Educational level and mortality in a 32-year follow-up study of 18-year-old men in The Netherlands

Abstract

Social inequities and their relation to health form a topic of growing concern in the Netherlands. The present investigation on educational level and mortality was carried out in a cohort of men born in 1932, examined for military service in 1950/1951 and for whom vital statistics could be obtained. In the group of 78,505 men, 3456 deaths occurred during the follow-up until 31 December 1981. A life table analysis revealed an inverse relation between educational level and survival. In a multivariate logistic regression model the confounding effects of height and health score were taken into account. In addition to all-cause mortality, the relationships of educational level and mortality from coronary heart disease, cancer and accidents consistently showed an inverse pattern. The applicability of the results elsewhere is discussed.