Worldwide socioeconomic status and stroke mortality: an ecological study
News Tuesday, June 18th, 2013International Journal for Equity in Health: June 15, 2013
Introduction
The effect of socioeconomic status (SES) on stroke mortality at population level has been controversial. This study explores the association of SES in childhood and adulthood with stroke mortality, as well as variations in this association among countries/regions.
Methods
Sex-specific stroke mortality at country level with death registry covering >= 70% population was obtained from the World Health Organization. Human Development Index (HDI) developed by the United Nations was chosen as the SES indicator. The associations between the latest available stroke mortality with HDI in 1999 (adulthood SES) and with HDI in 1960 (childhood SES) for the group aged 45–54 years among countries were examined with regression analysis. Age-standardized stroke mortality and HDI during 1974–2001 were used to estimate the association by time point. Read more