Report on ‘Social Inequalities in the Leading Causes of Early Death’

Social Inequalities in the Leading Causes of Early Death. A Life Course Approach written for the Department of Health by Jill Roberts of the UCL Institute of Health Equity and published in 2015.

This evidence review analyses data from the World Health Organisation’s Detailed Mortality Database, and summarises the literature to show that:

1. the leading causes of death change across the lifecourse
2. there are marked social inequalities in each of the leading causes of death (within top 5 broad causes), by total number of deaths, across the life course
3. social and economic circumstances from birth accumulate and impact a person’s likelihood of an early death
4. different mortality rates for the leading causes of death are evident across comparative European countries