Socioeconomic differences in the use of ill-defined causes of death in 16 European countries.
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ABSTRACT: Background
Cause-of-death data linked to information on socioeconomic position form one of the most important sources of information about health inequalities in many countries. The proportion of deaths from ill-defined conditions is one of the indicators of the quality of cause-of-death data. We investigated educational differences in the use of ill-defined causes of death in official mortality statistics.Methods
Using age-standardized mortality rates from 16 European countries, we calculated the proportion of all deaths in each educational group that were classified as due to "Symptoms, signs and ill-defined conditions". We tested if this proportion differed across educational groups using Chi-square tests.Results
The proportion of ill-defined causes of death was lower than 6.5% among men and 4.5% among women in all European countries, without any clear geographical pattern. This proportion statistically significantly differed by educational groups in several countries with in most cases a higher proportion among less than secondary educated people compared with tertiary educated people.Conclusions
We found evidence for educational differences in the distribution of ill-defined causes of death. However, the differences between educational groups were small suggesting that socioeconomic inequalities in cause-specific mortality in Europe are not likely to be biased.
SUBMITTER: Kulhanova I
PROVIDER: S-EPMC4302075 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Dec
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Publications
Socioeconomic differences in the use of ill-defined causes of death in 16 European countries.
Kulhánová Ivana I Menvielle Gwenn G Bopp Matthias M Borrell Carme C Deboosere Patrick P Eikemo Terje A TA Hoffmann Rasmus R Leinsalu Mall M Martikainen Pekka P Regidor Enrique E Rodríguez-Sanz Maica M Rychtaříková Jitka J Wojtyniak Bogdan B Mackenbach Johan P JP
BMC public health 20141217
<h4>Background</h4>Cause-of-death data linked to information on socioeconomic position form one of the most important sources of information about health inequalities in many countries. The proportion of deaths from ill-defined conditions is one of the indicators of the quality of cause-of-death data. We investigated educational differences in the use of ill-defined causes of death in official mortality statistics.<h4>Methods</h4>Using age-standardized mortality rates from 16 European countries, ...[more]
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