The long history of health inequality in New Zealand: occupational class and lifespan in the late 1800s and early 1900s

Abstract

Objective: As relatively little is known about how socioeconomic position might have affected health prior to the Second World War, we aimed to study lifespan by occupational class in two cohorts in New Zealand. Methods: The first study included men on the electoral rolls in Dunedin in the period 1893 to 1902. The second study used an established cohort of male military personnel who were recruited for the First World War. Linear regression was used to estimate lifespan by occupational class. Results: The first study of 259 men on the electoral rolls found no substantive lifespan differences between the high and low occupational class groups. But the second study of 2,406 military personnel ..