Occupational prestige and mortality in black and white alcoholics

Mortality was studied in 1289 Black and White alcoholics. The overall proportion of mortality over 5-9 years was 22.0%. No overall differences were found between Black and White mortality rates by crude death proportions or standardized mortality ratios. Blacks were significantly younger at death than were Whites and were also significantly younger than Whites at admission to treatment. Occupational prestige was examined in the 374 Whites and 270 Blacks for whom an occupation was known, prestige being divided into high, medium and low categories. Blacks suffered significantly higher mortality in the high prestige group and Whites suffered significantly higher mortality in the middle prestige group. Alcoholics in the high prestige group suffered slightly greater mortality than alcoholics in the middle and lower groups. The results seem to indicate that although occupational prestige is an important variable in mortality among alcoholics, other variables that were not controlled in these analyses may also be important.