TY - JOUR T1 - Are social inequalities in mortality in Britain narrowing? Time trends from 1978 to 2005 in a population-based study of older men JF - Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health JO - J Epidemiol Community Health SP - 75 LP - 80 DO - 10.1136/jech.2006.053207 VL - 62 IS - 1 AU - S E Ramsay AU - R W Morris AU - L T Lennon AU - S G Wannamethee AU - P H Whincup Y1 - 2008/01/01 UR - http://jech.bmj.com/content/62/1/75.abstract N2 - Objective: To examine whether social inequalities in all-cause and coronary heart disease (CHD) mortality in Britain have reduced between 1978 and 2005.Design: A prospective study of a socioeconomically representative population.Setting: 24 British towns.Participants: 7735 Men, aged 40–59 years at recruitment in 1978–1980 and followed up until 2005 through the National Health Service Central Register (164 120 person-years).Main outcome measures: Relative hazards and absolute risk differences for all-cause and CHD death comparing manual with non-manual social classes, calculated for different calendar periods.Results: 3009 Deaths from all causes (1003 from CHD) occurred during follow-up. The overall hazard ratio (manual versus non-manual) was 1.56 (95% CI 1.45 to 1.69, p<0.001) for all-cause mortality and 1.54 (95% CI 1.35 to 1.76, p<0.001) for CHD mortality. The relative difference between these social groups tended to increase over time. The overall relative increase in hazard ratio comparing manual with non-manual groups over a 20-year calendar period was 1.22 (95% CI 0.83 to 1.80, p = 0.31) for all-cause mortality and 1.75 (95% CI 0.89 to 3.45, p = 0.11) for CHD mortality. The absolute difference in probability of survival to age 65 years between non-manual and manual groups fell from 29% in 1981 to 19% in 2001 for all-cause mortality and from 17% to 7% for CHD mortality.Conclusion: Relative differences in all-cause and CHD mortality between manual and non-manual social class groups persisted and may have increased during this period. Absolute differences in mortality between these social groups decreased as a result of falling overall mortality rates. Greater effort is needed to reduce social inequalities in all-cause and CHD mortality in the new millennium. ER -