COVID-19 mortality among Jews in 2020: a global overview and lessons taught about the Jewish longevity advantage.

An extensive body of demographic literature has described Jews as 'long-lifers'. From the mid-nineteenth century onwards, this pattern affected all age groups and was particularly well expressed among Jewish males but was also present among Jewish females. It held good independently of the Jews' socio-economic position. This became known as 'Jewish pattern of mortality'. This paper has two aims. The first aim is to show the impact of COVID-19 on Jewish mortality. This is a study of a global pandemic in the Jewish population which is, to the best of our knowledge, unique in its scope and quality. The second aim is to settle the finding of relatively high mortality from COVID-19 in certain Jewish communities ('Jewish penalty' in relation to COVID-19) with the notion of 'Jewish pattern of mortality'. The author proceeds to show that the status of Jews as a low mortality group under a Western epidemiological regime, when mortality and morbidity are dominated by non-communicable diseases, does not stand in contradiction to a higher vulnerability among Jews to coronavirus. Thus, the paper further develops understanding of mortality of Jews and serves as a contribution to ethnic and religious demography and epidemiology.

Elevated Jewish Mortality from Coronavirus in England and Wales: An Epidemiological and Demographic Detective Story.

In June 2020, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) in England and Wales published the results of an investigation into mortality from COVID-19 by religious group. The analysis revealed a significant "Jewish penalty": coronavirus mortality of Jews was shown to be relatively high compared to the British Christian majority. This paper considers these findings in the light of the literature on Jewish mortality and undertakes a re-analysis of the results alongside the additional data on Jewish deaths provided by the British Jewish communal statistics. It asks two questions: (1) To what extent is elevated British Jewish mortality from COVID-19 a result of the presence of long-standing vulnerability and ill health among Jews? (2) What role do strictly Orthodox Jews play in elevating coronavirus mortality levels among British Jews? The primary contribution of the paper is to explore, via analyses of alternative data sources, the ONS finding of elevated Jewish mortality from coronavirus, to explain why it is surprising, to test whether it is real and to eliminate certain explanations. Such process of elimination in itself will highlight other alternative explanations, but the paper falls short of decisively explaining the phenomenon of the elevated British Jewish mortality from coronavirus. It ends with an outline of future directions of research in this area.

Stalling fertility decline of Israeli Muslims and the demographic transition theory.

The total fertility of Muslims in Israel declined from a level of nearly ten children per woman in the mid-1960s to about 4.5 children per woman in the mid-1980s. It then remained close to 4.5 children per woman for nearly 20 years. The reasons for this long stall in the fertility decline are not understood. This paper explores the roles of marriage patterns and marital fertility in the development of the stall in Muslim fertility decline in Israel from 1986 to 2003. The results show that the fertility decline among Muslims in Israel stalled owing to abrupt discontinuations of declines in both the proportion married and marital fertility. The former is explained by the relaxation of a marriage squeeze that had resulted from past fluctuations in fertility. These findings have implications for debates on the determinants of fertility stalls and for demographic transition theory.

Understanding ethnic and other socio-demographic differences in patient experience of primary care: evidence from the English General Practice Patient Survey.

BACKGROUND: Ethnic minorities and some other patient groups consistently report lower scores on patient surveys, but the reasons for this are unclear. This study examined whether low scores of ethnic minority and other socio-demographic groups reflect their concentration in poorly performing primary care practices, and whether any remaining differences are consistent across practices. METHODS: Using data from the 2009 English General Practice Patient Survey (2 163 456 respondents from 8267 general practices) this study examined associations between patient socio-demographic characteristics and 11 measures of patient-reported experience. FINDINGS: South Asian and Chinese patients, younger patients, and those in poor health reported a less positive primary care experience than White patients, older patients and those in better health. For doctor communication, about half of the overall difference associated with South Asian patients (ranging from -6 to -9 percentage points) could be explained by their concentration in practices with low scores, but the other half arose because they reported less positive experiences than White patients in the same practices. Practices varied considerably in the direction and extent of ethnic differences. In some practices ethnic minority patients reported better experience than White patients. Differences associated with gender, Black ethnicity and deprivation were small and inconsistent. CONCLUSION: Substantial ethnic differences in patient experience exist in a national healthcare system providing universal coverage. Improving the experience of patients in low-scoring practices would not only improve the quality of care provided to their White patients but it would also substantially reduce ethnic group differences in patient experience. There were large variations in the experiences reported by ethnic minority patients in different practices: practices with high patient experience scores from ethnic minority patients could be studied as models for quality improvement.

The health and well-being of cancer survivors in the UK: findings from a population-based survey.

BACKGROUND: To compare self-reported health and well-being in a sample of cancer survivors with individuals who have not had cancer and with individuals who have a serious chronic condition other than cancer. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional survey drawn from an online panel of 400,000 UK citizens supplemented with other online recruitment and telephone recruitment. The participants were 4892 individuals 30 years of age or above, including 780 individuals with a previous cancer diagnosis, 1372 individuals with one or more of 10 chronic conditions but not cancer and 2740 individuals without a previous cancer diagnosis or chronic condition. Thirteen measures of health and well-being were constructed from answers to 25 survey items covering physical, psychological and social dimensions of health and well-being. RESULTS: Cancer survivors were significantly more likely to report poor health outcomes across all 13 measures than those with no history of cancer or a chronic condition. The adjusted odds ratios for cancer survivors with no chronic conditions compared with healthy participants ranged from 1.37 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.31-1.96) for emotional well-being to 3.34 (95% CI: 2.74-4.08) for number of health professionals consulted in the last 12 months. The health profile of cancer survivors was similar to those with a history of a serious chronic health condition. CONCLUSIONS: A substantial number of individuals who have had a diagnosis of cancer experience ongoing poor health and well-being following cancer and cancer treatment. The results of this study provide an initial basis for the development of specific help and support for cancer survivors.

The role of smoking in the explanation of the Israeli Jewish pattern of sex differentials in mortality.

The difference in life expectancy between women and men among Israeli Jews is very low relative to the difference in other developed countries, and the reasons for this are not fully understood. This paper explores the contribution of smoking to the observed patterns of sex-specific mortality among Israeli Jews, and to the sex difference in mortality exhibited by this population. The results show that the mortality of Israeli Jewish men is low owing to the relatively weak impact of smoking-related mortality, and that this also contributes to an explanation of the small sex difference. The result is explained by the high level of health-protective behaviour of Israeli Jewish men, including a low intensity of smoking (though not a low prevalence). The findings could have implications for some debates on the determinants of divergences and convergences in mortality, and research into the relationship between mortality and the Mediterranean diet.