Monitoring socioeconomic disparities in death: comparing individual-level education and area-based socioeconomic measures.

We compared all-cause mortality rates stratified by individual-level education and by census tract area-based socioeconomic measures for Massachusetts (1999-2001). Among persons aged 25 and older, the age-adjusted relative index of inequality was slightly higher for the census tract than for the individual education measures (1.5 vs 1.2, respectively). Only the census tract socioeconomic measures could provide a relative index of inequality (2-3) for deaths before age 25 or detect expected socioeconomic disparities for deaths among persons 65 and older (relative index of inequality= approximately 1.2 vs 0.8 for census tract measures and individual education, respectively).