Monitoring socioeconomic disparities in death: comparing individual-level education and area-based socioeconomic measures.
We compared all-cause mortality rates stratified by individual-level education and by census tract area-based socioeconomic measures for Massachusetts (1999-2001). Among persons aged 25 and older, the age-adjusted relative index of inequality was slightly higher for the census tract than for the individual education measures (1.5 vs 1.2, respectively). Only the census tract socioeconomic measures could provide a relative index of inequality (2-3) for deaths before age 25 or detect expected socioeconomic disparities for deaths among persons 65 and older (relative index of inequality= approximately 1.2 vs 0.8 for census tract measures and individual education, respectively).
Rehkopf
David H
DH
Department of Society, Human Development and Health, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Mass 02115, USA. drehkopf@hsph.harvard.edu
Haughton
Lorna T
LT
Chen
Jarvis T
JT
Waterman
Pamela D
PD
Subramanian
S V
SV
Krieger
Nancy
N
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D019352:Censuses; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004522:Educational Status; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008404:Massachusetts / Q000453:epidemiology; D008875:Middle Aged; D009026:Mortality; D011159:Population Surveillance / Q000379:methods*; D011203:Poverty / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D017062:Small-Area Analysis; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors