Skip to main content

Lund University Publications

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Society Inhaled. Social Epidemiology of COPD

Axelsson Fisk, Sten LU orcid (2021) In Lund University, Faculty of Medicine Doctoral Dissertation Series
Abstract
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a common disease that in its advanced stages is a life-limiting condition and a leading cause of death globally. This thesis aims at increasing the understanding of the socioeconomic disparities that exist both for COPD and its major risk factor, tobacco smoking. A related aim is to advance the theory and epidemiological methods used to evaluate equity in health and health care. In concrete terms, the thesis discusses absolute versus relative measures of income and applies Analysis of Individual Heterogeneity and Discriminatory Accuracy (AIHDA) within an intersectional framework.

In three prospective national studies, register data including socioeconomic information, hospital... (More)
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a common disease that in its advanced stages is a life-limiting condition and a leading cause of death globally. This thesis aims at increasing the understanding of the socioeconomic disparities that exist both for COPD and its major risk factor, tobacco smoking. A related aim is to advance the theory and epidemiological methods used to evaluate equity in health and health care. In concrete terms, the thesis discusses absolute versus relative measures of income and applies Analysis of Individual Heterogeneity and Discriminatory Accuracy (AIHDA) within an intersectional framework.

In three prospective national studies, register data including socioeconomic information, hospital diagnoses (I–III) and prescriptions (III) was used. Investigating incident COPD, study I evaluates absolute versus relative income and study II adopts an intersectional Multilevel AIHDA (MAIHDA). Study III is a MAIHDA which disentangles the effect of geographical (i.e. counties) and sociodemographic contexts on discontinuation to maintenance therapy among COPD patients. Study IV is a cross-sectional intersectional AIHDA, analysing smoking risk in the Swedish National Health Surveys. Discriminatory Accuracy (DA) is assessed through Area Under the ROC Curve (AUC) in study I, III and IV and the Variance Partition Coefficient (VPC) in study II and III.

Absolute income had a higher DA than relative income and seems more relevant for predicting incident COPD. Intersectional information on age, gender, education, income, civil status and country of birth had a good DA, as 20% of total variance in propensity to develop COPD was found between intersectional strata. The stratum with older native females with low income and low education who live alone presented 49 times higher COPD risk than the stratum defined by young, native males with high income and high education who cohabit (0.98% versus 0.02%). Sociodemographic differences were more relevant than geographic (i.e. counties) differences for explaining patient variance in discontinuation to maintenance therapy (VPC 5.0% versus 0.4%). Intersectional information provided a moderate DA (AUC=0.66) for predicting smoking status.

Although complex to disentangle from one another, our results suggest that material conditions matter more than psychosocial status for incidence of COPD. The intersectional MAIHDA and AIHDA approaches improve our understanding of heterogeneities in risk of COPD and smoking in the population. This approach can also disentangle geographical from sociodemographic contextual effects and provides an innovative instrument for planning interventions according to the idea of proportionate universalism.
(Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
supervisor
opponent
  • professor Burström, Bo, Karolinska Institutet
organization
publishing date
type
Thesis
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Social Epidemiology, Social Medicine, Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), Intersectionality, Smoking : epidemiology, Social determinants of health
in
Lund University, Faculty of Medicine Doctoral Dissertation Series
issue
2021:31
pages
135 pages
publisher
Lund University, Faculty of Medicine
defense location
Medelhavet, Inga Marie Nilssons gata 53, ingång 46, Skånes Universitetssjukhus i Malmö. Join by Zoom: https://lu-se.zoom.us/j/64767623839?pwd=S25IR09tTSs0Q3Q5ZUxQWjdWY0hMdz09
defense date
2021-04-23 09:00:00
ISSN
1652-8220
ISBN
978-91-8021-037-9
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
87f558a8-cc14-4849-b6fc-17c4f6da2e2e
date added to LUP
2021-03-18 13:52:32
date last changed
2023-04-25 13:55:10
@phdthesis{87f558a8-cc14-4849-b6fc-17c4f6da2e2e,
  abstract     = {{Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a common disease that in its advanced stages is a life-limiting condition and a leading cause of death globally. This thesis aims at increasing the understanding of the socioeconomic disparities that exist both for COPD and its major risk factor, tobacco smoking. A related aim is to advance the theory and epidemiological methods used to evaluate equity in health and health care. In concrete terms, the thesis discusses absolute versus relative measures of income and applies Analysis of Individual Heterogeneity and Discriminatory Accuracy (AIHDA) within an intersectional framework.<br/><br/>In three prospective national studies, register data including socioeconomic information, hospital diagnoses (I–III) and prescriptions (III) was used. Investigating incident COPD, study I evaluates absolute versus relative income and study II adopts an intersectional Multilevel AIHDA (MAIHDA). Study III is a MAIHDA which disentangles the effect of geographical (i.e. counties) and sociodemographic contexts on discontinuation to maintenance therapy among COPD patients. Study IV is a cross-sectional intersectional AIHDA, analysing smoking risk in the Swedish National Health Surveys. Discriminatory Accuracy (DA) is assessed through Area Under the ROC Curve (AUC) in study I, III and IV and the Variance Partition Coefficient (VPC) in study II and III.<br/><br/>Absolute income had a higher DA than relative income and seems more relevant for predicting incident COPD. Intersectional information on age, gender, education, income, civil status and country of birth had a good DA, as 20% of total variance in propensity to develop COPD was found between intersectional strata. The stratum with older native females with low income and low education who live alone presented 49 times higher COPD risk than the stratum defined by young, native males with high income and high education who cohabit (0.98% versus 0.02%). Sociodemographic differences were more relevant than geographic (i.e. counties) differences for explaining patient variance in discontinuation to maintenance therapy (VPC 5.0% versus 0.4%). Intersectional information provided a moderate DA (AUC=0.66) for predicting smoking status. <br/><br/>Although complex to disentangle from one another, our results suggest that material conditions matter more than psychosocial status for incidence of COPD. The intersectional MAIHDA and AIHDA approaches improve our understanding of heterogeneities in risk of COPD and smoking in the population. This approach can also disentangle geographical from sociodemographic contextual effects and provides an innovative instrument for planning interventions according to the idea of proportionate universalism.<br/>}},
  author       = {{Axelsson Fisk, Sten}},
  isbn         = {{978-91-8021-037-9}},
  issn         = {{1652-8220}},
  keywords     = {{Social Epidemiology; Social Medicine; Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD); Intersectionality; Smoking : epidemiology; Social determinants of health}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{2021:31}},
  publisher    = {{Lund University, Faculty of Medicine}},
  school       = {{Lund University}},
  series       = {{Lund University, Faculty of Medicine Doctoral Dissertation Series}},
  title        = {{Society Inhaled. Social Epidemiology of COPD}},
  url          = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/95463827/Sten_Axelsson_Fisk_Society_Inhaled.pdf}},
  year         = {{2021}},
}