Trends in educational inequalities in cause specific mortality in Norway from 1960 to 2010: a turning point for educational inequalities in cause specific mortality of Norwegian men after the millennium?

Table 2 Absolute and relative educational inequalities in mortality in Norway over five decades, by gender

	Men		Women
Decade	Absolute inequality* (95% CI)	Absolute change in inequality* from previous period	Absolute inequality* (95% CI)	Absolute change in inequality* from previous period
1960s	313 (265, 361)		376 (336, 416)
1970s	626 (583, 670)	313 (p < 0.01)	427 (395, 458)	51 (p = 0.05)
1980s	838 (796, 879)	211 (p < 0.01)	364 (336, 391)	−63 (p < 0.01)
1990s	1050 (1013, 1087)	212 (p < 0.01)	495 (470, 519)	130 (p < 0.01)
2000s	1035 (1005, 1066)	−14 (p = 0.561)	551 (529, 572)	56 (p < 0.01)
P-value for linear trend	0.018		0.025
	Men		Women
Decade	Relative inequality (95% CI)**	Change in relative inequality from previous period***	Relative inequality (95% CI)**	Change in relative inequality from previous period***
1960s	1.21 (1.18, 1.26)		1.52 (1.46, 1.59)
1970s	1.46 (1.42, 1.50)	0.18 (p < 0.01)	1.69 (1.63, 1.76)	0.11 (p < 0.01)
1980s	1.71 (1.67, 1.76)	0.16 (p < 0.01)	1.67 (1.61, 1.73)	−0.01 (p = 0.59)
1990s	2.24 (2.18, 2.30)	0.27 (p < 0.01)	2.14 (2.07, 2.22)	0.25 (p < 0.01)
2000s	2.95 (2.86, 3.03)	0.27 (p < 0.01)	2.72 (2.62, 2.82)	0.24 (p < 0.01)
P-value for linear trend	<0.001		0.013

*Slope Index of Inequality, SII. The number can be interpreted as the difference in absolute risk (unit is deaths per 100,000 person years) of dying related to be on a lower level in the educational hierarchy compared to be at the top.
**Relative Index if Inequality, RII. The number can be interpreted as the mortality incidence rate ratio for those in the lower level in the educational hierarchy relative to those at the top.
***Change in ln(RII). Since RII is estimated on a log-scale, we investigate change using ln(RII) as this converts it to linear scale.

ISSN: 1471-2458