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There is increasing interest in life course epidemiology. In this article we investigated the relationship between characteristics at birth and survival and year of birth and survival. We have detailed information about birth characteristics and cause of death for 8584 subjects from a cohort of 16,272 registered live births to European Australians in a charity hospital in Melbourne between 1857 and 1900. Women giving birth at the hospital were among the poorest in Melbourne, with almost half unmarried. The adult death certificates of the subjects were traced until 1985. We found that infant mortality was substantially higher in babies who were illegitimate, firstborn, had younger mothers, a birth weight Keywords: Australia; Birth weight; Class; Infant mortality; Adult lifespan; Household economy; Historical

Objectives. We examined the efficacy of a cancer prevention intervention designed to improve health behaviors among working-class, multiethnic populations employed in small manufacturing businesses. Methods. Worksites were randomly assigned to an intervention or minimal-intervention control condition. The intervention targeted fruit and vegetable consumption, red meat consumption, multivitamin use, and physical activity. Results. Employees in the intervention group showed greater improvements for every outcome compared with employees in the control group. Differences in improvement were statistically significant for multivitamin use and physical activity. Intervention effects were larger among workers than among managers for fruit and vegetable consumption and for physical activity. Conclusions. The social-context model holds promise for reducing disparities in health behaviors. Further research is needed to improve the effectiveness of the intervention. (doi:10.2105/AJPH.2004.038745)

Lower status jobs, high workloads and lack of control at work have been associated with less healthful diets, but the ways through which work is connected to food choices are not well understood. This analysis was an examination of workers' experience of the relationship of their jobs to their food choices. Fifty-one multi-ethnic, urban, low- and moderate-income adults living in Upstate New York in 1995 participated in a qualitative interview study of fruit and vegetable choices and discussed employment and food choices. The workers who participated in this study described a dynamic relationship between work and food choices that they experienced in the context of their other roles and values. These workers presented a relationship that was characterized by positive and negative spillover between their jobs and their ability to fulfill family roles and promote personal health, linked by a spectrum of food choice strategies. Participants' narratives fit into three different domains: characterizations of work and their resources for food choice, strategies used to manage food choices within the constraints of work, and affect related to the negative and positive spillover of these strategies on family roles and on personal food choices. Characterizations of work as demanding and limiting or demanding and manageable differentiated participants who experienced their food choice strategies as a source of guilt and dissatisfaction (negative spillover) from those who experienced food choices as a source of pride and satisfaction (positive spillover). Ideals and values related to food choice and health were balanced against other values for family closeness and nurturing and personal achievement. Some participants found work unproblematic. These findings direct attention to a broad conceptualization of the relationship of work to food choices in which the demands and resources of the work role are viewed as they spill over into the social and temporal context of other roles and values. Keywords: Food choice; Work; Employment roles; Family roles; United States

Proposals to control health care costs and provide broader access to health care services dominate the domestic policy agenda. Most workers who are covered by health insurance receive these benefits [...]

Healthcare costs continue to rise and pose a great burden on employers as well as families, especially the working class. But despite all the letdowns, there appear to be some positive aspects too such as more people now coming under the insurance cover.

Men and women working for the municipalities of Milan were under the scope to verify the relationship between job strain and clinic blood pressure. The Karasek model was used for the former whereas the latter was investigated using standard procedures from the MONICA project.

An original approach used to estimate new critical values of the Occupational Repetitive Actions (OCRA) index is presented. A combination of data for the effect variable in a reference population not exposed to the relevant risks along with the regression function between OCRA and the prevalence of workers affected by one or more upper limb work-related musculoskeletal disorders are used.