Review of methods for estimating life expectancy by social class using the ONS Longitudinal Study

This article presents proposed changes in the methods used to estimate life expectancy by social class using the ONS Longitudinal Study (LS). The changes reviewed are: computational changes, including revised methods for age-specific mortality rates, more precise survival duration calculations and increased social class attribution through the inclusion of updated information -- extension of the criteria used to exclude LS members from the analysis, using information on presence at the 2001 Census -- the use of Health Authority deregistration data to approximate unrecorded emigration, together with information from the 2001 Census, to reduce a potential source of bias in mortality calculations. The impact on existing results is quantified and it is proposed that these methods are used in the updating of the published series.