The health legacy of the European coal mining regions: The role of socio-economic context and individual life course histories of the over 50’s in influencing regional health differences

Abstract

This study looks into the health legacy of a selection of European coalmining regions, comparing the health of survey respondents over 50 years of age living in coalfield regions to those living in non-coalfield regions. A review of literature in the field suggests that regions characterised by a history of coalmining and subsequent de-industrialisation are often associated with poor population health outcomes, compared to non-coalfield regions. The reasons for this are complex, but are associated with country and regional social and economic characteristics impacting on individual social and economic characteristics through psychosocial processes which influence individual behaviour and lifestyles and bio-chemical responses to stress. Drawing upon data from two harmonised European surveys of people aged fifty years and over: The Survey of Health and Aging in Europe (SHARE) and the English Longitudinal Study of Aging (ELSA); combined with data covering country and regional contextual factors from Eurostat’s General and Regional statistics database; this study identifies if there are differences in health between individuals living in coalfield regions and non-coalfield regions in European countries. Individual demographic, socio-economic and health risk characteristics are examined to see how far they can explain any health differences between coalfield and non-coalfield regions. The study goes on to assess country and regional contextual socio-economic, environmental and political factors which could help the understanding of the reasons behind health differences between coalfield and non-coalfield regions, and between coalfield regions between countries. Using logistic regression, interpreted in light of a qualitative assessment of some selected literature sources, the findings confirm an underlying general ‘coalfield health effect’ after controlling for individual characteristics, but one which varies between countries and which suggests the role of national and regional economic conditions and policy directives play a role on influencing health inequalities between coalfield and non-coalfield regions.