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Background: Russian suicide mortality rates changed rapidly over the second half of the twentieth century. This study attempts to differentiate between underlying period and cohort effects in relation to the changes in suicide mortality in Russia between 1956 and 2005. Methods: Sex-and age-specific suicide mortality data were analyzed using an age-period-cohort (APC) approach. Descriptive analyses and APC modeling with log-linear Poisson regression were performed. Results: Strong period effects were observed for the years during and after Gorbachev ' s political reforms (including the anti-alcohol campaign) and for those following the break-up of the Soviet Union. After mutual adjustment, the cohort-and period-specific relative risk estimates for suicide revealed differing underlying processes. While the estimated period effects had an overall positive trend, cohort-specific developments indicated a positive trend for the male cohorts born between 1891 and 1931 and for the female cohorts born between 1891 and 1911, but a negative trend for subsequent cohorts. Conclusions: Our results indicate that the specific life experiences of cohorts may be important for variations in suicide mortality across time, in addition to more immediate effects of changes in the social environment. ; The manuscript version of this article (Age, period and cohort effects on suicide mortality in Russia, 1956-2007) is part of the thesis Suicide in Russia: A macro-sociological study http://uu.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2:608268

Background: Intra-generational social mobility, which describes the mobility within an individual's own working life, is seldom studied among employees with psychiatric disorders (EPD). There is need of knowledge of the intra-generational mobility patterns, in a broader perspective, among EPD. Aims: To investigate intra-generational social mobility in employed individuals diagnosed with affective disorder, personality disorder, schizophrenia and drug dependence in a national Swedish cohort. Method: We identified a national sample of employed Swedish adults born in 1939–1949 ( N = 876, 738), and among them individuals with a first-time hospital admission for affective psychosis, neurosis and personality disorder, alcoholism, drug dependence or schizophrenia in 1964–1980 ( N = 18, 998). Employed individuals without hospital admission for such diagnoses were utilised as a comparison group ( N = 866, 442). Intra-individual social class changes between 1980 and 1990 among EPD and the comparison group were described through summary statistics and graphs. Results: EPD more often held Low manual occupations at baseline in 1980 than the comparison group (44% vs. 28%), although parental social class was similar. In 1990, 19% of EPD and 4% of the comparison group had lost contact with the labour market. Social stability was less common among EPD (49 %) than in the comparison group (67%). Mobility out of the labour force increased and social stability decreased by number of inpatient admissions. Employees diagnosed with affective psychosis or neurosis and personality disorder fared better in the labour market than employees with schizophrenia. Conclusion: Employees suffering from psychiatric disorder do not maintain their social class or remain in the labour force to the same extent as individuals without those problems, irrespective of their parental class. Our results support the social drift hypothesis that individuals with poor psychiatric health move downward in the social hierarchy.

Submitted manuscript version. Published version available in European Journal of Cancer (2017), 87, p. 92-100. ; Background: Early-onset prostate cancer is often more aggressive and may have a different etiology than later-onset prostate cancer, but has been relatively little studied to date. We evaluated occupation in relation to early-onset and later-onset prostate cancer in a large pooled study. Methods: We used occupational information from census data in five Nordic countries from 1960-1990. We identified prostate cancer cases diagnosed from 1961-2005 by linkage of census information to national cancer registries and calculated standardized incidence ratios (SIRs) separately for men aged 30-49 and those aged 50 or older. We also conducted separate analyses by period of follow-up, 1961-1985 and 1986-2005, corresponding to pre- and post-prostatespecific antigen (PSA) screening. Results: For early-onset prostate cancer (n=1,521), we observed the highest SIRs for public safety workers (e.g., firefighters) [SIR=1.71, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.23-2.31] and military personnel (SIR=1.97, 95% CI: 1.31-2.85). These SIRs were significantly higher than the SIRs for later-onset disease (for public safety workers, SIR=1.10, 95% CI: 1.07-1.14, and for military personnel, SIR=1.09, 95% CI: 1.05- 1.13; pheterogeneity=0.005 and 0.002, respectively). Administrators and technical workers also demonstrated significantly increased risk for early-onset prostate cancer, but the SIRs did not differ from those for later-onset disease (pheterogeneity>0.05). While our early-onset finding for public safety workers was restricted to the post-PSA period, that for military personnel was restricted to the pre-PSA period. Conclusion: Our results suggest that occupational exposures, particularly for military personnel, may be associated with early-onset prostate cancer. Further evaluation is needed to explain these findings.