Educational differences in chronic conditions and their role in the educational differences in overall mortality

Ruben Castro

Volume 27 - Article 12 | Pages 339–364

Educational differences in chronic conditions and their role in the educational differences in overall mortality

By Ruben Castro

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Date received:	03 Mar 2011
Date published:	28 Aug 2012
Word count:	5727
Keywords:	chronic diseases, incidence, multistate life tables, prevalence
DOI:	10.4054/DemRes.2012.27.12

Abstract

Demographers use different models to decompose the prevalence of given health conditions. This article discusses how these models can help us understand the ways in which these conditions affect overall mortality. In particular, this framework can be used to understand the role that any given condition plays in producing differences in overall mortality across populations. The empirical analysis in this study focuses on chronic conditions as factors behind elderly US citizens’ differences in overall mortality across educational levels. The analysis of differences by education level shows that while the prevalence differences of chronic conditions is mostly the outcome of incidence differences, regarding overall mortality differences, the role of chronic conditions is equally channelled through incidence and excess mortality differences.