Socioeconomic disparities in U.S. mortality: The role of smoking and alcohol/drug abuse.

ABSTRACT: Prior studies have identified smoking as a key driver of socioeconomic disparities in U.S. mortality, but the growing drug epidemic leads us to question whether drug abuse is exacerbating those disparities, particularly for mortality from external causes. We use data from a national survey of midlife Americans to evaluate socioeconomic disparities in all-cause and cause-specific mortality over an 18-year period (1995-2013). Then, we use marginal structural modeling to quantify the indirect effects of smoking and alcohol/drug abuse in mediating those disparities. Our results demonstrate that alcohol/drug abuse makes little contribution to socioeconomic disparities in all-cause mortality, probably because the prevalence of substance abuse is low and socioeconomic differences in abuse are sma

SUBMITTER: Glei DA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7734303 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature