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Culture is transmitted and replicated among humans, constituting a foundational element of social studies. However, despite the relevance of this epistemological premise, there is relatively little empirical attention to the processes of social reproduction of culture. In this study, adopting the theoretical approach of cultural evolutionism and employing quantitative methods, attention is focused on cultural transmission in football fandom. Data from a web survey conducted on students of the University of Milan, totaling 4047 valid cases, are presented. Analyses show that football fandom tends to reproduce primarily through family socialization, vertically, at an early stage of life, although horizontal dynamics are also evident, linked to the historical and environmental context experienced by the individual. Consistent with Mesoudi's definition (2011), estimating the possible relative selection effects, beyond neutral replication (random copying), assigns a «replicative» advantage of approximately 9% to environmental conformity (frequency-dependent bias), namely the Milanese context, for Inter and Milan teams, and approximately 12% to the imitation of successful models and sporting success itself (model-based bias and content bias). Meaning that achieving numerous sporting successes in the 1990s would confer a «replicative» advantage to Milan (benefiting from the combined effect of success and conformity). A «replicative» advantage of x percentage points means that, given fans of different teams in generation t, in generation t+1, there will be a x percentage increase in fans of the team that has that selection advantage, compared to fans of other teams. The results of this study, within the limitations of the data used, a sample not generalizable to the population but rich in heterogeneity, can serve as a litmus test for investigating cultural transmission phenomena more systematically according to the cultural evolutionism approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: Socio-economic inequalities originate from several channels, one of which is family origins, with clear effects on people's health. This paper aims to evaluate the role played by social mobility in determining health inequalities, relying on Blau and Duncan's status attainment model and focusing specifically on two moments of social reproduction of inequalities: one inter-generational, based on the transmission of resources from the family of origin, the other intra-generational, related to the capitalisation of economic resources to maximise well-being. Methods: Multi-group models of structural equations were used to examine the direct and indirect effects of parental cultural background, education and economic conditions of respondents on self-perceived health in 28 countries, relying on the European Social Survey (N =38,879). Results: Overall, the results confirmed the presence of an inter-generational transmission of social and health status. Different models of transmission of health inequalities emerged among the countries considered. Countries characterised by a social democratic welfare regime showed higher social mobility and fewer health inequalities, although in correspondence with a prominent role of economic factors in determining health conditions. On the other hand, in countries where social mobility is lower, health inequalities are more pronounced, yet driven by factors others than economics, such as socio-cultural origins. Conclusions: The presence of a higher economic-health gradient in social democratic countries – notwithstanding their egalitarian and universal welfare policies – provides support for the existence of a Nordic paradox in relation to health inequalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the association between work trajectories and frailty in later life in four ageing contexts (AAI index): Czech Republic, Denmark, Italy and Poland. Data of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) is used to create the frailty index and linear regression models are applied to assess the association between frailty condition and work trajectories of 6187 women and men, aged between 50 and 74 years old. The findings underline that women experience worse frailty than men in all countries. Having precarious work trajectories is detrimental to individuals' health everywhere, but it becomes even worse for Danish men and Polish men and women. The ageing context (AAI index) is not associated with health inequalities in older people. We suggest that further research should explore more in detail the mechanisms linking job insecurity to psycho-social risks as possible determinants of frailty, taking into account differences at the national level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article contributes to the quality of life literature by investigating gender and age gaps in psycho-physiological distress during the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy. Specifically, we investigate whether women experienced higher levels of distress than men, and if such gap can be explained by a greater negative reaction of women in the experience of a negative COVID-19 related event, such as the illness or death of a relative. Moreover, we explore whether age moderated or amplified the effect of a negative event on distress among women and men. To do so we rely on an ad hoc survey carried out between April 2020 and June 2021 in Italy, the first European country to be hit by the pandemic. Our results indicate that subjects who experienced the hospitalization or, more so, the death of a family member during the pandemic were more exposed to psycho-psychological distress compared to subjects who were not directly touched by COVID-19. Moreover, our results show that while women were on average more likely to express feelings of distress than men in absence of evident stressors, this gap disappeared among subjects who experience the death of a relative. Furthermore, our results indicate that experiencing a negative COVID-19 related event led to an increase in distress among all respondents except older men, who appeared to be the most resilient to the manifestation of any sign of distress. These results speak to important age and gender differences in the feelings and externalization of grief in the Italian context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Population aging is particularly pronounced in Italy. Recently, home-care services emerged as one of the desirable strategy when dealing with such situations of fragility. In this framework, we present the evaluation of a home-care service which was experimentally implemented by Fondazione Sacra Famiglia and Casa di Cura Ambrosiana in the 2017–2018 biennium. The service consisted of a twice-weekly nursing visit intended to monitor patient health conditions and to gather data constantly supervised by a geriatrician. The eligible population consisted of the users of San Carlo Hospital Emergency Department (91 individuals). Twenty of these individuals had access to the experimental home-care service. The results show the smaller probability of mortality for the treatment group compared to the control group, but similar probabilities in admissions to ER and in hospitalizations. These findings suggest that health home-care policies could reduce mortality by lessening the negative effects of relational isolation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In February 2021, the spread of a new variant of SARS-CoV-2 in the Lombardy Region, Italy caused concerns about school-aged children as a source of contagion, leading local authorities to adopt an extraordinary school closure measure. This generated a debate about the usefulness of such an intervention in light of the trade-off between its related benefits and costs (e.g. delays in educational attainment, impact on children and families' psycho-physical well-being). This article analyses the epidemiological impact of the school closure intervention in the Milan metropolitan area. Methods: Data from the Agency for Health Protection of the Metropolitan City of Milan allowed analysing the trend of contagion in different age classes before and after the intervention, adopting an interrupted times series design, providing a quasi-experimental counterfactual scenario. Segmented Poisson regression models of daily incident cases were performed separately for the 3–11-year-old, the 12–19-year-old, and the 20+-year-old age groups, examining the change in the contagion curves after the intervention, adjusting for time-varying confounders. Kaplan-Meier survival curves and Cox regression were used to assess the equality of survival curves in the three age groups before and after the intervention. Results: Net of time-varying confounders, the intervention produced a daily reduction of the risk of contagion by 4% in those aged 3–11 and 12–19 (IRR = 0·96) and by 3% in those aged 20 or more (IRR = 0·97). More importantly, there were differences in the temporal order of contagion decrease between the age groups, with the epidemic curve lowering first in the school-aged children directly affected by the intervention, and only subsequently in the adult population, which presumably indirectly benefitted from the reduction of contagion among children. Conclusion: Though it was not possible to completely discern the effect of school closures from concurrent policy measures, a substantial decrease in the contagion curves was clearly detected after the intervention. The extent to which the slowdown of infections counterbalanced the social costs of the policy remains unclear. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the presence of a territorial heterogeneity and of a contextual effect in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus in the City of Milan. Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus is a growing health problem worldwide, whose onset is largely determined by an unhealthy lifestyle, as defined by an unbalanced diet and poor physical activity. Being such habits and behaviours more rooted in the most socially, economically, and culturally disadvantaged people, a clear social gradient is visible, with the disease mostly occurring in subjects of lower socioeconomic status. The onset is also determined by the characteristics of the urban environment of residence, such as green spaces, walkability, the food environment, and the availability of services and amenities. To date, there is no empirical evidence concerning the Milanese case. This study aims at shedding light on the phenomenon investigated by integrating administrative healthcare data from the Health Protection Agency of the Metropolitan City of Milan with data from the most recent population census. Multilevel regression models show higher risk of onset in the most disadvantaged areas, regardless the socioeconomic and demographic profile of their inhabitants. This highlights the needs to conceive territorial policies in order to tackle the spread of the disease and its related inequalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the relationship between the financial crisis of 2008 and the health of Italians using aggregate and individual health indicators in correlation with the socioeconomic changes which have occurred in the Italian population. First, the study contextualises the changes referring to some important health indicators (life expectancy, death and suicide rates). Then, the main hypothesis on the relation between worsened individual health conditions and socioeconomic deterioration is tested. For this purpose, individual data from 2005 to 2013 stemming from Health Condition and Use of Health Services surveys (Italian National Institute of Statistics) are analysed. The results show that the social categories most severely affected by the crisis, in both employment and economic terms, were basically the same as those that experienced a worsening of their physical and psychological health conditions. These categories of people have a low level of educational attainment, live in southern and insular regions and are most often men. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Objective: Low individual socioeconomic status (SES) is known to be associated with a higher risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), but the extent to which the local context in which people live may influence T2DM rates remains unclear. This study examines whether living in a low property value neighbourhood is associated with higher rates of T2DM independently of individual SES. Research design and methods: Using cross-sectional data from the Maastricht Study (2010–2013) and geographical data from Statistics Netherlands, multilevel logistic regression was used to assess the association between neighbourhood property value and T2DM. Individual SES was based on education, occupation and income. Of the 2,056 participants (aged 40–75 years), 494 (24%) were diagnosed with T2DM. Results: Individual SES was strongly associated with T2DM, but a significant proportion of the variance in T2DM was found at the neighbourhood level (VPC = 9.2%; 95% CI = 5.0%–16%). Participants living in the poorest neighbourhoods had a 2.38 times higher odds ratio of T2DM compared to those living in the richest areas (95% CI = 1.58–3.58), independently of individual SES. Conclusions: Neighbourhood property value showed a significant association with T2DM, suggesting the usefulness of area-based programmes aimed at improving neighbourhood characteristics in order to tackle inequalities in T2DM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Backgrounds: The empirical evidence shows discordant results regarding the role of local contexts on individual health. This article considers the role of the municipal socio-economic contexts on self-rated health in Italy, taking into account some individual variables.Methods: Multilevel model software (MlwiN) is used to fit multilevel linear regression models of perceived health. Individual data are from the Italian surveys on "Aspects of Daily Life" 2010, 2011 and 2012, collected by the Italian National Institute of Statistics (Istat). In addition, municipality-level social, demographic and economic characteristics are from the 2011 Census and the database "Atlas of Italian Municipalities" (Istat).Results: The main findings of this study confirm that, controlling for age and gender at the individual level, poor health is influenced by socio-economic positions: lower education, not working or looking for employment and disadvantaged family social class predict higher perceived health. The individual level explains the 70.1% heterogeneity in self-assessed health, the family level 25.6% and the municipality level only 4.3%. The additional influence of the socio-economic context is, conversely, of little substantive importance.Conclusions: Finally, by showing that variability in health relates mainly to individual characteristics, this study suggests that intervention to mitigate social inequalities in health should focus on structural factors, such as education and the labour market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a reflection about the role of social class in the field of the social inequalities in health. The health is fundamental for the reproduction of human societies and constitutes a keystone for social stratification: in facts, the study of health determinants is a central challenge for scholars who look at the empirical dimension of socio-economic disparities. Among these determinants, we stress that social class continues to have an important role, influencing directly or indirectly different dimensions of the individual health (through stress, material deprivation, unhealthy habits, etc.). Moreover, this article focuses on some aspects neglected in the debate, which could instead stem important lines of research: in particular, the redefinition of the concept of social class taking in account the role of networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sociological literature recognizes in social structure an important determinant of individuals' health conditions. A large number of studies stress the influence of social stratification, such as education and occupational position, on health indicators. However, we also know that the worsening of socio-economic conditions is only partly transmitted directly. In fact, many effects are associated with individual and familial lifestyles. Moreover, it's important to describe the dynamics of these relationships also considering macro-changes, such as those imposed by the economic crisis. For example, some authors argue that phases of economic recession produce ambivalent effects on health. In this perspective this work shows changes in some risk factors in the years of the crisis associated with territorial dimension and the job position. The study uses data from ISTAT Multiscope Data Aspects of Daily Life (2005-2013). The analyzes are conducted with multivariate multilevel regression techniques. Among the epidemiologically validated risk factors we stress the followings: 1) smoking, 2) alcohol, 3) obesity and diet, and 4) physical activity. The results show a substantial stability over years considered, with the exception of a general decrease in alcohol consumption. The occupational stratification of unhealthy lifestyles would remain substantially unchanged, meanwhile the only social category that appears to be wors-ening (in particular smoking and physical activity) is composed of unemployed persons in southern Italy, an area strongly impacted by the crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last few years, much sociological debate hasfocusedon individualisation theory, especially on Beck's risk society version. According to this theory, contemporary social change can be interpreted as the progressive weakening of the influence of social structures on individual behaviour. Individualisation theory has been adopted in many fields of study (voting behaviour, consumption behaviour, etc.). Although much of the debate has a theoretical character, there have been some attempts to empirically assess individualisation theory. As far as poverty is concerned, scholars supporting individualisation theory, as well as scholars opposing it, have adopted one of the following methodological strategies: highlighting the role played by individual variables (especially by life course variables) rather than structural variables; controlling for individual rather than structural variables. Both these approaches focus on short observation windows; however, it is necessary to consider long periods in order to assess the core of individualisation theory, i.e. the decreasing influence of social structures. Our approach assesses the change (rather than the stability) of the individual-level relationship between structures (occupational classes, education, etc.) and poverty over a long time period. This changing-parameter model is implemented through multilevel modelling with families at level one and years at level two. The analysisfocuseson the Italian case and it is based on data from the Family Expenditure Survey (Indagine sui Consumi delle Famiglie) that was collected by the Italian Statistical Institute (ISTAT). It covers the period from 1985 to 2011. The results seem to indicate that there is stability in the relationship between structures and poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In recent years, Italian citizens have increasingly been asked to share pharmaceutical costs, but at the same time, households' medicines expenditure has decreased. Cost-sharing policies have to be assessed not just in terms of limitation of moral hazard and revenue to the state, but also for equal opportunities for citizen users accessing health services. The aim of this article is to analyze how Italian co-payment policies ('ticket') on medicines may affect pharmaceutical expenditure of households, considering territorial and social groups variation. We reviewed the per capita private spending on medicines of Italian regions, separating pharmaceutical outlay and 'ticket.' Across the period 2001-2010 we found that the overall per capita private spending on medicines remained substantially stable, although medicine expenditure decreases while the 'ticket' increases. When cost sharing rises, out-of-pocket spending on medicines by poorer families seems to remain unchanged; however, poorer families seem to reduce their pharmaceutical expenditure. Our analysis suggests that applying co-payment in Italy is partly successful, in terms of greater revenue to the health system, but in the last few years, cost-sharing increases would seem to have rebounded negatively on more vulnerable families, due to the economic crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of inequality in health concerns the relationship between socially structured characteristics and health outcomes. Howewer, health disparities are also linked to purely individual characteristics and contextual ones. In particular, the contextual effect at a national level may reflect differences in the functioning and performing of national health institutions, that may be conceived as further determinants of health inequalities. In this work we aim at estimating the effect of education on self-assessed health across European countries, taking into account potential confounders like age, gender and family social background. Using a multilevel model with individuals nested in countries, we can achieve two aims. First, we can see whether countries differ in their average self-assessed health score. Second, we can test our hypothesis about the existence of a European social gradient, that is that education exerts a relatively constant effect on self-assessed health. We develop our models using data from European Social Surveys (88,842 interviews). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years social inequality in health conditions have received increasing attention among public health officials, bio-medical scientists and social researchers, as shown by the numerous empirical studies exploring the pathways that structure social inequality in the population's well-being. This article focuses on two means of social reproduction of inequality: the first, of inter-generational nature, is based on the transmission of resources from the family of origin to that of its children; the, second, of intra-generational nature, concerns the life-long capitalisation of cultural and economic resources that affects individuals' psycho-physical welfare. Following Blau e Duncan's «status attainment» model (1967), the article attempts to assess the role played by ascriptive and acquisitive features on health inequality, via analysis of data drawn from Istat's 2003 survey on the use of leisure time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our study investigates changes occurred in the Italian social stratification in the last twenty years. It is based on stratification studies that consider individual occupations as the main aspect of the immaterial and material resource allocation and, more precisely, the studies that order occupations along a continuum by their social desiderability. At this aim we compare the de Lillo-Schizzerotto Scale (1985) with a new edition of the same scale, realized in 2005 by an inter-university research equipe; doing this, we focused on scores and ranking of the occupational categories in the two scales. Metric and ordinal association measures between the two Scales do not show significant changes in the structure of perceived desiderability of occupations in the Italian labour market. Therefore, in this point of view, twenty years later results confirm the stability of the social inequality system in our country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Health inequalities, rather than representing a secondary or a partial aspect of social inequalities, constitute their most emblematic expression. Making use of the Istat Multiscopo dataset on health conditions (2000), it was possible to describe the main relationships between social conditions and health status in Italy. The study was devoted to reconstruct a «health space» in order to synthesize the health profiles of social clusters identified on the basis of occupational position, educational attainment and economic sector of activity. The results of the analyses suggest that there is a cumulative disadvantage combining the effects of structural socio-economic inequalities related to the scarcity of material resources, the usure du travail and the symbolic resources. It appears that a sort of «cultural contagion» of risky behaviours takes place within socially homogeneous groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]