Mortality and living conditions: relative mortality levels and their relation to the physical quality of life in urban populations.

The general inverse association between mortality and the availability of material resources has been well established in large populations. Using data for Israeli urban locations, we show that indirectly standardized mortality ratios (SMR) are well able to capture this relationship in small populations for which reliable age specific mortality data are not available; and that they are inversely related to the standard of living, as measured by a variety of census based indicators. It is thus suggested that SMRs offer a ready indicator of living standards in populations for which more specific indicators may not be readily accessible.