Cent Eur J Public Health 1998, 6(2):103-107
The impact of social and ecological factors on biological fitness of adults
- Institute of Anthropology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Wroclaw, Poland
The mortality rate is one of the best indicators of well being on the human population. The Institute of Anthropology of the Polish Academy of Sciences carried out an examination of mortality rates among adults in three Polish cities: Katowice, Wroclaw and Bialystok. These cities represent three regions of Poland with a different level of air pollution (Katowice - high, Wroclaw - medium and Bialystok - low). The goal of the study was assessment of the following factors on the mortality rates: 1. social class differences expressed in terms of education and marital status, and 2. the degree of industrial pollution of the environment. It was found that: 1. age-specific rates of mortality increase regularly with lower education, 2. mortality rates in Katowice tend to be higher than the respective rates in Bialystok. However, contrary to expectations these differences are smaller and less consistent across age and educational category, than are those associated with education. 3. statistical analysis (two-factors ANOVA) shows that the factors of education exerts a much stronger influence on the probability of premature death than the factor of air pollution. In modern urbanized societies, factors of the social situation are remarkably more powerful determinants of human well being than are factors of the physical environment, therefore in the second stage of examination we tried to estimate the influence of social factors on biological fitness of adults by examining 215 men aged 40-50 years. The analysis showed that the level of education, work conditions, physical activity in leisure time, smoking and alcohol consumption are the factors which have the strongest effect on biological fitness of adults. These findings are consistent with the view that human ecology has, in fact, become human sociology.
Published: June 1, 1998 Show citation