Trends in Area-Level Socioeconomic Inequality in Total and Cause-Specific Mortality in Canada from 1971 to 1998

Russell Wilkins, Statistics Canada
Jean-Marie Berthelot, Statistics Canada

This paper reanalyzes Canadian mortality data from 1971 through 1996, plus death data for 1997 and 1998 newly coded to small area. Attention is given to details which affect comparability with area-level analyzes of socioeconomic inequalities in the US: geographic level coded, nature of the area-level SES variable, method of construction of the quantiles (within regions or nationally), inclusion or exclusion of institutional residents, and size of the open age group. Probable impacts of each of these factors are discussed. Alternative analyzes will attempt to quantify the impacts, and to produce more comparable data for the evaluation of Canada-US differences in SES inequalities in mortality.