Which causes of death contribute to the widening gap in socioeconomic inequalities in Austrian adult mortality?

Vladimir Canudas-Romo, University of California, Berkeley
Gabriele Doblhammer, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research
Roland Rau, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research
Zhen Zhang, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research

Previous research for Austria showed the existence of socioeconomic inequalities in mortality. Especially for men, this gap 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 (standardized death-rates) and decomposition methods. In our preliminary analysis for men we discovered that the effect of education is not homogeneous across various causes of death. While some causes like respiratory diseases show a decrease in inequality over time, an increasing social gradient has been found for circulatory diseases which are about 50% of all deaths. Our analysis shows that the differential development for ischaemic heart disease contributed mainly to the widening gap in socioeconomic inequalities in Austria adult mortality.