Special Collection 2 - Article 8 | Pages 183–228

US regional and national cause-specific mortality and trends in income inequality: descriptive findings

By John Lynch, Sam Harper, George Davey Smith, Nancy Ross, Michael Wolfson, Jim Dunn

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Date received:17 Feb 2003
Date published:16 Apr 2004
Word count:8950
Keywords:cause-specific mortality, income, income inequality, mortality, population health, trends, United States of America
DOI:10.4054/DemRes.2004.S2.8
 

Abstract

We examined the concordance of income inequality trends with 30-year US regional trends in cause-specific mortality and 100-year trends in heart disease and infant mortality. The evidence suggests that any effects of income inequality on population health trends cannot be reduced to simple processes that operate across all contexts and in all time periods. If income inequality does indeed drive population health, it implies that income inequality would have to be linked and de-linked across different time periods, with different exposures to generate the observed heterogeneous trends and levels in the causes of mortality shown here.

Author's Affiliation

John Lynch - University of Michigan, United States of America [Email]
Sam Harper - University of Michigan, United States of America [Email]
George Davey Smith - University of Bristol, United Kingdom [Email]
Nancy Ross - McGill University, Canada [Email]
Michael Wolfson - University of Ottawa, Canada [Email]
Jim Dunn - St. Michael's Hospital, Canada [Email]

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