Inequalities in women's health in England and Wales: mortality among married women according to social circumstances, employment characteristics and life-cycle stage.

"Data obtained from follow-up of the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys Longitudinal Study 1971 Census sample have been used to look at women's mortality differentials at ages 15-59 in England and Wales....In this paper we focus on married women and use age of youngest child as a measure of life-cycle stage. We relate this to whether the woman was a housewife, or was in full or part-time paid employment, so as to examine how these affect differences in mortality by social class. We find that socio-economic mortality differences persist irrespective of life-cycle stage.... Housewives married to men in manual occupations experienced death rates over one and a half times as high as those married to men in non-manual occupations. For women in employment the differences by husbands' social class are of a lesser magnitude.... Differences in the mortality of those in full and part-time work depend on the woman's own social class and are greater for non-manual than manual classes." (SUMMARY IN FRE AND ITA) excerpt