Ulf-Göran Gerdtham
Biographic Data
| ID | 1724760 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Ulf-Göran Gerdtham |
| GIVEN NAMES | Ulf-Göran |
| FAMILY NAME | Gerdtham |
| SIGNATURE | GERDTHAM U |
| AFFILIATIONS | Lund University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-0647-7817 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 46 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 114 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 46 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1992 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Immigrant-Native Wage Gap in Sweden
Sweden has an immigrant-native wage gap. Although the impact of educational attainment and other variables have been studied, the impact of specific personality traits analyzed separately on the wage gap remains poorly understood. In this study, we used a unique dataset that usually contains unobserved personality traits evaluated by psychologists during the Swedish military conscription, as well as post-conscription labor market data to examine …
Income-related mortality inequality and macroeconomic conditions
This study examines the relationship between income-related health inequality (IRHI) and macroeconomic conditions. We complement an income group-based analysis of the impact of macroeconomic conditions on mortality by incorporating an analysis of the concentration index as a comprehensive measure of overall IRHI. Using a recentered influence function regression approach, we estimate the impact of macroeconomic conditions on mortality and its ineq…
School Grades and Neighbourhoods – A Natural Experiment
Adolescents with an immigrant background have poorer educational performance than their native counterparts, which may partly be explained by the quality of their neighbourhood area upon immigration to Sweden. An important part of neighbourhood quality is neighbourhood socioeconomic status (NSES). This study examines the impact of initial NSES on subsequent school grades in refugees by using a natural experiment that took place between 1985 and 1…
Education, occupation and income inequalities in obesity among Portuguese women and men
Socioeconomic inequalities in obesity persist, with obesity being disproportionally concentrated among individuals with lower education, income and less differentiated occupations. Overall, women consistently faced greater inequalities than men
‘The nurse did not even greet me’
INTRODUCTION: Universal Health Coverage is not only about access to health services but also about access to high-quality care, since poor experiences may deter patients from accessing care. Evidence shows that quality of care drives health outcomes, yet little is known about non-clinical dimensions of care, and patients' experience thereof relative to satisfaction with visits. This paper investigates the role of non-clinical dimensions of care i…
Inequality and heterogeneity in health-related quality of life
EQ-5D-5L population reference (norms) data are now available for Sweden, including socioeconomic differentials. Results may be used for comparisons with disease-specific populations and in health economic evaluations. The observed socioeconomic inequality in HRQoL should be of great importance for policy makers concerned with equity aspects
In search of an appropriate mix of taxes and subsidies on nutrients and food
Quantifying the Treatment Effect of Kidney Transplantation Relative to Dialysis on Survival Time
Using observational data to assess the treatment effects on outcomes of kidney transplantation relative to dialysis for patients on renal replacement therapy is challenging due to the non-random selection into treatment. This study applied the propensity score weighting approach in order to address the treatment selection bias of kidney transplantation on survival time compared with dialysis for patients on the waitlist. We included 2676 adult wa…
Heterogeneity in the associations between common mental disorders and labour outcomes – a population study from southern Sweden
Heterogeneity in labour outcomes following a CMD diagnosis sometimes contributes to and sometimes mitigates inequalities in employment, sick leave and disability pension between population subgroups. When developing new strategies to tackle mental ill-health in the population, it may therefore be motivated to consider not only inequalities in the prevalence of mental disorders but also heterogeneity in associated adverse labour outcomes
Education, immigration and rising mental health inequality in Sweden
Educational and income gradients in health are well established in the literature but there is need for a better understanding of how mental health inequalities change over time, and what drives the development. We aim to study how psychiatric diagnosis and its income-related inequality have changed over time in Sweden and to make a first attempt at disentangling the development by decomposing any changes in terms of changes in two important demo…
Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease and Cancer Mortality by Achieving Healthy Dietary Goals for the Swedish Population
The objective is to estimate the number of deaths attributable to cardiovascular diseases and diet-related cancers that could be prevented or delayed in Sweden if adults adhere to the official dietary recommendations. We used an age-group and sex-specific epidemiological macro-simulation model to estimate preventable deaths due to the discrepancies between actual intake and recommended intake of changes in food components. Data included in the mo…
Valuing a Lifestyle Intervention for Middle Eastern Immigrants at Risk of Diabetes
Willingness-to-pay (WTP) techniques are increasingly being used in the healthcare sector for assessing the value of interventions. The objective of this study was to estimate WTP and its predictors in a randomized controlled trial of a lifestyle intervention exclusively targeting Middle Eastern immigrants living in Malmö, Sweden, who are at high risk of type 2 diabetes. We used the contingent valuation method to evaluate WTP. The questionnaire wa…
Measuring Quality Gaps in TB Screening in South Africa Using Standardised Patient Analysis
This is the first multi-district Standardised Patient (SP) study in South Africa. It measures the quality of TB screening at primary healthcare (PHC) facilities. We hypothesise that TB screening protocols and best practices are poorly adhered to at the PHC level. The SP method allows researchers to observe how healthcare providers identify, test and advise presumptive TB patients, and whether this aligns with clinical protocols and best practice.…
Are There Inequities in Treatment of End-Stage Renal Disease in Sweden? A Longitudinal Register-Based Study on Socioeconomic Status-Related Access to Kidney Transplantation
Socioeconomic status-related factors have been associated with access to kidney transplantation, yet few studies have investigated both individual income and education as determinates of access to kidney transplantation. Therefore, this study aims to explore the effects of both individual income and education on access to kidney transplantation, controlling for both medical and non-medical factors. We linked the Swedish Renal Register to national…
A general method for decomposing the causes of socioeconomic inequality in health
We introduce a general decomposition method applicable to all forms of bivariate rank dependent indices of socioeconomic inequality in health, including the concentration index. The technique is based on recentered influence function regression and requires only the application of OLS to a transformed variable with similar interpretation. Our method requires few identifying assumptions to yield valid estimates in most common empirical application…
Labor market consequences of childhood onset type 1 diabetes
Health Utilities of Type 2 Diabetes-Related Complications
This study estimates health utilities (HU) in Sweden for a range of type 2 diabetes-related complications using EQ-5D and two alternative tariffs (UK and Swedish) from 1757 patients with type 2 diabetes from the Swedish National Diabetes Register (NDR). Ordinary least squares were used for statistical analysis. Lower HU was found for female gender, younger age at diagnosis, higher BMI, and history of complications. Microvascular and macrovascular…
Patient-Reported Outcome Measures and Risk Factors in a Quality Registry
Diabetes is one of the chronic diseases that constitute the greatest disease burden in the world. The Swedish National Diabetes Register is an essential part of the diabetes care system. Currently it mainly records clinical outcomes, but here we describe how it has started to collect patient-reported outcome measures, complementing the standard registry data on clinical outcomes as a basis for evaluating diabetes care. Our aims were to develop a …
On correcting the concentration index for binary variables
This article discusses measurement of socioeconomic inequalities in the prevalence of a health condition, in response to the recent exchange between Guido Erreygers and Adam Wagstaff, in which they discuss the merits of their own corrections to the frequently used concentration index. We first reconcile their debate and discuss the value judgments implicit in their indices. Next, we provide a formal definition of the previously undefined value ju…
Pure and Social Disparities in Distribution of Dentists
During past decades, the number of dentists has continuously increased in Iran. Beside the quantity, the distribution of dentists affects the oral health status of population. The current study aimed to assess the pure and social disparities in distribution of dentists across the provinces in Iran in 2009. Data on provinces' characteristics, including population and social situation, were obtained from multiple sources. The disparity measures (in…
Swedish experience-based value sets for EQ-5D health states
A value set for EQ-5D health states based on Swedish valuations has been lacking. Several authors have recently advocated the normative standpoint of using experience-based values. Guidelines of economic evaluation for reimbursement decisions in Sweden recommend the use of experience-based values for QALY calculations. Our results that anxiety/depression had the greatest impact on both TTO and VAS values underline the importance of mental health …
Socioeconomic inequalities in drug utilization for Sweden
Equalisation of alcohol participation among socioeconomic groups over time
Inequality in participation in alcohol consumption is pro-rich in Sweden. This inequality has tended to decrease over time, due to changes in population composition rather than to policy intervention
On Measurement of Avoidable and Unavoidable Cost of Alcohol
This study estimates the avoidable and unavoidable costs of alcohol-related, liver cirrhosis inpatient care, controlling for the lag structure and period of decline in disease risk. Lag structures with different lengths are applied to the exposure to risk from alcohol consumption, which allows for differentiation between avoidable and unavoidable cases due to prior consumption. A lag length of 20 (men) and 23 (women) years (expected remaining lif…
Wage penalty of abstinence and wage premium of drinking–A misclassification bias due to pooling of drinking groups
Several studies have found protective effects of low/moderate (hereafter 'light') alcohol consumption compared with 'abstinence' on mortality, health and wage. Some of these studies have been criticised because former drinkers have been included among the abstainers, which may overstate the protective effect of light alcohol consumption. It has also been proposed, but not shown, that the commonly pooled group of light drinkers and former heavy dr…
Does inequality in self-assessed health predict inequality in survival by income? Evidence from Swedish data
Business cycles and mortality
On the measurement of relative and absolute income-related health inequality
Determinants of health care expenditure in Africa
More equal but heavier
Education, immigration and rising mental health inequality in Sweden
Educational and income gradients in health are well established in the literature but there is need for a better understanding of how mental health inequalities change over time, and what drives the development. We aim to study how psychiatric diagnosis and its income-related inequality have changed over time in Sweden and to make a first attempt at disentangling the development by decomposing any changes in terms of changes in two important demo…
Socioeconomic inequalities in drug utilization for Sweden
Country of birth, socioeconomic position, and healthcare expenditure
Study objective: The principle of equity aims to guarantee allocation of healthcare resources on the basis of need. Therefore, people with a low income and persons living alone are expected to have higher healthcare expenditures. Besides these individual characteristics healthcare expenditure may be influenced by country of birth. This study therefore aimed to investigate the role of country of birth in explaining individual healthcare expenditur…
The ageing of society, health services provision and taxes
New estimates of the demand for health
Determinants of health care expenditure in Africa
Impact of Inhaled Corticosteroids on Acute Asthma Hospitalization in Sweden
OBJECTIVES: In clinical studies, it has been found that treating asthmatic patients with inhaled corticosteroids can reduce the need for in-patient care. The purpose of this study was to determine if such a relationship could be observed in available health-care statistics in Sweden and, if such a relationship could be established, what health economic consequences it implied. METHODS: A retrospective study was conducted using regional data on ac…
Income-related inequalities in health
Equity in the finance of health care
New estimates of the demand for health
Equity in the delivery of health care in Europe and the US
The relationship between happiness, health, and socio-economic factors
Deaths Rise in Good Economic Times
On the measurement of relative and absolute income-related health inequality
Social inequalities in health- do they diminish with age? Revisiting the question in Sweden 1999
BACKGROUND: Individuals with low income have poorer health and should, therefore, have higher health expenditure than people with high income particularly in countries with a universal health care system. However, it has been discussed if social inequities in health diminish with age and we, hence, aimed to analyse this question. METHODS: We performed an age stratified cross-sectional analysis using averages, logistic and linear regression modell…
Does inequality in self-assessed health predict inequality in survival by income? Evidence from Swedish data
Absolute Income, Relative Income, Income Inequality, and Mortality
Country of birth, socioeconomic position, and healthcare expenditure
Study objective: The principle of equity aims to guarantee allocation of healthcare resources on the basis of need. Therefore, people with a low income and persons living alone are expected to have higher healthcare expenditures. Besides these individual characteristics healthcare expenditure may be influenced by country of birth. This study therefore aimed to investigate the role of country of birth in explaining individual healthcare expenditur…
Effects of Macroeconomic Trends on Social Security Spending Due to Sickness and Disability
Objectives. We analyzed the relationship between macroeconomic conditions, measured as unemployment rate and social security spending, from 4 social security schemes and total spending due to sickness and disability. Methods. We obtained aggregated panel data from 13 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development member countries for 1980–1996. We used regression analysis and fixed effect models to examine spending on sickness benefits, di…
The ageing of society, health services provision and taxes
Hospital Level of Care and Neonatal Mortality in Low- and High-Risk Deliveries
BACKGROUND: In high-risk births, the availability and concentration of neonatal resources in larger regional hospitals increases the chance of survival. The advantages of regionalization for low-risk deliveries are still unclear, but some studies have suggested that regionalization also is beneficial for low risk deliveries. The aim of the present study was to investigate both the relevance of regionalization and the concentration of neonatal res…
Business cycles and mortality
Social capital externalities and mortality in Sweden
More Detailed Data does not Always Raise the Costs
The aim is to investigate the effect of availability and level of detail of data on cost estimates of alcohol consumption. Using the recent Swedish cost of alcohol study as baseline, limitations on data are applied, forming two models. The costs of alcohol in Sweden are re-estimated in the two models and compared to the baseline, to establish the magnitude and direction of the bias resulting from limited data, and which results are the most sensi…
Health financing for the poor produces promising short-term effects on utilization and out-of-pocket expenditure
The results indicate that the Health Care Fund for the Poor is meeting its objectives of increasing utilization and reducing out-of-pocket expenditure for the program's target population, despite numerous administrative problems resulting in delayed and only partial implementation in most provinces. The main lessons for low and middle-income countries from Vietnam's early experiences with the Health Care Fund for the Poor are that it managed to a…
On Measurement of Avoidable and Unavoidable Cost of Alcohol
This study estimates the avoidable and unavoidable costs of alcohol-related, liver cirrhosis inpatient care, controlling for the lag structure and period of decline in disease risk. Lag structures with different lengths are applied to the exposure to risk from alcohol consumption, which allows for differentiation between avoidable and unavoidable cases due to prior consumption. A lag length of 20 (men) and 23 (women) years (expected remaining lif…
Wage penalty of abstinence and wage premium of drinking–A misclassification bias due to pooling of drinking groups
Several studies have found protective effects of low/moderate (hereafter 'light') alcohol consumption compared with 'abstinence' on mortality, health and wage. Some of these studies have been criticised because former drinkers have been included among the abstainers, which may overstate the protective effect of light alcohol consumption. It has also been proposed, but not shown, that the commonly pooled group of light drinkers and former heavy dr…
More equal but heavier
Equalisation of alcohol participation among socioeconomic groups over time
Inequality in participation in alcohol consumption is pro-rich in Sweden. This inequality has tended to decrease over time, due to changes in population composition rather than to policy intervention
On correcting the concentration index for binary variables
This article discusses measurement of socioeconomic inequalities in the prevalence of a health condition, in response to the recent exchange between Guido Erreygers and Adam Wagstaff, in which they discuss the merits of their own corrections to the frequently used concentration index. We first reconcile their debate and discuss the value judgments implicit in their indices. Next, we provide a formal definition of the previously undefined value ju…
Medicine (30 works) · Economics (29 works) · Environmental health (24 works) · Population (22 works) · Demography (19 works) · Global Health Care Issues (19 works) · Health disparities and outcomes (19 works) · Demography (15 works) · Demographic economics (14 works) · Mathematics (13 works)