Social inequalities in female mortality by region and by selected causes of death, England and Wales,2001–03
Health Statistics QuarterlyPublished 1 November 2009Open access
Anne E. Langford, Brian Alan Johnson, Alaa Al‐Hamad
Citations10
Generate an AI Snapshot to get a quick, structured summary of this paper.
Study Snapshot
ObjectiveStudy objective
MethodsResearch methodology
PopulationPopulation studied
Sample sizeSample sizes
OutcomesStudy outcomes here
ResultsStudy results comes here
LimitationsResearch study limitations comes here
A concise AI-generated summary of the paper will appear here once you click Generate AI Snapshot.
TL;DR
Mortality rates for women in the least and most advantaged NS-SEC classes were similar for breast cancer, and there were marked differences in the socio-economic gradient by cause.
Abstract
This article reports on social inequalities in female mortality by region and cause of death for women aged 25-59 years in England and Wales in the period 2001-03. It is the first official compilation of detailed mortality statistics for women based on the National Statistics Socio-economic Classification (NS-SEC). It is part of a series of articles measuring inequalities in adult mortality. The results demonstrate a strong socio-economic effect on the mortality of women in all regions. This pattern remained consistent between regions. There were marked differences in the socio-economic gradient by cause. Mortality rates for women in the least and most advantaged NS-SEC classes were similar for breast cancer. In contrast, compared to women in the most advantaged class, mortality rates were three times as high for the least advantaged women for lung cancer and cerebrovascular disease, around five times as high for ischaemic heart disease and all digestive diseases, and six times as high for respiratory diseases.
Keywords
Social SciencesHealth Professions
The LancetContribution of job control and other risk factors to social variations in coronary heart disease incidence
1,276 Citations1997Michael Marmot, Hans Bosma +3 more
Much of the inverse social gradient in CHD incidence can be attributed to differences in psychosocial work environment, and from factors that act early in life, as represented by physical height.
BMJWork stress and risk of cardiovascular mortality: prospective cohort study of industrial employees
885 Citations2002Mika Kivimäki
High job strain and effort-reward imbalance seem to increase the risk of cardiovascular mortality, and the evidence from industrial employees suggests that attention should be paid to the prevention of work stress.
BMJThe independent inquiry into inequalities in health
820 Citations1998George Davey Smith, J. N Morris +1 more
The climate for the reception of the Black report's successor—the independent inquiry into inequalities in health, chaired by Sir Donald Acheson and published this week—is hopefully different.
International Journal of EpidemiologyWidening socioeconomic inequalities in mortality in six Western European countries
790 Citations2003Johan P. Mackenbach, Vivian Bos +8 more
Reducing socioeconomic inequalities in mortality in Western Europe critically depends upon speeding up mortality declines from cardiovascular diseases in lower socioeconomic groups, and countering mortality increases from several other causes of death in lower socio-economic groups.
British Journal of CancerTrends and socioeconomic inequalities in cancer survival in England and Wales up to 2001
363 Citations2004Michel P. Coleman, Bernard Rachet +7 more
Increases in cancer survival in England and Wales during the 1990s are shown to be significantly associated with a widening deprivation gap in survival, and appears likely to continue improving for most cancers in the near future.
American Journal of Public HealthSocioeconomic inequalities in mortality among women and among men: an international study.
302 Citations1999Johan P. Mackenbach, Anton E. Kunst +9 more
This study compared differences in total and cause-specific mortality by educational level among women with those among men in 7 countries: the United States, Finland, Norway, Italy, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Estonia.
Choice Reviews OnlineHealth inequality: an introduction to theories, concepts and methods
301 Citations2004
This chapter discusses health inequality and social policy, which involves measuring socio-economic position, figuring out health inequality, and models of aetiological pathways.
Journal of Health EconomicsMortality, lifestyle and socio-economic status
289 Citations2007Silvia Balia, Andrew M. Jones
The decomposition analysis for predicted mortality shows that, after allowing for endogeneity, lifestyles contribute strongly to inequality in mortality, reducing the direct role of socio-economic status.
UCL Discovery (University College London)Social patterning of individual health behaviours: The case of cigarette smoking
212 Citations2009MJ Jarvis, J. F. C. Wardle
This chapter first considers the nature and extent of the association of smoking with indicators of disadvantage, and trends in rates of current and ex-smoking by deprivation, before addressing the question of why poor people are more likely to smoke and why they find it harder to give up.
PsycEXTRA DatasetTackling Health Inequalities: 2007 Status Report on the Programme for Action
122 Citations2008
Social Science & Medicine‘Smoke like a man, die like a man’?: A review of the relationship between gender, sex and lung cancer
115 Citations2001Sarah Payne
Research on differences between men and women in lung cancer incidence, mortality and survival is reviewed, focusing on material which adds to the understanding of the complex differences between each group.
Social Science & MedicineDimensions of social inequality in the health of women in England: occupational, material and behavioural pathways
98 Citations2001Amanda Sacker, Mel Bartley +2 more
This paper examines the role of behavioural and psychosocial risk and protective factors in explaining social inequalities in the general self-assessed health of women and demonstrates how different dimensions of social position have distinct pathways to ill-health.
Social Class and the Differentiation of Employment Contracts
98 Citations2000John H. Goldthorpe
AddictionDo the rich really die young? Alcohol‐related mortality and social class in Great Britain, 1988‐94
96 Citations1999Larry Harrison, Eric Gardiner
Alcohol appears to be similar to other psychoactive substances, therefore, in that problem use is linked to social structural factors such as poverty, disadvantage and social class, and social interventions aimed at reducing poverty and inequality have the potential to reduce current levels of alcohol-related harm among the poorest groups in the community.
European Journal of CancerThe reversed social gradient: Higher breast cancer mortality in the higher educated compared to lower educated. A comparison of 11 European populations during the 1990s
94 Citations2007Bjørn Heine Strand, Anton E. Kunst +11 more
Overall, women with a higher educational level had approximately 15% greater risk of dying from breast cancer than those with lower education, and this was observed both among never- and ever-married women.
Journal of Epidemiology & Community HealthWhy is mortality higher in poorer areas and in more northern areas of England and Wales?
94 Citations1998M R Law, Joan K. Morris
Differences in the prevalence of smoking account for much of the variation in mortality between areas, and the direct effects of deprivation are more strongly related to morbidity than mortality.
BMJEffect of tobacco smoking on survival of men and women by social position: a 28 year cohort study
88 Citations2009Laurence Gruer, Carole Hart +2 more
Among both women and men, never smokers had much better survival rates than smokers in all social positions, suggesting the scope for reducing health inequalities related to social position in this and similar populations is limited unless many smokers in lower social positions stop smoking.
Social Science & MedicineMortality and migration in Britain, first results from the British Household Panel Survey
78 Citations1999Nicola Brimblecombe, Danny Dorling +1 more
Findings from the British Household Panel Survey show that selective migration over the whole life-course at the local level does appear to have significantly altered the geographical pattern of mortality seen in Britain today.
Social Science & MedicineIncreasing inequalities in health: Is it an artefact caused by the selective movement of people?
75 Citations2007Sheelah Connolly, Dermot O’Reilly +1 more
Selective migration was found to make an important contribution in explaining increases in inequalities between areas, accounting for about 50% of the increase for those aged less than 75, and at the older age groups, however, selective migration was responsible for a narrowing of mortality differentials over time.
The smoking epidemic in England
75 Citations2004Liz Twigg, Grainne Moon +1 more
The main objective of the study was to estimate levels of smokingattributable mortality across two target geographies: primary care trusts (PCTs) and strategic health authorities (SHAs) in England.
Social Determinants of HealthSocial patterning of individual health behaviours: the case of cigarette smoking
70 Citations2005
PubMedCancer incidence and mortality: trends in the United Kingdom and constituent countries, 1993 to 2004.
66 Citations2008Susan K. Westlake, Nicola Cooper
Examination of trends in cancer in the UK and constituent countries over the period 1993-2004 for all cancers combined and the four most common cancers shows that the UK male incidence rate increased for prostate cancer, and decreased for lung cancer.
University Libraries (University of Maryland)THE PUBLIC HEALTH OBSERVATORY HANDBOOK OF HEALTH INEQUALITIES MEASUREMENT
61 Citations2005Roy Carr‐Hill, Paul Chalmers-Dixon +1 more
The measurement of inequalities is a complicated and convoluted science, but this book brings together much of that science in a rigorous but accessible way and will contribute to advancing knowledge and practice.
PubMedMortality by deprivation and cause of death in England and Wales, 1999-2003.
58 Citations2006Ester Romeri, Allan Baker +1 more
Mortality rates increased with deprivation for both sexes but the relationship was generally stronger for males, and the strongest positive relationships with deprivation were mostly found for smoking-related causes.
Journal of Public HealthIncome in inequality and mortality in England
43 Citations1999Debbi Stanistreet, Alex Scott-Samuel +1 more
It is likely that income inequality makes an independent contribution to life expectancy in English local authorities, and adds further to the international evidence supporting the potentially positive health impact of increasing the scale of redistributive fiscal policies.
Social Science & MedicineSocial class assignment and mortality in Sweden
40 Citations2005Robert S. Erikson
It is shown that mortality-rate differences between social classes covering the period 1991-1997 are greater for both men and women when both spouses are assigned to the same social class on the basis of the dominance approach, where the labour market position of either spouse may determine the social class of the family.
British Journal of CancerSurvival from cancer of the breast in women in England and Wales up to 2001
35 Citations2008M J Quinn, Nicola Cooper +3 more
Major shifts in the morphological distribution of breast cancers have occurred over the last 30 years, and the proportion described as an adenocarcinoma has been falling steadily, from 36% in the early 1970s to 6% in these data by the late 1990s.
PubMedIncidence of health of the nation cancers by social class.
34 Citations1997J. C. Brown, Seeromanie Harding +2 more
Among both younger and older men and women, strong class differentials in the incidence of lung cancer were evident in 1986-89 and the need to target prevention strategies sensitively and to ensure equitable access to services is indicated.
PubMedTrends in cancer incidence by deprivation, England and Wales, 1990-2002.
34 Citations2007Steve Rowan
The rapidly expanding literature on the toxicological evaluation of MCs in fish from both field studies and controlled laboratory experimental investigations is reviewed, integrates the current knowledge available about the mechanisms involved in MC-induced effects on fish, and points out future research directions from a cross-disciplinary perspective.
Health Statistics QuarterlySocial inequalities in adult female mortality by the National Statistics Socio-economic Classification, England and Wales, 2001–03
32 Citations2009Ann Langford, Brian Alan Johnson
A strong socio-economic gradient in mortality for adult women under both classification methods is demonstrated and is set a benchmark for the future monitoring of socio- economic mortality inequalities in women.
PubMedAlcohol-related deaths by occupation, England and Wales, 2001-05.
30 Citations2007Ester Romeri, Allan Baker +1 more
For both sexes, many of the occupations with the highest alcohol-related mortality were found among those working in the drinks industry, including publicans and bar staff.
PubMedSocial inequalities in male mortality for selected causes of death by the National Statistics Socio-economic Classification, England and Wales, 2001-03.
22 Citations2008C. White, Grace Edgar +1 more
This article reports social inequalities in mortality in selected causes of death for men aged 25-64 years in England and Wales in 2001-03, the first compilation of mortali statistics by the final version of the National Statistics Socio-economic Classification.
Health Statistics QuarterlyTrends in cancer survival in Spearhead Primary Care Trusts in England,1998–2004
10 Citations2009Libby Ellis, Bernard Rachet +5 more
Survival is consistently lower for patients resident in Spearhead PCT areas than for those resident in the rest of England, although trends in the difference between Spearheads PCTs and the remainder of England suggest that the gap in survival has narrowed for most cancers.
BMJIs there a north-south divide in social class inequalities in health in Great Britain? Cross sectional study using data from the 2001 census
6 Citations2004Tim Doran, Frances Drever +1 more
A northwest-southeast divide in social class inequalities existed in Great Britain at the start of the 21st century, with each of the seven social classes having higher rates of poor health in Wales, the North East and North West regions of England than elsewhere.