© 2003 American Public Health Association
The author is with the National Cancer Institute, Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md. Correspondence: Requests for reprints should be sent to Gopal K. Singh, PhD, MS, MSc, National Cancer Institute, Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences, 6116 Executive Blvd, Suite 504, MSC8316, Bethesda, MD 20892-8316 (e-mail: gopal_singh{at}nih.gov).
Objectives. This study examined age-, sex-, and race-specific gradients in US mortality by area deprivation between 1969 and 1998. Methods. A census-based area deprivation index was linked to county mortality data. Results. Area deprivation gradients in US mortality increased substantially during 1969 through 1998. The gradients were steepest for men and women aged 25 to 44 years and those younger than 25 years, with higher mortality rates observed in more deprived areas. Although area gradients were less pronounced for women in each age group, they rose sharply for women aged 25 to 44 and 45 to 64 years. Conclusions. Areal inequalities in mortality widened because of slower mortality declines in more deprived areas. Future research needs to examine population-level social, behavioral, and medical care factors that may account for the increasing gradient.
Studies involving individual social class data have shown increasing socioeconomic inequalities in US infant and adult mortality rates.13 However, these studies have compared social class inequalities in mortality at only 2 distant time points (e.g., 1960 and 1986). This limitation is primarily because of limited availability of socioeconomic information in US mortality statistics, which generally include only educational attainment and usual occupation/industry of the decedent.49 Moreover, analyses of socioeconomic differentials in mortality are hampered by incomplete and poorly reported socioeconomic data on death certificates as well as by the lack of relevant denominator data.5,7,9,10 Whereas US mortality statistics are frequently provided by age, sex, race, and cause of death, temporal analyses of socioeconomic differentials in mortality are less common.13,5,6,9,10 Similarly, although a substantial number of ecological studies have examined the cross-sectional association between areal social conditions and US mortality,8,1120 temporal analyses of mortality differentials in relation to area-based deprivation or inequality measures remain scarce.9,2128 Area-based composite deprivation indices have been used extensively in analyzing and monitoring health and mortality differentials in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.2938 Despite the lack of a consensus deprivation index in the United States, it is possible to construct a comprehensive, composite census-based socioeconomic index that, when linked to mortality data at an aggregate geographic level (e.g., county), could allow the monitoring of population health inequalities across time and space.8,9,21 In this article, I use census tract data to describe a composite areabased deprivation index for the United States. By linking the index to national mortality data, I examine the extent to which differentials in all-cause mortality rates by area deprivation have changed over time. Specifically, I use the areal index to stratify all 3097 US counties into 5 area deprivation groups and examine trends in areal gradients in mortality between 1969 and 1998 for men and women of all ages as well as for those in specific age groups (less than 25 years, 2544 years, 4564 years, and 65 years or older).
Constructing an Index of Area Deprivation Community socioeconomic measures describe important aspects of social organization, structure, stratification, or environment, such as socioeconomic deprivation, economic inequality, resource availability, and opportunity structure.8,9,21,3941 Although single measures representing an areas educational and occupational composition, income and employment distributions, or housing conditions can be used to classify communities, a composite index consisting of several key indicators drawn from these domains would more accurately reflect the multidimensional characterization of a communitys socioeconomic position.8,9,21 Such a composite index should have greater validity, robustness, and explanatory power than single areal measures in documenting the extent of social disparities in health and mortality. In constructing an index, I considered 21 socioeconomic indicators that may be viewed as approximating the material and social conditions and relative socioeconomic disadvantage in a given community. Indicators were selected on the basis of their theoretical relevance and on the basis of previous empirical research.8,9,21,29,3740 These indicators, drawn from the 1990 census, included educational distribution (percentage of the population with less than 9 years and with 12 or more years of education), median family income, income disparity, occupational composition, unemployment rate, family poverty rate, percentage of the population below 150% of the poverty rate, single-parent household rate, home ownership rate, median home value, median gross rent, median monthly mortgage, and household crowding. Other indicators were percentages of households without access to a telephone, plumbing, or motor vehicles; English language proficiency; divorce rate; percentage of urban population; and percentage of immigrant population.21,42,43 Factor analysis and principal-components analysis were used in index construction.44,45
The initial factor analysis provided 2 factors that respectively accounted for 43% and 17% of the variance in the data. Seventeen of the indicators were clustered and had considerably larger loadings (> 0.45) on the first than on the second factor. However, 3 indicatorsEnglish language proficiency, percentage of urban population, and percentage of immigrant populationhad much smaller loadings (< 0.25) on the first factor but larger loadings on the second factor. Divorce rate did not load highly on either factor. Whereas the first factor clearly indicated a theoretically and empirically meaningful clustering of the given indicators, the second factor, with only a few substantial loadings, did not lend itself to any obvious theoretical interpretation. In the final phase of the index construction, the 17 indicators were factor analyzed with a singlefactor solution. Table 1
The factor loadings for the census tract deprivation index ranged from 0.92 for percentage of population below 150% of the poverty rate to 0.45 for percentage of households without access to plumbing (Table 1
The reliability coefficient (
The validity of the 1990 deprivation index was tested by comparing factor loadings for the same set of 17 indicators computed at the census tract, zip code, and county levels (Table 1 The predictive validity of the 1990 deprivation index was checked by examining its correlation with a variety of county-level health outcomes for the period 1990 through 1996. The weighted correlations of the index with health outcomes were in the expected direction. The correlations with infant mortality rate and low birthweight rate were 0.48 and 0.46, respectively, and correlations with age-adjusted mortality rates from various cause-of-death categories were as follows: all causes combined, 0.58; heart disease, 0.45; stroke, 0.24; all cancers, 0.20; lung cancer, 0.27; breast cancer, -0.19; cervical cancer, 0.51; melanoma, -0.20; diabetes, 0.44; chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, 0.14; cirrhosis, 0.25; unintentional injury, 0.66; suicide, 0.27; and homicide, 0.39.
Table 1
Computing Annual Rates and Modeling Areal Gradients Over Time Log-linear models were used to estimate annual exponential rates of declines in mortality rates.1 Poisson regression models were fitted to age-, sex-, race-, and county-specific death counts and populations to estimate areal gradients in mortality for 15 time periods of 2 years each.49 Areal gradients (relative mortality risks) were estimated for men and women separately after adjustment for age and race (coded White, Black, or other). In all Poisson models, the least-deprived area was selected as the reference category. There was no statistically significant interaction between race and area deprivation.
All models, estimated via the SAS GENMOD procedure, showed reasonable fit, as determined by the likelihood ratio statistic or deviance.50 In all of the models, 95% confidence intervals were adjusted for overdispersion. Trend tests were conducted by the use of
The descriptive socioeconomic data presented in Table 2
Figure 1
Figure 1 Age- and sex-specific areal gradients in mortality were computed with the 1970 deprivation index as well (data not shown). Temporal trends were generally similar to those based on the 1990 index. However, areal gradients based on the 1970 index were somewhat less consistent than those based on the 1990 index.
Figure 2
The gradients were less pronounced for women than for men in each age group. However, the mortality differentials between deprivation groups rose sharply during 1969 to 1998 for women aged 25 to 44 and aged 45 to 64 years. In 19691970, mortality rates among women aged 25 to 44 and aged 45 to 64 years, respectively, were 32% and 9% greater in the most-deprived than in the least-deprived area. In 19891990, the corresponding differentials for women in these age groups were 49% and 21%; in 19971998, the differentials were 67% and 29%. Areal gradients in mortality among the elderly, although considerably smaller than those for the other age groups, increased consistently in the 1990s.
This study involved the use of a composite areabased deprivation index to analyze temporal trends in the extent of inequalities in US mortality during 1969 through 1998 among men and women in different age groups. The present analysis extended an earlier study that focused exclusively on the 25- to 64-year age group in its examination of temporal area socioeconomic inequalities in US all-cause and cardiovascular mortality.21 The findings of the present study are also consistent with investigations showing increasing inequalities in mortality by single areal socioeconomic measures.2428 An important limitation of the study relates to the use of the 1990 deprivation index to analyze areal inequalities in mortality from 1969 to 1998. Ideally, to allow for temporal sequencing between area deprivation and mortality, a deprivation index defined at the earliest decennial time point (i.e., 1970) was preferable. However, the 1970 and 1990 indices were highly correlated, and use of the 1970 index produced mortality trends similar to those based on the 1990 index. The small degree of areal misclassification that may arise from using the 1990 index is therefore unlikely to significantly affect the general trend of increasing areal inequalities in mortality.9,21 Because of the lack of census tract or block group geocodes, it is not possible to analyze national mortality data at smaller geographic levels.9,21 Although there is a substantial degree of intracounty heterogeneity in sociodemographic conditions, it is unclear whether temporal mortality trends would differ if area deprivation were to be linked to tract-level mortality data. Nevertheless, it is advantageous to use temporal county data. Although census tracts are socioeconomically homogeneous geographic units with an average population of 4000, they are subject to change in every decennial census. Counties, on the other hand, not only are more stable sociopolitical and geographic entities, but also provide an appropriate socioeconomic, political, and community context within which many social and public health policies are formulated and implemented.9,21
Areal inequalities in US mortality have widened because of slower mortality declines among residents of more deprived areas. Although the relative standing of deprivation groups remained fairly stable during the study period, increasing inequalities in absolute deprivation between areas can be noted in Table 2 Census-based deprivation indices could serve as an important, cost-effective analytic tool for documenting social inequalities in health and for monitoring trends in the extent of inequality over time.9,21 In the absence of routinely collected individual social class data, evaluation of health and mortality data through the use of deprivation indices holds much promise for the public health communitys efforts to reduce health disparities. Caution should be exercised, however, when comparing areal variations in mortality with individual-level socioeconomic differentials.9,14,21,24,31,51 Equating differentials at the 2 levels may lead to an ecological bias. This study analyzed areal variations in mortality as a function of an ecological variable, area deprivation. Although areal deprivation patterns in mortality by age, race, and sex are consistent with those at the individual level, the individual socioeconomic effects are generally larger than those at the area level, and temporal trends in individual socioeconomic inequalities in mortality may differ as well.2,3,14,21,31,5255
Note. The views expressed in this article are the authors and not necessarily those of the National Cancer Institute. Ethical clearance was not needed because this study used only secondary data and public-use vital statistics and census data. No human participants were contacted as part of this research. Accepted for publication June 29, 2002.
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