2002 | DWTC
Until the beginning of the 1990s, most studies on differential mortality in Belgium had to rely on geographic aggregates due to the lack of individual background variables connected to vital events in the registers. This situation has changed drastically thanks to the National Databank Mortality 1991-1996 (NDM). The NDM has been constructed in two phases. First, the 1991 census data, covering the total (legal) population in Belgium, have been linked to survival data from the National Register, indicating whether the respondent died or emigrated between the 1st March 1991 and the 1st March 1996 and the exact date of each event. In the second stage, information on the cause of death was included for all respondents who died between the 1st of March 1991 and the 31st of December 1995. The construction of the NDM permits several interesting analyses. In the first stage of inequality research, inequalities have been studied in all-cause mortality among middle-aged men and women as a function of socio-economic and socio-demographic characteristics (educational level, activity status, type of income, professional class, sector of activity, housing tenure, housing quality and household position) and region of residence. In the second stage, life tables were constructed by educational level and region, which were then combined, at the Institute of Public Health, with health status data in order to calculate disability-free life expectancy. In the third stage, inequalities in cause-specific mortality have been investigated in the population aged 12-17 and 15-29. The inclusion of cause-specific data has also allowed the participation of the European Working Group on Socio-economic Determinants of Healthy Ageing. In this project, all-cause and cause-specific mortality differentials by educational level and housing tenure are compared among middle-aged and old-aged men and women in different European countries. Finally, also inequalities in all-cause and cause-specific mortality by national origin have been investigated. The doctoral research of S.Gadeyne has concentrated on socio-economic inequalities in all-cause and cause-specific mortality among Belgian youngsters and young adults (aged 15-29), adults (30-44), middle-aged (45-59) and elderly persons (60-74 and 75+). Relative as well as absolute inequalities have been studied.
