Gender Differences in Education Inequalities in Mortality by Age and Cause: NHIS, 1986-2002.

Anna Zajacova, University of Michigan
Robert A. Hummer, University of Texas at Austin

Little is known about gender differences in mortality inequalities by education in the U.S. The findings are inconsistent and mostly focus on aggregate all-cause mortality patterns, which can obscure potential differences across birth cohorts and different causes of death. Our paper provides a detailed analysis of gender differentials in the education-mortality association for major causes of death across 60 birth cohorts. The analyses are based on the National Health Interview Survey 1986-2000 linked to the National Death Index, providing detailed mortality information on about 1,000,000 individuals through 2002. Proportional hazard models, standardized mortality rates, and predicted survival are employed to estimate relative and absolute mortality risk differentials by education for men and women. Results indicate few significant gender differences in all-cause mortality across different birth cohorts. Analyses of specific causes of death suggest some differences whereby women evidence a stronger mortality gradient for cardiovascular mortality and men for smoking-related deaths.