All-Cause and Cause-Specific Death Rates by Educational Status for Two Million People in Two American Cancer Society Cohorts, 1959–1996

Details

• Personal Author:
  Henley J ; Steenland, Kyle ; Thun M
• Description:
  Low socioeconomic status is associated with high mortality, but the extent to which socioeconomic status affects particular diseases and whether socioeconomic status effects have changed over time are uncertain. The authors used education as a marker for socioeconomic status in a study of two large American Cancer Society cohorts (follow-up, 1959-1996). Low education was associated with higher death rates in both cohorts from all causes and most specific causes, except breast cancer and external causes among women. Life expectancy in the more recent cohort was 4.8 years shorter for men and 2.7 years shorter for women for the least versus the most educated. The inverse relation between education and mortality was strongest for coronary heart disease, lung cancer, diabetes, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; moderate for colorectal cancer, external causes (men only), and stroke; weak for prostate cancer; and reversed for external causes among women. The direction of a weak gradient for breast cancer differed for those with and without prevalent breast cancer at baseline. Adjustment for conventional risk factors, probable intermediate variables between education and mortality, diminished but did not eliminate the observed educational/mortality gradients. Temporal trends showed increasing mortality differences by education for coronary heart disease, diabetes, and lung cancer for women. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Education Lung Lung Diseases Mortality Neoplasms Occupational Health Respiratory System Respiratory Tract Diseases Safety Urogenital Diseases Urogenital System

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• Keywords:
  Author Keywords: Education Breast-cancer Diseases Heart Lung-cancer Mortality Mortality-data Mortality-rates Prostate-cancer Pulmonary-disorders Social Class Sociological-factors Sociology

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• ISSN:
  0002-9262
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Georgia ; Ohio ; OSHA Region 4 ; OSHA Region 5
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DART - Division of Applied Research and Technology
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  11-21
• Volume:
  156
• Issue:
  1
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20022759
• Citation:
  Am J Epidemiol 2002 Jul; 156(1):11-21
• Contact Point Address:
  Dr. Kyle Steenland, Robert A. Taft Laboratories, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, 4676 Columbia Parkway, Cincinnati, OH 45226-1998
• Email:
  nsteenland@cdc.gov
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2002
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Source Full Name:
  American Journal of Epidemiology
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:6a793e47f01672c705f79a8025cefa706fbcd4075e879605622c7b3fdeff5aa4f903b5031507aa9d76a0db72bb27fc572c72de4f98d96213c3fb65803e491f03
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/199413/cdc_199413_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 252.42 KB ]