New publication: No socioeconomic inequalities in mortality among Catholic monks
Alina Schmitz has published a new paper together with Patrick Lazarevič (Statistics Austria) and Marc Luy (Vienna Institute of Demography). Entitled ‘No Socioeconomic Inequalities in Mortality among Catholic Monks: A Quasi-Experiment Providing Evidence for the Fundamental Cause Theory’, the study has been published in the Journal of Health and Social Behaviour.
The team analysed the effects of socioeconomic inequalities on mortality in a unique population: Catholic monks in Germany born between 1840 and 1959. The analyses show that the standardised living conditions of the monks were able to compensate for social inequalities in mortality. This applies to all birth cohorts, suggesting that monastic life offers health protection to monks of lower socio-economic status regardless of disease patterns, causes of death or major risk factors in a given period. These results provide new empirical evidence for the so-called ‘Fundamental Cause Theory’, which describes socio-economic inequalities as key determinants of health and mortality.
Full text: