Education and occupational social class: which is the more important indicator of mortality risk?

摘要

Conclusions-As a single indicator of socioeconomic position occupational social class in adulthood is a better discriminator of socioeconomic differen- tials in mortality and smoking behaviour than is education. This argues against interpretations that see cultural-rather than material-resources as being the key determinants of socioeconomic differen- tials in health. The stronger association of education with death from cardiovascular causes than with other causes of death may reflect the function of education as an index of socioeconomic circumstances in early life, which appear to have a particu- lar influence on the risk of cardiovascular disease.