Laboratory

Max Planck – University of Helsinki Center for Social Inequalities in Population Health (MaxHel)

At a Glance Projects Publications Team

Project

Comparisons

Conducted by Mikko Myrskylä; Aapo Hiilamo, Alyson van Raalte, Pekka Martikainen, Domantas Jasilionis

Detailed Description

An important part of demonstrating causation is the validation of findings in different populations and contexts. Comparative studies with harmonized instrumentation are ideally placed for achieving this validation. Such studies can also help to situate analyses of health inequalities within the wider sociopolitical context, and are an important means of assessing how macro-level social conditions and policies may affect health inequalities. In addition, comparative studies of populations in different countries may help us better understand the limits of explanations of social inequalities in health obtained in particular settings. Too often, causal social epidemiological findings from one setting are extrapolated to different countries and time periods.

Most of the comparative studies conducted to date are based on routinely collected survey data (self-reported morbidity) or register data (mortality) that are typically aggregated at the macro level. Comparative studies that assess the individual-level social, behavioral, and biological pathways that underlie health inequalities using longitudinal data are rare. We are in a unique position to fill this gap by placing findings obtained in the Finnish context in an international perspective using high-quality data from other countries. This research theme addresses the role of contextual factors using cross-national, cross-regional, and cross-cohort and multigenerational variation.

Publications

Nõmm, O.; Innos, K.; Jasilionis, D.; Krumins, J.; Martikainen, P.; Pärna, K.; Stickley, A.; Leinsalu, M.:

Educational inequalities in cervical cancer mortality in the Baltic countries and Finland in the context of organized screening: a register-based study 2000–2015

International Journal of Cancer 158:12, 3132–3140. (2026)    

Hiilamo, A.:

To what extent does the onset of limiting health condition co-occur with poverty entries across European countries and educational groups?

Social Science and Medicine 387:118630, 1–9. (2025)    

Östergren, O. M.; Cederström, A.; Korhonen, K.; Martikainen, P.:

Migrant mortality by duration of residence and co-ethnic density: a register-based study on Finnish migrants in Sweden with matched controls in the origin and the destination

Health and Place 83:103064, 1–9. (2023)    

Stickley, A.; Baburin, A.; Jasilionis, D.; Krumins, J.; Martikainen, P.; Kondo, N.; Shin, J. I.; Inoue, Y.; Leinsalu, M.:

Sociodemographic inequalities in mortality from drowning in the Baltic countries and Finland in 2000–2015: a register-based study

BMC Public Health 23:1103, 1–9. (2023)    

Yao, H.; Junna, L. M.; Hu, Y.; Sha, X.; Martikainen, P.:

The relationship of income on stroke incidence in Finland and China

European Journal of Public Health 33:3, 360–365. (2023)