Mortality among the working age population receiving incapacity benefits in New Zealand, 1981-2004

Abstract

Like many OECD countries New Zealand has experienced a large increase in the number of working-age people receiving incapacity benefits in the last 3 decades, despite apparent improvements in population health. This paper examines trends in mortality rates of people receiving sickness benefit or invalid's benefit (SBIB) between 1981 and 2004 using repeated cohort studies (linking the 1981, 1986, 1991, 1996, and 2001 censuses to mortality data). Mortality rates, standardised for age and ethnicity, were calculated for each census cohort for 25-64 year olds by benefit receipt status. Standardised rate differences and rate ratios and 95% confidence intervals were calculated to measure disparitie..