.1016/0895-4356(91)90155-3.CrossRefPubMed
87.
Power CMOFAJFK: Health in Childhood and Social Inequalities in Health in Young Adults. J R Statist Soc A. 1990, 153: 17-28.CrossRef
88.
Power C: A review of child health in the 1958 birth cohort: National Child Development Study. Paediatr Perinat Epidemiol. 1992, 6: 81-110.CrossRefPubMed
89.
Power C, Hertzman C, Matthews S, Manor O: Social differences in health: life-cycle effects between ages 23 and 33 in the 1958 British birth cohort. Am J Public Health. 1997, 87: 1499-1503.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral
90.
Power C, Matthews S, Manor O: Inequalities in self-rated health: explanations from different stages of life. Lancet. 1998, 351: 1009-1014. 10.1016/S0140-6736(97)11082-0.CrossRefPubMed
91.
Kuh D, Hardy R, Langenberg C, Richards M, Wadsworth ME: Mortality in adults aged 26-54 years related to socioeconomic conditions in childhood and adulthood: post war birth cohort study. Bmj. 2002, 325: 1076-1080. 10.1136/bmj.325.7372.1076.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral
92.
Wadsworth ME, Kuh DJ: Childhood influences on adult health: a review of recent work from the British 1946 national birth cohort study, the MRC National Survey of Health and Development. Paediatr Perinat Epidemiol. 1997, 11: 2-20. 10.1046/j.1365-3016.1997.d01-7.x.CrossRefPubMed
93.
Butler NR, Golding J: From birth to five : a study of the health and behaviour of Britain's 5-year-olds. 1986, Oxford Oxfordshire ; New York, Pergamon Press, xxxii, 439-
94.
Diez Roux AV, Merkin SS, Hannan P, Jacobs DR, Kiefe CI: Area characteristics, individual-level socioeconomic indicators, and smoking in young adults: the coronary artery disease risk development in young adults study. Am J Epidemiol. 2003, 157: 315-326. 10.1093/aje/kwf207.CrossRefPubMed
95.
Morland K, Wing S, Diez Roux A: The contextual effect of the local food environment on residents' diets: the atherosclerosis risk in communities study. Am J Public Health. 2002, 92: 1761-1767.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral
96.
Diez Roux AV, Jacobs DR, Kiefe CI: Neighborhood characteristics and components of the insulin resistance syndrome in young adults: the coronary artery risk development in young adults (CARDIA) study. Diabetes Care. 2002, 25: 1976-1982.CrossRefPubMed
97.
Wadsworth ME: Health inequalities in the life course perspective. Soc Sci Med. 1997, 44: 859-869. 10.1016/S0277-9536(96)00187-6.CrossRefPubMed
98.
Lynch J, Kaplan GA, Salonen R, Salonen JT: Socioeconomic status and progression of carotid atherosclerosis. Prospective evidence from the Kuopio Ischemic Heart Disease Risk Factor Study. Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol. 1997, 17: 513-519.CrossRefPubMed
Metadata
Title
Evaluating the evidence for models of life course socioeconomic factors and cardiovascular outcomes: a systematic review
Authors
Ricardo A Pollitt
Kathryn M Rose
Jay S Kaufman
Publication date
01-12-2005
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
BMC Public Health / Issue 1/2005
Electronic ISSN: 1471-2458
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-5-7

Other articles of this Issue 1/2005

BMC Public Health 1/2005 Go to the issue

Research article

The immediate effects of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) epidemic on childbirth in Taiwan

Research article

Accumulation of health risk behaviours is associated with lower socioeconomic status and women's urban residence: a multilevel analysis in Japan

Research article

Birth outcomes in Colorado's undocumented immigrant population

Research article

Public perception of drinking water from private water supplies: focus group analyses

Research article

Seroprevalence and risk factors for toxoplasmainfection among pregnant women in Aydin province, Turkey

Research article

Comparison of patterns of use, beliefs, and attitudes related to waterpipe between beginning and established smokers