Elsevier

Public Health

Volume 102, Issue 1, January 1988, Pages 33-43
Public Health

Regional socioeconomic differences in mortality among men in Great Britain today

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0033-3506(88)80008-8Get rights and content

Regional socioeconomic differences in mortality among men aged 20–64 years were studied using data from the Decennial Supplement on Occupational Mortality based on the 1981 census. In our analysis deaths from all causes showed an increasing gradient from the south-east to the north-west of the country with the highest levels in Scotland (SMR 123). The regional gradient for all causes was steeper in the manual workers than in the non-manual workers. The Scottish manual workers showed levels of mortality (SMR 146) twice that of non-manual workers (SMR 73) in the south-east of England. Excess deaths from ischaemic heart disease and stroke were confined to manual workers, with the highest levels in Scotland (SMRs 145 and 161 respectively). Deaths from cancer showed an increasing gradient from the south-east to the north-west with somewhat similar levels in Scotland (SMR 113) and the north-west of England (SMR 116). Mortality levels of lung cancer among manual workers in the north-west of England (SMR 158) and Scotland (SMR 156) were twice those prevalent among non-manual workers in these areas. Scottish men, both manual (SMR 241) and non-manual (SMR 174) suffered from excess deaths attributed to cirrhosis of the liver. Deaths from motor vehicle accidents (SMR 163) and suicide (SMR 146) were significantly raised only among the Scottish manual workers.

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