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The impact of smoking on trends in socio-economic longevity inequalities in Europe

Wanda Van Hemelrijck, Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute (NIDI)
Anton E. Kunst, University of Amsterdam
Nicolás Zengarini, Epidemiology Unit, ASL TO3, Piedmont Region, Grugliasco(Turin)
Pekka Martikainen, University of Helsinki
Fanny Janssen, Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute (NIDI) and University of Groningen

Socio-economic mortality inequalities in current-day Europe are large and have even widened in recent decades. The reasons for this widening are unclear. Smoking importantly determines mortality inequalities, but how the differential timing and impact of the wave-shaped smoking epidemic on socio-economic groups affected past trends in socio-economic mortality inequalities is largely unknown. We will therefore examine the contribution of smoking to trends in socio-economic mortality inequalities in England and Wales, Finland, France, Italy, and Norway. Individually linked all-cause and lung cancer mortality data by educational level (low, middle, high) and sex will be used for individuals aged 30+ from 1970 onwards. We will indirectly estimate smoking-attributable mortality by educational level, and estimate absolute and relative educational inequalities in all-cause and smoking-attributable mortality, by sex and country for each year. Comparing the trends in these inequalities will determine how smoking has affected trends in socio-economic mortality inequalities. Our results will provide crucial information to researchers and policymakers about the reasons behind the recent widening in socio-economic mortality inequalities, and what this may imply for the future.

Keywords: Inequality, Mortality, Linked data sets

See paper.

  Presented in Session 100. Socioeconomic Inequality and Mortality Differentials