Mortality and socio-economic differences in Denmark: a competing risks proportional hazard model

This paper explores how mortality is related to such socio-economic factors as education, occupation, skill level and income for the years 1992-1997 using an extensive sample of the Danish population. We employ a competing risks proportional hazard model to allow for different causes of death. This method is important as some factors have unequal (and sometimes opposite) influence on the cause-specific mortality rates. We find that the often-found inverse correlation between socioeconomic status and mortality is to a large degree absent among Danish women who die of cancer. In addition, for men the negative correlation between socio-economic status and mortality prevails for some diseases, but for women we find that factors such as being married, income, wealth and education are not significantly associated with higher life expectancy. Marriage increases the likelihood of dying from cancer for women, early retirement prolongs survival for men, and homeownership increases life expectancy in general. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.