Educational differentials in adult mortality in low- and middle-income countries
(2015) Quetelet — Vol. 3, n° 1, p. n (2015)
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- In high-income countries, there is extensive evidence showing that higher levels of educational attainment, higher income and higher occupational classes are correlated with lower risks of dying among adults. Far less is known on mortality differentials in low- and middle-income countries due to the lack of information on the socio-economic characteristics of the deceased. In this paper, we evaluate whether survey reports on the survival of sisters can help to fill this gap. We find that levels of educational attainment are correlated within families, and therefore characteristics of the deceased can be inferred from those attained by their sisters responding to the survey. Because estimates of adult mortality based on sibling histories have large confidence intervals, we pool all DHS together and fit a generalized liner mixed effects models to capture mortality differentials. In most surveys, higher education is associated with lower risks of dying, especially in urban areas, but reversed gradients are observed in several countries with high mortality and generalized HIV prevalence. There is limited support for the hypothesis that this puzzling pattern results from larger underreporting of deaths by women with less education. Instead, we argue that sibling histories truly reflect the complexity of the relationship between adult mortality and education, especially in countries affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Overall, the sibling approach offers new possibilities for measuring inequalities in adult mortality in low- and middle-income countries.
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Masquelier, B., & Garbero, A. (2015). Educational differentials in adult mortality in low- and middle-income countries. Quetelet, 3(1), n. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/212488 (Original work published 2015)