Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-c4f8m Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T16:06:31.377Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Australian trends in mortality by socioeconomic status using NSW small area data, 1970–89

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 July 2008

Susan Quine ,
Richard Taylor  and
Lillian Hayes
Susan Quine
Affiliation:
Department of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of Sydney
Richard Taylor
Affiliation:
Department of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of Sydney
Lillian Hayes
Affiliation:
Department of Primary Health Care, University of Sydney
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

This ecological study examines trends in socioeconomic differentials in mortality in New South Wales, Australia, over a 20-year period (1970–89). The proportion unskilled was used as the indicator of socioeconomic status and its selection justified. Using census data aggregated by Local Government Area, the relationship between mortality and socioeconomic status was examined using quintiles based on the proportion unskilled in the population. Local Government Areas were also sorted into quintiles using mortality rates (0–74 years) to describe change in mortality differentials over time. Socioeconomic differentials were more evident in the relatively homogeneous Local Government Areas within the Sydney Statistical Division than in the remaining NSW Statistical Divisions which are more heterogeneous and predominantly rural. Although there has been an overall decline in mortality for males and females, and for high and low status groups, over this period the relative socioeconomic differentials have not declined. For the most recent period (1985–89) there appears to be some widening of differentials for males. The NSW state trends are generally similar to those reported for Britain and for other industrialised countries, suggesting that this is a common trend and that policies to reduce inequalities have not been effective.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Biosocial Science , Volume 27 , Issue 4 , October 1995 , pp. 409 - 419
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adena, M., Montesin, H. & Gibson, J. (1983) Regional Variation in Mortality in Melbourne 1970–76. Department of Population Biology, Research School of Biological Sciences, Australian National University, Canberra.Google Scholar
Australian Bureau of Statistics (1985) Australian Standard Geographical Classification (ASGC) Manual. ABS Publication Catalogue No. 1216.0. Government Printing Office, Canberra.Google Scholar
Australian Bureau of Statistics (1986) Australian Standard Classification of Occupationsl Classification and Classified List of Occupations: Link File. ABS Publication Catalogue No. 2182.0. Government Printing Office, Canberra.Google Scholar
Australian Bureau of Statistics (1990) Australian Standard Classification of Occupations (ASCO) Occupational Definitions, 1st edn. ABS Publication Catalogue No. 1223.0. Government Printing Office, Canberra.Google Scholar
Davey Smith, G. (1991) Second thoughts on the Jarman Index. Br. med. J. 302, 359.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davey Smith, G., Bartley, M. & Blane, D. (1990) The Black Report on socioeconomic inequalities in health 10 years on. Br med. J. 1301, 373.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davey Smith, G. & Egger, M. (1992) Socioeconomic differentials in mortality in Britain and the United States. Br. med. J. 182, 1079.Google Scholar
Davey Smith, G. & Egger, M. (1993) Socioeconomic differentials in wealth and health. Br. med. J. 307, 1085.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dobson, A. J., Kuulasmaa, K., Eberle, E. & Scherer, J. (1991) Confidence intervals for weighted sums of Poisson parameters. Statist. Med. 10, 457.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Feinstein, J. S. (1993) The relationship between socioeconomic status and health: a review of the literature. Milbank Q. 71, 279.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fisher, S. (1978) Relationship of mortality to socioeconomic status and some other factors in Sydney 1971. J. Epidemiol. commun. Hlth, 32, 41.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gibson, J. & Johansen, A. (1979) The Quick and the Dead: A Biomedical Atlas of Sydney. Department of Biological Sciences, Australian National University. Reed, Sydney.Google Scholar
Gordon, I., Christie, D. & Robinson, K. (1989) Social class as indicated by area of residence: a mortality study within an Australian industrial population. Commun. Hlth Stud. 13, 170.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
HEALTH FOR ALL COMMITTEE (1988) Health for All Australians. Report to the Australian Health Ministers' Advisory Council and the Australian Health Ministers'; Conference. Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra.Google Scholar
Jarman, B. (1983) Identification of under-privileged areas. Br. med. J. 286, 1705.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kleinbaum, D. G., Kupper, L. L. & Morgenstern, H. (1982) Epidemiologic Research: Principles and Quantitative Methods. Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York.Google Scholar
Lawson, J. S. & Black, D. (1993) Socioeconomic status: the prime indicator of premature death in Australia. J. biosoc. Sci. 25, 539.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Marmot, M. G. & McDowell, M. (1986) Mortality decline and widening social inequalities. Lancet, ii, 274.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meade, M. S., Florin, J. W. & Gesler, W. M. (1988) Medical Geography. Guildford Press, New York.Google Scholar
Morgenstern, H. (1982) Uses of ecological analysis in epidemiologic research. Am. J. publ. Hlth, 72, 1336.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
O'Connell, D., Lam, P. & Gibberd, R. (1987) Mortality in NSW 1979–1983. A Study in Spatial Variation in Cause-specific Mortality. University of Newcastle, Newcastle, Australia.Google Scholar
Page, T., Gibberd, R., Chan, P. & Lam, P. (1990) Mortality in NSW 1984–88. Cause-specific Mortality for Area Health Services and Regions. University of Newcastle and Hunter Statistics Unit, Newcastle, Australia.Google Scholar
Pappas, G., Queen, S., Hadden, W. & Fisher, G. (1993) The increasing disparity in mortality between socio-economic groups in the U.S. New Engl. J. Med. 329, 103.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Piantadosi, S., Byar, D. P. & Green, S. B. (1988) The ecological fallacy. Am. J. Epidemiol. 127, 983.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Quine, S. (1986) Comparison of Australian occupational prestige scales. Aust. N.Z.J. Sociol. 22, 399.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Quine, S. (1990) Problems in comparing findings on social class cross-culturally, applied to infant mortality (Australia and Britain). Social Sci. Med. 30, 1283.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Quine, S. (1991) Social class as a risk factor for infant mortality in an Australian population. J. biosoc. Sci. 23, 65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Quine, S. & Lancaster, P. A. L. (1989) Indicators of social class-relationship between prestige of occupation and suburb of residence. Commun. Hlth Stud. 13, 510.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ross, K. N. (1984) The Development of the 1984 ‘Indicator of Disadvantage’ and its Application to Resource Allocation Decisions for the Disadvantaged Schools Program in Australia. School of Education, Deakin University, Geelong.Google Scholar
Taylor, R., Herraman, H. & Preston, G. (1983) Occupation and Mortality in Australia, Working Age Males 1975–77. Department of Social and Preventive Medicine. Monash University Medical School, Monash University, Melbourne.Google Scholar
Taylor, R. & Quine, S. (1992) Differences in life expectancy: social factors in mortality rates. Aust. J. Aging, 11, 21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taylor, R., Quine, S., Lyle, D. & Bilton, A. (1992) Socioeconomic correlates of mortality and hospital morbidity differentials by Local Government Area in Sydney 1985–89. Aust. J. Publ. Hlth, 16, 302.Google Scholar