Differences in cause-specific mortality between healthcare workers and all other employees in Lithuania, 2011-2019.

Background: Healthcare workers face health risks, including stress, burnout, and communicable diseases, leading to higher mortality rates. However, excess mortality diminishes with better disease control and lifestyle factors.

Methods: The study is based on the aggregated census-linked mortality dataset provided by Statistics Lithuania.

What's the TEE: Metrics of Temperature Extremes in Europe NUTS Regions (1980-2024).

We generate datasets quantifying extreme temperature exposure in Europe using a variety of metrics at two sub-national spatial scales (NUTS 2 and NUTS 3) and three temporal scales (daily, extreme temperature wave, and yearly) from 1980-2024. These datasets capture the breadth of temperature metrics used in epidemiology, demography and environmental literature with 67 different metrics: including regionally-unusual temperature events (defined as temperatures above/below the 95/5 percentile of historical temperatures) and periods of sustained (consecutive day) exposure to extreme temperatures. Although publicly available, climate data format and spatial resolution rarely matches the structure, scale, and extent used to disseminate government statistics on health, economic, and demographic variables, and manipulating raw data is computationally expensive.

Menopause in low and middle-income countries: a scoping review of knowledge, symptoms and management.

Objective: This study aimed to systematically map available evidence on menopause-related knowledge, symptoms and management in low and middle-income countries (LMICs) and identify critical gaps to inform research and policy.

Methods: Following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Review (PRISMA-ScR) guidelines, the MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL and Scopus databases were searched for studies published between 2000 and 2024. Eligible studies were those that reported on menopause-related knowledge, symptom prevalence or management in LMICs.

Estimating recent trends in alcohol sales in the United Kingdom from alcohol duty revenue.

Background And Aims: The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic led to significant changes in individual-level alcohol consumption and a sharp increase in heavy drinking in the United Kingdom (UK). More recently, high rates of inflation, the resulting 'cost of living crisis' and reforms to alcohol taxation have affected the affordability of alcohol, but little is understood about how these changes have impacted on alcohol sales and consumption. We aimed to measure recent trends in alcohol sales by assessing changes in alcohol duty revenue collected by the UK government since 2020.

Selective re-partnering? Mental health and life satisfaction among separated single mothers in Germany and the UK.

This study examines the potential influence of selection on the association between re-partnering and single mothers' mental health and life satisfaction in Germany and the United Kingdom. Drawing on extensive longitudinal panel data, we analyze the trajectories of 1694 separated single mothers in Germany (SOEP) and 1070 in the UK (BHPS/UKHLS). Employing fixed effects models, we examine the outcomes before and after entry into single motherhood and compare trajectories of stably single mothers and re-partnered single mothers.

Mortality Fractions Attributable to Smoking and Smokeless and Mixed Tobacco Use among Men and Women across India, 1998-2021.

Introduction: Evidence on the mortality burden of tobacco-use remains fragmented for low-middle-income countries like India, and does not fully use Indian-specific datasets. We estimated mortality fractions attributable to different tobacco types (smoked, smokeless, and mixed tobacco-use) for India by sex and state/union-territories over time.

Methods: We applied a direct prevalence approach to estimate mortality fractions attributable to tobacco types among men (35-54 years) and women (35-49 years) over time across 36 Indian states.

Changing Demographic Rates Reshape Kinship Networks.

The number and age of kin determine the companionship and support individuals provide or receive. Over recent decades, fertility and mortality rates have changed considerably, with varying speeds across countries. We investigate the changes in kinship networks in response to time-varying demographic rates, with a focus on the speed of change.

Sleeping With the Enemy: Partners' Heterogamy by Political Preferences and Union Dissolution. Evidence From the United Kingdom.

We examine whether union dissolution is associated with partners' (mis)match on political preferences, defined as self-reported closeness, intention to vote, or reported vote for a specific party. Previous studies have shown that partners' heterogamy by ethnicity, education, and other dimensions increases the risk of union dissolution because of differences between partners in lifestyles, attitudes, and beliefs or because of disapproval from family and community members. We posit that similar arguments can apply to political heterogamy and test this hypothesis using UK data from the British Household Panel Study and the UK Household Longitudinal Study.

Persistently high impact of alcohol use on fatal violence in Lithuania despite strengthening alcohol control policies, 2004-19.

A strong association between alcohol and violence and homicide has been well established. Much less is known about the relationship between alcohol policies and the perpetration of alcohol-involved homicides, especially in the Central and Eastern European region. Despite recent progress, Lithuania still has one of the highest alcohol per capita consumption and homicide rates in the European region.

Analyzing NBA player positions and interactions with density-functional fluctuation theory.

The increasing availability of high-precision player-tracking data in sports-centimeter-precision positional information of athletes captured dozens of times per second-has the potential to improve the quantification of player abilities and overall team strategies. Working toward achieving this quantification, we adapt density-functional fluctuation theory (DFFT) to infer spatial preferences and player-to-player interactions in National Basketball Association (NBA) basketball. We first demonstrate several foundational results, including the ability of DFFT to predict the location of a player to within 3% of the half-court area roughly half the time, and to provide a team-position-based metric that correlates strongly with play outcomes.

Evaluating the impact of long-term care insurance reform on health-related quality of life and inequality among older adults in China: A quasi-experimental analysis.

Less is known about whether and to what extent Long-Term Care Insurance (LTCI) promotes the Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) of older individuals, a vital health outcome for healthy aging. This study utilizes longitudinal data from CHARLS and employs the widely-used EQ-5D-3L method to measure HRQoL. Using the LTCI pilot-which has been implemented in a staggered manner since 2012-as a quasi-experiment, we apply a difference-in-differences approach and find that LTCI increases the HRQoL of older adults aged 60 and older by 1.

The predictive power of employment trajectories on cognition of older adults: Evidence from Chile.

Chile's population is rapidly aging, with a notable increase in the older population over recent decades. The growth in the proportion of older individuals has substantial implications for physical and cognitive health, healthcare expenditures and policies, given the escalating burden of age-related health conditions. Therefore, it is critical to have a deeper understanding of factors that predict healthy aging.

Childhood household dysfunction and psychiatric, criminal, and social outcomes in emerging adulthood. A cousin comparison study.

Background: Childhood household dysfunction is a well-known risk factor for adverse medical and social outcomes. However, less is known about the extent to which such associations are affected by unmeasured familial confounding.

Methods: This cohort study is based on Finnish register data on birth cohorts 1987-2000 (n = 835 987).

Shorter post-infusion cooling times at least as effective as longer cooling times - An observational study of taxane- and anthracycline-based chemotherapies in the Dutch Scalp Cooling Registry.

Purpose: Chemotherapy-induced alopecia (CIA), a very common and distressing side effect of cancer treatment can be effectively prevented by scalp cooling. The aim of this observational study was to estimate the effect of post-infusion cooling time (PICT) on wearing a head cover for taxane- and anthracycline-based chemotherapies.

Methods: The Dutch Scalp Cooling Registry (DSCR), which started in January 2006, collected data from 4680 scalp-cooled patients across 68 Dutch hospitals.

Heterogeneous associations between early-life religious upbringing and late-life health: Evidence from a machine learning approach.

Religious upbringing was common in Europe during the childhood of older adults today. However, studies are still lacking on how early-life religious upbringing is associated with adult health and how this association differs in different population segments. We used cross-national data of 10,346 adults aged 50 or older in Europe.

Internal migration, health selection, and the salmon bias: A register-based study of Finland.

Studies on international migrants have repeatedly found a mortality advantage of migrant over native-born populations. Data artifacts, differential prevalence of health-related behaviors, and health-related selection of immigrants and return migrants have been proposed as explanations. Neither the existence of a migrant mortality advantage for internal migrants nor the validity of existing explanations for this group have been extensively studied.

Research Note: Estimating Kinship Size of Older Adults in Europe With Models and Surveys.

Measures of kinship size are increasingly common in sociodemographic studies. The size and structure of older adults' kinship networks can be ascertained via direct observation in a social survey or modeled using demographic techniques. Each approach has advantages and disadvantages, but whether the two provide comparable estimates of kinship size is an open question.

Stable Marital Histories Predict Happiness and Health Across Educational Groups.

Couple relations are a key determinant of mental and physical well-being in old age. However, we do not know how the advantages and disadvantages associated with partnership histories vary between socioeconomic groups. We create relationship history typologies for the cohorts 1945-1957 using the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe and examine, for the first time, how relationship histories relate to multiple indicators of well-being by educational attainment.

Long-term trends in mortality by living arrangements and the role of socioeconomic factors, Finland 1991-2020.

Recent decades have witnessed major changes in living arrangements, potentially impacting their well-established associations with mortality. However, research considering long-term trends in these differentials is scarce. We used individual-level register data on the total Finnish population aged 30 years and over from 1991 to 2020 to examine trends in the association between living arrangements and all-cause, as well as external and alcohol-related mortality.

Intergenerational relationships after parental divorce: variations by levels of family solidarity.

This study examines the association between gray parental divorce and family solidarity, defined as the quality and frequency of intergenerational relationships, including contact, emotional closeness, and functional support. The analysis focuses on how the effects of gray divorce vary across families with differing levels of closeness and interaction prior to the divorce, given that families with weaker bonds-such as infrequent contact or less emotional closeness-may face greater challenges in maintaining relationships after divorce compared to those with stronger ties. To test this, I use 13 waves of longitudinal data from pairfam and recentered influence function (RIF) regression that allows to examine how the effects of parental divorce differ across the entire distribution of solidarity, distinguishing between families with weak, moderate, and strong ties.

Season of birth and variations in male reproductive health: A population-based cohort study.

Background: Season of birth has been associated with various later reproductive health outcomes in women, but little is known on the potential associations in men.

Objectives: To investigate the association between season of birth and semen characteristics, testes volume and reproductive hormone levels in young men.

Materials And Methods: We conducted a follow-up study of 1058 young men, born 1998 to 2000, from the Fetal Programming of Semen Quality (FEPOS) cohort, Denmark, 2017-2019.

Trends in formal care by age and time to death: the use of healthcare and care-home facilities in Finland between 2005 and 2018.

Population ageing may further increase formal care use. Strong predictors in addition to age include time to death and the cause of death. The aim of this study is to analyse trends in the use of formal care in Finland by these factors.

Global subnational estimates of migration of scientists reveal large disparities in internal and international flows.

Researchers are key contributors to innovation. Their migration results in talent circulation and recombination of ideas. Due to data shortage, little is known about subnational mobility of scientists and the interrelationships between their internal and international migration patterns.

Living arrangements and chronic disease accumulation among native-born and immigrant older adults in Europe.

Background: Who we live with in later life significantly influences the daily care support we receive, potentially moderating chronic disease trajectories. For immigrants, this relationship is further complicated by cultural preferences for certain living arrangements. This study examines the differential role of living arrangements in chronic disease accumulation among native-born and immigrant older adults in Europe.