The impact of structural factors on the injury rate in different European countries
Open accessAbstract
BACKGROUND: A previous study pointed to there being two kinds of injuries--those with a mainly social genesis and those with a mainly environmental genesis. The aim of this study was to analyse how socioeconomic factors--such as level of economic development, alcohol consumption and unemployment and more cultural factors--such as education and religion--relate to kinds of injury. METHODS: Motor vehicle traffic accidents were chosen to represent injuries with a predominantly environmental genesis and suicides those with a mainly social genesis. Qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) complemented by Pearson correlation was employed. The data come from 12 European countries. RESULTS: Four groups of countries emerged from the analysis. Group 1 was high on both kinds of injuries and was also high on all the independent variables considered. Group 2 was low on social injuries and high on environmental injuries; it had a low level of economic development, high alcohol consumption and a high proportion of Roman Catholics. Group 3 was high on social injuries and low on environmental injuries; it had a high level of economic development, low alcohol consumption and few Roman Catholics. Group 4 was low on both kinds of injuries; the independent variables formed a similar pattern to those of group 3. CONCLUSION: The pattern for traffic fatalities differs from that of suicides. There is also patterning with regard to structural factors; economic level, education and religion seem to be more important with regard to injury rate differentials than alcohol consumption or unemployment.
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There are growing number of descriptive epidemiological studies using QCA to explore factors predicting outcomes across diverse areas.
“Similarly, there are growing number of descriptive epidemiological studies using QCA to explore factors predicting outcomes across such diverse areas as lupus and quality of life [68]; length of hospital stay [69]; constellations of factors predicting injury [70]; or the role of austerity, crisis and recession in predicting public health outcomes [71].”
From The use of Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) to address causality in complex systems: a systematic review of research on public health interventions (2021) · cites this paper as [70]
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- Authors
- Melinder, K.
- Affiliations
- Karolinska Institutet (SE)
- Corresponding author
- Melinder, K.
- Venue
- The European Journal of Public Health
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2001-09-01
- Volume
- 11
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 301-308
- ISSN
- 1101-1262 (ISSN-L)
- 1464-360X
- OpenAlex
- W2028717055
- Cited by
- 32
- References
- 15
- Citations by year
- 2025: 1 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 3 · 2018: 2 · 2016: 3 · 2014: 3 · 2012: 3
- FWCI
- 0.39
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- European Journal of Public Health (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Injury Epidemiology and Prevention
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Suicide and Self-Harm Studies
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Safety, Risk, Reliability and Quality › Traffic and Road Safety
- Keywords
- injury rates, social harm, environmental injuries, motor vehicle traffic accidents, traffic fatalities, suicide, socioeconomic factors, economic development, alcohol consumption, unemployment, Catholics, structural factors, cross-national comparison
- MeSH terms
- Accidents, Traffic, Europe, Humans, Risk Factors, Socioeconomic Factors, Suicide, Wounds and Injuries
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