INCOME-DISTRIBUTION AND CAUSE-SPECIFIC MORTALITY

The aim was to identify the age-, sex- and cause-specific premature mo rtality rates contributing to the association between life expectancy and income distribution in developed countries, Income distribution wa s calculated for the 13 OECD countries and years for which the Luxembo urg Income Study held data, The potential years of life lost (1-65 yea rs) by sex and cause, as well as the age- and sex-specific ail-cause m ortality rates and standardized mortality ratios for children 1-19 yea rs were calculated from data supplied by the WHO, On finding evidence suggesting that reported income distribution is strongly affected by l ow response rates in some income surveys, we used 2 measures of income distribution: that among households where the 'head of household' was aged less than 65 years (weighted by response rates) and that among h ouseholds with children (among whom response rates are thought to be h igher), Partial correlations and regressions controlling for the year were used to analyse the relationship between mortality and income dis tribution, Both measures of income distribution showed broadly similar results, A more egalitarian distribution of income was related to low er all-cause mortality rates in both sexes in most age groups, All 6 m ajor categories of cause of death contributed to this relationship, Th e causes of premature mortality contributing most were road accidents, chronic liver disease and cirrhosis, infections, ischaemic heart dise ase among women and other injuries among men, Income distribution was associated not only with larger absolute changes in mortality from the se causes, but also with larger proportionate changes, Suicides and st omach cancer tended to be more common in more egalitarian countries.