ArticleJournal of epidemiology and community health2023
Widening educational inequalities in mortality in more recent birth cohorts: a study of 14 European countries.
Article in Journal of epidemiology and community health, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 21 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effects of education on adult mortality: a global systematic review and meta-analysis.The Lancet. Public health · 2024Pooled it
- Generational variation and life‑course accumulation of social inequalities in all-cause mortality in Germany: a cohort-sequential study.International journal for equity in health · 2026Article
- Sex differences in life-course social disadvantage and all-cause mortality: evidence from a longitudinal study from 1996 to 2023.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Social inequalities in cause-specific premature mortality in rural and urban France: a pre-pandemic population attributable fraction analysis.Population health metrics · 2026Article
- Socioeconomic inequalities in life expectancy within and between native-born and foreign-born populations: a comparative study of 10 European countries.International journal of epidemiology · 2026Article
- Urine and fecal incontinence prevalence is increased in later born 81-year old cohorts in the Swedish general elder population: data from the Good Aging in Skåne study (GÅS).BMC geriatrics · 2026Article
- Concentration of educational attainment and age-specific risk patterns of preventable avoidable mortality in Hungary, 2007-2023.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Article
- Trends and demographic inequalities in mortality of the Lithuanian population during the COVID-19 pandemic: who suffered most?Population health metrics · 2025Article
- National Life Expectancy Lags Behind Benchmark Progress and the Role of Smoking: An International Comparison.European journal of population = Revue europeenne de demographie · 2025Article
- Interrogating Theories and Mechanisms Underlying Educational Inequities in Diet Quality.The Journal of nutrition · 2025Review
- Partner's Education and Mortality in Finland: A Study of Married and Cohabiting Unions Among Cohorts Born Between 1932 and 1970.European journal of population = Revue europeenne de demographie · 2025Article
- Embodying disadvantage: a theoretically-informed analysis of pathways linking socioeconomic position with all-cause and cancer mortality in a nationally representative cohort of adults in Canada.BMC public health · 2025Article
- All-cause and cause-specific mortality attributable to educational inequalities in Spain.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Unpacking occupational and sex divides to understand the moderate progress in life expectancy in recent years (France, 2010's).International journal for equity in health · 2024Article
- The future backbone of nutritional science: integrating public health priorities with system-oriented precision nutrition.The British journal of nutrition · 2024Review
- The role of working conditions in educational differences in all-cause and ischemic heart disease mortality among Swedish men.Scandinavian journal of work, environment & health · 2024Article
- Inequalities in Mortality in the Asia-Pacific: A Cross-National Comparison of Socioeconomic Gradients.The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
13 authors at 11 institutions in 10 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundStudies of period changes in educational inequalities in mortality have shown important changes over time. It is unknown whether a birth cohort perspective paints the same picture. We compared changes in inequalities in mortality between a period and cohort perspective and explored mortality trends among low-educated and high-educated birth cohorts. DATA AND
methodsIn 14 European countries, we collected and harmonised all-cause and cause-specific mortality data by education for adults aged 30-79 years in the period 1971-2015. Data reordered by birth cohort cover persons born between 1902 and 1976. Using direct standardisation, we calculated comparative mortality figures and resulting absolute and relative inequalities in mortality between low educated and high educated by birth cohort, sex and period.
resultsUsing a period perspective, absolute educational inequalities in mortality were generally stable or declining, and relative inequalities were mostly increasing. Using a cohort perspective, both absolute and relative inequalities increased in recent birth cohorts in several countries, especially among women. Mortality generally decreased across successive birth cohorts among the high educated, driven by mortality decreases from all causes, with the strongest reductions for cardiovascular disease mortality. Among the low educated, mortality stabilised or increased in cohorts born since the 1930s in particular for mortality from cardiovascular diseases, lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and alcohol-related causes.
conclusionsTrends in mortality inequalities by birth cohort are less favourable than by calendar period. In many European countries, trends among more recently born generations are worrying. If current trends among younger birth cohorts persist, educational inequalities in mortality may further widen.
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