Which Causes of Death Contribute to the Widening Gap in Socioeconomic Inequalities in Austrian Adult Mortality?

Roland Rau, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research
Gabriele Doblhammer, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research

Previous research for Austria has shown that socioeconomic inequalities in mortality exist and that they have increased over time. We studied which causes of death are responsible for this development. The data for our analysis are linked census and death records from Austria for the years 1981/82 and 1991/92. They have been analyzed for mortality differentials by education and cause of death using relative measurements (logistic regression), absolute measurements (age-standardized crude death rates) and decomposition methods. We discovered that the effect of education is not homogeneous across various causes of death. While some causes, such as respiratory diseases, show a decrease in inequality over time, an increasing social gradient has been found for circulatory diseases which account for about 50% of all deaths. Our analysis shows that differential development in ischaemic heart disease has been the main contributor to the widening gap in socioeconomic inequalities in Austrian adult mortality.