Max Planck and University of Helsinki Launch Center to Investigate Social Inequalities in Population Health

Max Planck and University of Helsinki Launch Center to Investigate Social Inequalities in Population Health

(IN BRIEF) The Max Planck l University of Helsinki Center for Social Inequalities in Population Health, known as MaxHel, has launched its research initiative to investigate the factors that contribute to health inequalities. The center, located in Helsinki and Rostock, aims to analyze how social family dynamics, genetic factors, and individual social characteristics intersect to create disparities in health. A team of 14 researchers will utilize detailed linked family-based data, natural experimental designs, genetically informed social epidemiological data, and advanced modeling techniques to understand the causes and long-term trends of health inequalities. The Max Planck Society and the University of Helsinki have provided significant funding for the center, and the research agenda encompasses four pillars: family, genetic factors, comparisons, and methods. The initiative is crucial in the context of increasing health disparities and the potential impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on vulnerable populations.The Max Planck l University of Helsinki Center for Social Inequalities in Population Health, known as MaxHel, has launched its research initiative to investigate the factors that contribute to health inequalities. The center, located in Helsinki and Rostock, aims to analyze how social family dynamics, genetic factors, and individual social characteristics intersect to create disparities in health. A team of 14 researchers will utilize detailed linked family-based data, natural experimental designs, genetically informed social epidemiological data, and advanced modeling techniques to understand the causes and long-term trends of health inequalities. The Max Planck Society and the University of Helsinki have provided significant funding for the center, and the research agenda encompasses four pillars: family, genetic factors, comparisons, and methods. The initiative is crucial in the context of increasing health disparities and the potential impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on vulnerable populations.

(PRESS RELEASE) HELSINKI, 4-Jul-2023 — /EuropaWire/ — Starting in July, the MaxHel: Max Planck l University of Helsinki Center for Social Inequalities in Population Health aims to uncover the central social processes that generate health inequalities, building on novel conceptual insights and a completely unique data landscape.

“The Center analyzes how social family constellations, genetic factors, and individual social characteristics together produce health inequalities,” says Mikko Myrskylä, Director of the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR) in Rostock.

A team of 14 postdoctoral researchers and PhD students based in Helsinki and Rostock, Germany, will investigate the causes of social inequalities, the drivers of long-term trends in inequalities, and how these inequalities manifest themselves differently under different macro-level social conditions.

“MaxHel goes beyond standard observational research. We use exceptionally detailed linked family-based data, natural experimental designs, genetically informed social epidemiological data, and advanced dynamic modeling techniques. Uniquely, all these data are currently available at the University of Helsinki,” says Pekka Martikainen, Professor of Demography at the University of Helsinki’s Population Research Unit and the other director of the center.

In May 2023, a cooperation agreement was signed between the Max Planck Society and the University of Helsinki, both of which contribute to the Center’s budget of more than 5 million euros. Center Directors Myrskylä and Martikainen have successfully raised 2.5 million euros from the Max Planck Society, 2 million euros from the Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation, 1 million euros from the Helsinki Metropolitan Area, and 0.5 million euros from the University of Helsinki.

The Center’s research agenda is based on four thematic pillars

FAMILY: To assess the causes of long-term changes in health inequalities and to identify the contribution of family social factors and intergenerational interdependencies in the production of social inequalities in health.

GENETIC FACTORS: To estimate the effects of social position on health using genetic information and to assess how genetic associations are mediated or modified by family and social position.

COMPARISONS: to evaluate variations in explanations of social inequalities in health through international comparative research.

METHODS: to advance causal multistate modeling and integrate recent advances in counterfactual analysis from neighboring disciplines to inform analyses in Family, Genetic Factors, Comparisons, and demography and population health research more generally.

The need to better understand the causes of health disparities is more relevant than ever.

“Social inequalities in health and mortality have increased, and the unprecedented health and social consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic may hit the most vulnerable hardest, further exacerbating health disparities,” says Mikko Myrskylä.

Media Contact:

Pekka Martikainen
Professor
DEMOGRAPHY
pekka.martikainen@helsinki.fi
0294123889

Mikko Myrskylä
Professor
CENTRE FOR SOCIAL DATA SCIENCE
mikko.myrskyla@helsinki.fi
0294124705

SOURCE: University of Helsinki