title: Mortality amenable to health care and its relation to socio-economic status in Hungary, 2004-08.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Recently, research focus has returned to amenable mortality to health care, despite the decreasing trend, as it remains a significant contributor to social and economic loss due to premature death. This article assesses the trends of amenable mortality over time and, its spatial inequalities with respect to deprivation, in Hungary.
  
  
  METHODS
  An ecological analysis of mortality amenable to health care was carried out using smoothed indirectly standardized mortality ratios, calculated by full hierarchical Bayesian methods, at municipality level. The association between the spatial distribution of amenable mortality and deprivation was also assessed using a Hungarian specific deprivation index.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Trends of mortality amenable to health care were characterized by a decreasing pattern across the studied period, 1996-2008. Areas of significantly high risk of amenable mortality were identified in the North-eastern, Eastern and South-western parts of Hungary. A statistically significant association was found between amenable mortality and deprivation status in both genders. After correcting for bias due to socio-economic confounders, the patterns of areas with excess risks significantly changed.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Differences in deprivation alone cannot explain the spatial distribution of mortality amenable to health care. This study highlights the importance of exploring other factors (e.g. health-care system and individual life style) beyond socio-economic status, which affect health inequalities particularly for health policy makers, who are responsible for the mitigation of health disparities.
authors.affiliation: Public Health Administration Service of Government Office of Capital City Budapest, Budapest, Hungary. nagy.csilla@kmr.antsz.hu
authors.forename: Csilla
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Nagy
authors.forename: Attila
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Juhász
authors.forename: Linda
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Beale
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Páldy
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001499:Bayes Theorem; D002423:Cause of Death; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D005260:Female; D054624:Health Status Disparities; D006801:Humans; D006814:Hungary / Q000453:epidemiology; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009026:Mortality / Q000639:trends*; D011159:Population Surveillance; D011204:Poverty Areas; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D012307:Risk Factors; D012923:Social Class; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D055815:Young Adult