A social historical study of long-term factors that contribute to the success or failure during societal transformation

This project is led by Prof C Hertzman, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.

The research question was: what are the social, political, and economic processes, occurring over the long-term, that help explain why some societies are able to support human health during societal transitions, and others are not? Five sets of inter-societal comparisons were proposed as case studies: Central and Eastern Europe versus the Tiger Economies of the Asian Pacific; Russia versus the Czech Republic; Finland versus the Baltic countries; Western versus Eastern Europe juxtaposed with a parallel contrast between Northern and Southern United States; and Finland versus Quebec. Demographic project to assess the mortality trends in the whole population in Russia and to identify population sub-groups where the transition-related mortality rise was largest.