BACKGROUND: The scarce fulfillment of the job in the Bulletin on Death (BD) has limited the study of the socioeconomic differences in mortality in Spain. Nonetheless, the authors have studied the socioeconomic differences in mortality by different causes of death, using the Spanish geographical areas in which the information regarding the occupation of the deceased persons in the BD is of good quality. METHODS: Males between 30-64 years of age who died in eight Spanish provinces from 1988-1990 were included in the study. Overall mortality was compared by the relative risk of mortality adjusted for age and by the main causes of death among the professionals and managers, manual workers and farmers. The relative risk was calculated with the use of log-lineal models (Poisson regression) taking the group of professionals and managers as the reference group. RESULTS: The global relative risk of mortality in the group of manual workers was 1.72 and was 1.56 in the farmers. The highest mortality by different causes of death was observed in the manual workers while intermediate mortality was found in the farmers. The exceptions to this general pattern were colon and rectum cancer and leukemias with a higher mortality being found in the group of professionals and managers, although the differences were not statistically significant. Cerebrovascular diseases, suicide and cancer of the nervous system showed the highest relative risk of mortality in the farmers. Both the manual workers and the farmers demonstrated the highest relative risks of mortality in the youngest age groups although this difference attenuated with age. CONCLUSIONS: Except for colon and rectal cancer and leukemias, manual workers and farmers present higher mortality than professionals and managers. Furthermore, these differences may be underestimated since only the active economic population was studied, thereby excluding the individuals pertaining to the population groups with higher mortality rates.
BACKGROUND: The scarce fulfillment of the job in the Bulletin on Death (BD) has limited the study of the socioeconomic differences in mortality in Spain. Nonetheless, the authors have studied the socioeconomic differences in mortality by different causes of death, using the Spanish geographical areas in which the information regarding the occupation of the deceased persons in the BD is of good quality. METHODS: Males between 30-64 years of age who died in eight Spanish provinces from 1988-1990 were included in the study. Overall mortality was compared by the relative risk of mortality adjusted for age and by the main causes of death among the professionals and managers, manual workers and farmers. The relative risk was calculated with the use of log-lineal models (Poisson regression) taking the group of professionals and managers as the reference group. RESULTS: The global relative risk of mortality in the group of manual workers was 1.72 and was 1.56 in the farmers. The highest mortality by different causes of death was observed in the manual workers while intermediate mortality was found in the farmers. The exceptions to this general pattern were colon and rectum cancer and leukemias with a higher mortality being found in the group of professionals and managers, although the differences were not statistically significant. Cerebrovascular diseases, suicide and cancer of the nervous system showed the highest relative risk of mortality in the farmers. Both the manual workers and the farmers demonstrated the highest relative risks of mortality in the youngest age groups although this difference attenuated with age. CONCLUSIONS: Except for colon and rectal cancer and leukemias, manual workers and farmers present higher mortality than professionals and managers. Furthermore, these differences may be underestimated since only the active economic population was studied, thereby excluding the individuals pertaining to the population groups with higher mortality rates.