What is the contribution of smoking and socioeconomic position to ethnic inequalities in mortality in New Zealand?

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Mortality rates for Māori are twice those for non-Māori in New Zealand. We have assessed the contribution of tobacco smoking and socioeconomic position to these inequalities in 45-74-year-old census respondents during 1981-84 and 1996-99 (2.3 and 2.7 million person-years, respectively). METHODS: We used linked census and mortality cohort datasets with measures of socioeconomic position (household income, highest educational qualification, car access, labour-force status, and neighbourhood deprivation) and smoking (never, ex, current). We used direct standardisation to adjust for smoking and Poisson regression to adjust for socioeconomic position. FINDINGS: The apparent contributi..