Increasing Disparities in Mortality by Socioeconomic Status

2018/04/01 by Barry Bosworth · 1 citation
Health Professions · Social Sciences · #Employment and Welfare Studies #Global Health Care Issues #Health disparities and outcomes

paper · pdf · doi:10.1146/annurev-publhealth-040617-014615

openalex publication_date 2018/04/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31

Abstract

This review focuses on the widening disparities in death rates by socioeconomic class. In recent years, there has been a major increase in the availability of data linking mortality risk and measures of socioeconomic status. The result has been a virtual explosion of new empirical research showing not only the existence of large inequities in the risk of death between those at the top and those at the bottom of the socioeconomic distribution, but also that the gaps have been growing. This assessment of the empirical research finds a consistent pattern of growing disparities within the United States. However, this widening gap in death rates does appear to be a uniquely American phenomenon, as the disparities by socioeconomic class appear to be stable or even declining in Europe and Canada.

Citations

• Measuring the Effect of Income on Adult Mortality Using Longitudinal Administrative Record Data
• Race, socioeconomic status, and health: Complexities, ongoing challenges, and research opportunities
• Understanding associations among race, socioeconomic status, and health: Patterns and prospects.
• The Association Between Income and Life Expectancy in the United States, 2001-2014
• The Contribution of Drug Overdose to Educational Gradients in Life Expectancy in the United States, 1992–2011

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