Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T01:37:35.883Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Socioeconomic status: the prime indicator of premature death in Australia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 July 2008

James S. Lawson  and
Deborah Black
James S. Lawson
Affiliation:
School of Health Services Management, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
Deborah Black
Affiliation:
School of Health Services Management, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

The link between socioeconomic status and health has long been recognised. This study of deaths among Australian men aged 15–59 years demonstrates that during the 20-year period, 1966–86 the number of premature deaths was dramatically reduced among all socioeconomic groups, primarily as a result of falls in death rates due to heart disease, stroke and trauma. However, the marked differences in death rates according to social class remain, to the extent that if men of all social classes had the same mortality experiences as professional and technical workers the overall death rates for Australian men would be reduced by 60%. Socioeconomic status is the most important indicator of health status among Australians.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Biosocial Science , Volume 25 , Issue 4 , October 1993 , pp. 539 - 552
Copyright
Copyright © 1993, Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ackernecht, E. H. (1948) Hygiene in France 1815–1848. Bull. Hist. Med. 22, 117.Google Scholar
Al-Roomi, K. A., Dobson, A. J., Hall, E., Heller, R. F. & Magnus, P. (1989) Declining mortality from ischaemic heart disease and cerebro-vascular disease in Australia. Am. J. Epidemiol. 129, 503.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Australian Bureau of Statistics (1966) Census of the Commonwealth of Australia, 30 June 1966. ABS Catalogue No. 03.20. Government Printing Office, Canberra.Google Scholar
Australian Bureau of Statistics (1971) Census of Population and Housing, 30 June 1971, ABS Catalogue No. 04.20. Government Printing Office, Canberra.Google Scholar
Australian Bureau of Statistics (1976) Census of Population and Housing, 30 June 1976, ABS Catalogue, No. 05.20. Government Printing Office, Canberra.Google Scholar
Australian Bureau of Statistics (1981) Census of Population and Housing, 30 June 1981, ABS Catalogue No. 06.20. Government Printing Office, Canberra.Google Scholar
Australian Bureau of Statistics (1986a) Census of Population and Housing, 30 June 1986. ABS Catalogue No. 07.20. Government Printing Office, Canberra.Google Scholar
Australian Bureau of Statistics (1986b) ASCO Statistical Classification, 1st edn. ABS Catalogue No. 122.0. Government Printing Office, Canberra.Google Scholar
Baghurst, K. I., Record, S. J., Baghurst, P. A., Syrette, J. A., Crawford, D., & Worsley, A. (1990) Socio-demographic determinants in Australia of the intake of food and nutrients implicated in cancer aetiology. Med. J. Aust. 153, 444.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caplan, G. A. & Saloden, J. T. (1990) Socio-economic conditions in childhood and ischaemic heart disease during middle age. Br. med. J. 301, 1121.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Daniel, A. E. (1983) Power, Privilege and Prestige: Occupations in Australia. Longman Cheshire, Melbourne.Google Scholar
Department of Health, New South Wales (1984) Baby Health Activity Survey. DHS, Sydney.Google Scholar
Dobson, A. J., Gibberd, R. W., Leeder, S. R., Alexander, H. M., Young, A. F. & Lloyd, D. M. (1988) Ischaemic heart disease in the Hunter region of New South Wales, Australia 1979–1985. Am. J. Epidemiol. 128, 106.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fuchs, V. (1986) The Health Economy. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.Google Scholar
Gibberd, R. W., Dobson, A. J., Florey, C. de Ve & Leeder, S. R. (1984) Differences and comparative declines in ischaemic heart disease mortality among sub-populations in Australia 1969–1978. Int. J. Epidemiol. 13, 25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hill, D. J. (1988) Australian patterns of tobacco smoking in 1986. Med. J. Aust. 149, 6.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hill, D. J. (1991) Australian patterns of tobacco smoking in 1989. Med. J. Aust. 154, 797.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hogg, J. (1937) London as it is: Being a Series of Observations on the Health, Habits and Amusements of the People. Macrone, London. (Re-published by Garland, New York, 1985.)Google Scholar
Illsley, R. & Baker, D. (1991) Contextual variations in the meaning of health inequality. Social Sci. Med. 32, 359.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lawson, J. S. (1991.) Public Health—Australia. McGraw-Hill, Sydney.Google Scholar
Lawson, J. S. & Evans, A. (1992) Prodigious alcohol consumption by rugby footballers, Drug Alcohol Rev. 11, 193.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Marmot, M. G., Shipley, M. J. & Rose, G. (1984) Inequalities in death—Specific explanations of a general pattern? Lancet, 1, 1003.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Marmot, M. G., Smith, G. D., Stanfield, S., Patel, C., North, F., Head, J., White, I., Brunner, E. & Feeney, A. (1991) Health inequalities among British civil servants: the Whitehall II study. Lancet, 337, 1387.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McMichael, A. J. (1985) Social class (as estimated by occupational prestige) and mortality in Australian males in the 1970s. Community Hlth Stud. 4, 220.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Quine, S. (1991) Social class as a risk factor for infant mortality in an Australian population. J. biosoc. Sci. 23, 65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Quine, S. & Lancaster, P. A. L. (1989) Indicators of social class: relationship between prestige of occupation and suburb of residance. Community Hlth Stud. 13, 510.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Saunders, P. & Matheson, G. (1991) An Ever-rising Tide? Poverty in Australia in the Eighties. Discussion Paper No. 30, Social Policy Research Centre. University of New South Wales, Australia.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Snowden, D. A., Ostwald, S. K. & Kane, R. L. (1989) Education, survival and independence in elderly Catholic sisters, 1936–1988. Am. J. Epidemiol. 130, 999.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taylor, C. L. & Jodice, D. A. (1983) World Handbook of Political and Social Indicators, Yale University Press, New Haven.Google Scholar
Thom, T. J. (1989) International mortality from heart disease: rates and trends. Int. J. Epidemiol. 18, (Suppl. 1), 520.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed