Maternal educational inequalities about adverse pregnancy outcomes observed in a rural area of a province of China during a time period (2010–2018)

BackgroundThe relationship between maternal education and adverse pregnancy outcomes is well documented. However, limited research has investigated maternal educational disparities in adverse pregnancy outcomes in China. This study examined maternal educational inequalities associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes in rural China.MethodsWe conducted a population-based cohort study using participants enrolled in the National Free Preconception Health Examination Project in Yunnan province from 2010 to 2018. The primary outcome was stillbirth, and the secondary outcome was adverse pregnancy outcomes, defined as a composite event of stillbirth, preterm birth or low birth weight. The study was restricted to singleton births at 20–42 weeks’ gestation. Univariate and multivariate log-binomial regression models were performed to estimate crude risk ratios (RRs) and confounding-adjusted RRs (ARRs) for stillbirth and adverse pregnancy outcomes according to maternal education level.ResultsA total of 197 722 singleton births were included in the study. Compared with mid-educated women, low-educated women were at a significantly increased risk of stillbirth (ARR, 1.20; 95% CI, 1.05 to 1.38) and adverse pregnancy outcomes (ARR, 1.11; 95% CI, 1.07 to 1.16). However, the risk of stillbirth (ARR, 1.16; 95% CI, 1.01 to 1.35) was significantly higher for high-educated women compared with mid-educated women.ConclusionCompared with women with medium education level, women with lower education level were more likely to experience adverse pregnancy outcomes, including stillbirth, and women with higher education level were more likely to experience stillbirth.

Increasing inequalities in disability-free life expectancy among older adults in Sweden 2002–2014

Background: In an aging society with increasing old age life expectancy, it has become increasingly important to monitor the health development in the population. This paper combines information on mortality and disability and explores educational inequalities in disability-free life expectancy in the aging population in Sweden, and to what extent these inequalities have increased or decreased over time. Methods: A random sample of the Swedish population aged 77 years and above ( n=2895) provided information about disability in the population in the years 2002, 2004, 2011 and 2014. The prevalence of disability was assessed by five items of personal activities of daily living and incorporated in period life tables for the corresponding years, using the Sullivan method. The analyses were stratified by sex and educational attainment. Estimates at ages 77 and 85 years are presented. Results: Disability-free life expectancy at age 77 years increased more than total life expectancy for all except men with lower education. Women with higher education had a 2.7-year increase and women with lower education a 1.6-year increase. The corresponding numbers for men were 2.0 and 0.8 years. The educational gap in disability-free life expectancy increased by 1.2 years at age 77 years for both men and women. Conclusions: While most of the increase in life expectancy was years free from disability, men with lower education had an increase of years with disability. The educational differences prevailed and increased over the period as the gains in disability-free life expectancy were smaller among those with lower education.

Unequal inequalities? How participatory inequalities affect democratic legitimacy

Democratic theorists have long emphasized the importance of participatory equality, i.e. that all citizens should have an equal right to participate. It is still unclear, however, whether ordinary citizens view this principle as central to democracy and how different violations of this principle affect subjective democratic legitimacy. The attitudes of citizens are imperative when it comes to the subjective legitimacy of democratic systems, and it is therefore important to examine how participatory inequalities affect these attitudes. We here contribute to this research agenda with survey experiments embedded in two surveys (n=324, n=840). We here examine 1) whether citizens consider participatory inequality to be an important democratic principle, and 2) how gender and educational inequalities affect subjective legitimacy and the perceived usefulness of the participatory input. The results show that citizens generally consider participatory inequalities to be important, but only gender inequalities affect subjective legitimacy and usefulness. Hence it is important to consider the type of inequality to understand the implications.

Iskolázottsági és keresetegyenlőtlenségek : Educational attainment inequalities and earnings inequalities

Az iskolázottság növekedése az előrejelzések szerint nem lassul. Ugyanakkor az iskolázottság növekedésével az iskolázottsági egyenlőtlenségek alakulása sajátos képet mutat. Az iskolázottság növekedésével az iskolázottsági egyenlőtlenségek a Kuznets-görbének nagyjából megfelelő lefutást mutatnak a magasabb iskolázottság időszakában, de az országcsoportok nagy részében ez kiegészül egy ellentétes görbületű résszel az alacsonyabb iskolázottság időszakában, s így egy hullámszerű alakulás jellemzi az iskolázottsági egyenlőtlenségeket az iskolázottsággal együtt vizsgálva. Az írás azt is megvizsgálja, hogy az iskolázottsági egyenlőtlenségek milyen kapcsolatot mutatnak a keresetegyenlőtlenségekkel.Educational attainment is growing and is not projected to slow down in the future. However, as educational attainment rises, the evolution of educational inequalities shows a particular pattern. As schooling increases, the inequalities in schooling follow a roughly Kuznets curve slope for the period with a higher number of years of schooling completed. But in most groups of countries, this is complemented by an opposite curvature in the period of lower education, and thus a wave-like trend characterizes educational inequalities when examined in conjunction with education. In addition to analysing educational inequalities, the paper also examines the relationship between educational inequalities and earnings inequalities.

PIONEERED: Elaborating the link between social and educational policies for tackling educational inequalities in Europe

Although a number of policies tackling educational inequalities have been introduced in recent decades in Europe, educational inequalities exist to a varying extent both in different sub- and supranational contexts. In this article, we address the link between social and educational policies with respect to educational inequalities. Educational policies aim to guarantee opportunities throughout educational trajectories and beyond. They pertain to all areas and the entire duration of the human life. Our contribution to socialpolicy.ch introduces the ongoing Horizon 2020 project PIONEERED on educational inequalities by elaborating on the social problems behind those disparities, and by outlining the project’s conceptual and methodological approaches that join together multilevel, intersectional and life-course perspectives.

Solutions

Universities should develop a system of trust in academic staff to replace managerialism, replace competition with collaboration, and adopt a global perspective to educational inequalities. Three new programmes are proposed. Universities should place education in a framework of environmental sustainability—the Distributed University, moving to online learning which will become the main mode of university education in the future.