Phantom of the area: poverty-area residence and mortality in the United States.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of the study was to conduct a national multivariate analysis on poverty-area residence and mortality in the United States.


METHODS
Proportional hazards analyses were performed of the effect of poverty-area residence on the risk of mortality among adult examinees in the 1971 through 1974 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey who were followed through 1987.


RESULTS
Poverty-area residence was associated with significantly elevated risk of all-cause mortality (rate ratio = 1.78, 95% confidence interval = 1.33, 2.38) and some cause-specific mortality among those aged 25 through 54 years, but not among those aged 55 through 74 years, at baseline after adjustment for several individual and household characteristics.


CONCLUSIONS
Residence in poverty areas contributes to socioeconomic gradients in mortality among nonelderly adults in the United States.
Waitzman
N J
NJ
Department of Economics, University of Utah, Salt Lake City 84112-9300, USA.
Smith
K R
KR
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002423:Cause of Death; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009026:Mortality; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D011204:Poverty Areas; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D012306:Risk; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology