Social aspects of mortality in young and middle adulthood in Thailand.

This study examined the characteristics of adults who died during young-to-middle adulthood and identified the differences that may be associated with social roles during the 12-month follow-up period. Studies evidenced that mortality risks were closely associated with certain social characteristics. There are two explanations for these findings: the traditional explanation is that a bad state of health restricts entry into the states of marriage employment and parenthood while the less traditional explanation is that valued social roles are associated with lower morbidity and mortality because participation in the social process reduces the likelihood that adults will expose themselves to risk. The results presented in this paper resolve some of the issues surrounding the social roles and selection hypotheses on mortality differentials. The most important contribution were findings indicating that marital status differentials except those associated with widowhood represent higher mortality risks for both unmarried and married adults. Furthermore people who were unemployed had a considerably higher mortality risk during young-to-middle adulthood for the ensuing 12 months than employed people. However this difference did not apply to the external causes of death. The findings provide support to a more specific theory that control over aspects of everyday life has a protective effect against ill-health leading to mortality.