Study aims to reduce mortality disparities by education
June 16, 2017
"One hundred years ago, the top causes of death were tuberculosis, diarrhea, and pneumonia," said Miech. "They've been replaced by heart disease, cancer, and stroke. But, one thing that hasn't changed is that people with lower levels of education continue to be the ones dying at greater rates."
For example, from 1999 to 2007 heart attacks came to play less of a role in mortality disparities by education, but this progress was countered by an increasing role for drug overdose deaths. The study finds that overall, mortality disparities by education today would be about 25 percent smaller than their current levels if new disparities had not emerged or widened since 1999.
This work points to the importance of preventing new disparities from emerging and growing as well as the importance of reducing the prominent ones of today. Without such prevention efforts, any progress in reducing disparities will be short lived as new disparities assert themselves in the causes of death that will come to predominate in the future.
Source: American Sociological Association