Mirza Balaj
Mirza Balaj
CHAIN Research coordinator
Department of Sociology and Political Science Faculty of Social and Educational SciencesBackground and activities
Mirza Balaj holds a PhD in Sociology. She is the Research Coordinator of Centre for Global Health Inequalities Research (CHAIN). The mission of CHAIN is to create a global transformation in actionable health inequalities research. Dr. Balaj has been contributing to this mission over the last 7 years through data collection from all world regions, research, recommendation to national and international policymaking bodies and dissemination to the larger public. Her research interest is to explore how health outcomes are shaped by the interaction of socioeconomic position and social structural forces. Currently in her research she is exploring the association between education and mortality globally. The aim is to provide the first systematic global evidence on the impact education on all-cause and cause-specific mortality including COVID-19 mortality. Her research is published in leading journals such as The Lancet, Sociology of Health and Illness, Social Theory and Health and European Journal of Public Health.
Scientific, academic and artistic work
A selection of recent journal publications, artistic productions, books, including book and report excerpts. See all publications in the database
2022
- (2022) Places and Spaces: Environments and children’s well-being, UNICEF Innocenti Report Card 17. 2022. ISBN 9788865220641.
2021
- (2021) Parental education and inequalities in child mortality: a global systematic review and meta-analysis. The Lancet. vol. 398 (10300).
- (2021) The Gender Pain Gap: gender inequalities in pain across 19 European countries. Scandinavian Journal of Public Health. vol. 50 (2).
- (2021) COVID-19 and the Nordic Paradox: a call to measure the inequality reducing benefits of welfare systems in the wake of the pandemic. Social Science and Medicine. vol. 289.
- (2021) Chapter 38: Albania. Health Politics in Europe: A Handbook.
2020
2019
- (2019) The Europain Epidemic: pain prevalence and socioeconomic inequalities in pain across 19 European countries. European Journal of Pain. vol. 23 (8).
- (2019) The effects of community pharmacy-delivered public health interventions on population health and health inequalities: A review of reviews. Preventive Medicine. vol. 124.
2017
- (2017) The effects of community pharmacy public health interventions on population health and health inequalities: A systematic review of reviews protocol. Systematic Reviews. vol. 6 (1).
- (2017) Non-communicable diseases and the social determinants of health in the Nordic countries: Findings from the European Social Survey (2014) special module on the social determinants of health. Scandinavian Journal of Public Health. vol. 45 (2).
- (2017) The social determinants of inequalities in self-reported health in Europe: findings from the European social survey (2014) special module on the social determinants of health. European Journal of Public Health. vol. 27.
- (2017) The health of European populations: introduction to the special supplement on the 2014 European Social Survey (ESS) rotating module on the social determinants of health. European Journal of Public Health. vol. 27.
- (2017) Financial difficulties in childhood and adult depression in Europe. European Journal of Public Health. vol. 27.
- (2017) Exploring the differences in general practitioner and health care specialist utilization according to education, occupation, income and social networks across Europe: findings from the European social survey (2014) special module on the social determinants of health. European Journal of Public Health. vol. 27.
- (2017) The contribution of housing and neighbourhood conditions to educational inequalities in non-communicable diseases in Europe: findings from the European Social Survey (2014) special module on the social determinants of health. European Journal of Public Health. vol. 27.
- (2017) The socioeconomic distribution of non-communicable diseases in Europe: findings from the European Social Survey (2014) special module on the social determinants of health. European Journal of Public Health. vol. 27.
- (2017) Occupational inequalities in self-rated health and non-communicable diseases in different regions of Europe: findings from the European Social Survey (2014) special module on the social determinants of health. European Journal of Public Health. vol. 27.