Coronary heart disease inequalities: deaths and the socio-economic environment in Nottingham, England.

We undertook an ecological study to investigate differences in coronary heart disease mortality within Nottingham health authority, England, to establish whether coronary mortality varied according to socio-economic status, and how mortality rates changed over a decade. An index of socio-economic status was developed from Census variables. This was used to group enumeration districts into quintiles to examine mortality inequalities. Death rates fell from 1982 to 1992, but at differential rates between the socio-economic zones. The gap in death rates between the most disadvantaged and advantaged areas widened in most population groups.