ArticleBMJ open2021
Changes in life expectancy and lifespan variability by income quartiles in four Nordic countries: a study based on nationwide register data.
Article in BMJ open, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 48 citations in OpenAlex.
- Different risks, same causes: educational attainment influences when, not from what, we die.European journal of epidemiology · 2026Article
- Inequality in life expectancy losses by education in Finland during COVID-19 pandemic.International journal for equity in health · 2026Article
- Parental income in childhood and health outcomes across age groups: a register-based study from Norway.BMC medicine · 2026Article
- Ageing populations: new challenges in longevity.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Global health 2050: the path to halving premature death by mid-century.Lancet (London, England) · 2024Review
- Forecasting Inequalities in Survival to Retirement Age by Socioeconomic Status in Denmark and Sweden.European journal of population = Revue europeenne de demographie · 2024Article
- Global health inequality: analyses of life disparity and healthy life disparity.European journal of public health · 2024Article
- The impact of COVID-19 on life expectancy across socioeconomic groups in Denmark.Population health metrics · 2024Article
- Trends in socioeconomic inequalities in life expectancy and lifespan variation in Chile.Frontiers in public health · 2024Article
- Reversals in past long-term trends in educational inequalities in life expectancy for selected European countries.Journal of epidemiology and community health · 2023Article
- Dynamic Changes in the Association Between Education and Health in the United States.The Milbank quarterly · 2023Review
- Trends in mortality patterns in two countries with different welfare models: comparisons between CUBA and Denmark 1955-2020.Journal of population research (Canberra, A.C.T.) · 2023Article
- Article
- The impact of income definitions on mortality inequalities.SSM - population health · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 4 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesLevels, trends or changes in socioeconomic mortality differentials are typically described in terms of means, for example, life expectancies, but studies have suggested that there also are systematic social disparities in the dispersion around those means, in other words there are inequalities in lifespan variation. This study investigates changes in income inequalities in mean and distributional measures of mortality in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden over two decades.
designNationwide register-based study.
settingThe Danish, Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish populations aged 30 years or over in 1997 and 2017.
main outcome measuresIncome-specific changes in life expectancy, lifespan variation and the contribution of 'early' and 'late' deaths to increasing life expectancy.
resultsIncreases in life expectancy has taken place in all four countries, but there are systematic differences across income groups. In general, the largest gains in life expectancy were observed in Denmark, and the smallest increase among low-income women in Sweden and Norway. Overall, life expectancy increased and lifespan variation decreased with increasing income level. These differences grew larger over time. In all countries, a marked postponement of early deaths led to a compression of mortality in the top three income quartiles for both genders. This did not occur for the lowest income quartile.
conclusionIncreasing life expectancy is typically accompanied by postponement of early deaths and reduction of lifespan inequality in the higher-income groups. However, Nordic welfare societies are challenged by the fact that postponing premature deaths among people in the lowest-income groups is not taking place.
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