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[Socioeconomic differences in mortality in 8 Spanish provinces]
E Regidor1, S de Mateo, J L Gutiérrez-Fisac
1Subdirección General de Epidemiología, Ministerio de Sanidad y Consumo, Madrid.
Medicina Clinica
|March 2, 1996
Summary
Manual workers and farmers face significantly higher mortality risks than professionals and managers in Spain. These socioeconomic disparities in death rates, particularly for certain causes, may be underestimated in current data.
Area of Science:
- Public Health
- Epidemiology
- Socioeconomic Determinants of Health
Background:
- Socioeconomic differences in mortality are crucial for public health but are understudied in Spain due to data limitations in the Bulletin on Death (BD).
- This study leverages high-quality occupational data from specific Spanish regions within the BD to analyze mortality disparities.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate socioeconomic differences in mortality by various causes of death among working-age males in Spain.
- To compare mortality risks between professionals/managers, manual workers, and farmers.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of male deaths aged 30-64 in eight Spanish provinces (1988-1990).
- Age-adjusted relative risks of overall and cause-specific mortality were calculated using log-linear models (Poisson regression).
- Professionals and managers served as the reference group.
Main Results:
- Manual workers exhibited a global relative risk of mortality of 1.72, and farmers 1.56, compared to professionals/managers.
- Manual workers showed the highest mortality across most causes, followed by farmers.
- Exceptions included colon/rectum cancer and leukemias, with higher (though not statistically significant) mortality in professionals/managers.
- Farmers had the highest relative risk for cerebrovascular diseases, suicide, and nervous system cancers.
- Elevated mortality risks for manual workers and farmers were most pronounced in younger age groups.
Conclusions:
- Manual workers and farmers experience higher mortality rates than professionals and managers, except for colon/rectum cancer and leukemias.
- Observed mortality differences might be underestimated as the study focused only on the active economic population.