Trends in the educational gradient of mortality among US adults aged 45 to 84 years: bringing regional context into the explanation.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

We investigated trends in the educational gradient of US adult mortality, which has increased at the national level since the mid-1980s, within US regions.

Methods

We used data from the 1986-2006 National Health Interview Survey Linked Mortality File on non-Hispanic White and Black adults aged 45 to 84 years (n = 498,517). We examined trends in the gradient within 4 US regions by race-gender subgroup by using age-standardized death rates.

Results

Trends in the gradient exhibited a few subtle regional differences. Among women, the gradient was often narrowest in the Northeast. The region's distinction grew over time mainly because low-educated women in the Northeast did not experience a significant increase in mortality like their counterparts in other regio

SUBMITTER: Montez JK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3865154 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature