Mortality in South Africa: Socio-economic profile and association with self-reported health

Figures & data

Table 1: Status of Wave 1 permanent sample members at Wave 2

	Status at Wave 1
	Interviewed		Not interviewed		Total
Status at Wave 2	N	%	N	%	N	%
Alive
Interviewed	19 281	77.00	1 873	58.42	21 154	74.89
Not interviewed	1 090	4.35	396	12.35	1 486	5.26
Dead	728	2.91	161	5.02	889	3.15
Unknown	3 942	15.74	776	24.20	4 718	16.70
Total	25 041	100	3 206	100	28 247	100

Figure 1: Age distribution of Wave 1 respondents by Wave 2 vital status and log-odds of dying by age at Wave 1

Table 2: Socio-economic status and health characteristics by vital status at Wave 2

	Alive	Dead	Unknown
Demographic and socio-economic status
Female	0.550	0.483**	0.504***
African	0.843	0.854	0.674***
Coloured	0.076	0.079	0.105*
Indian/Asian	0.021	0.008	0.032
White	0.060	0.059	0.189***
Urban	0.539	0.548	0.723***
Household size	5.607	5.168**	4.087***
Assets	6.716	5.790***	7.414**
Logarithm of per-capita household expenditure	6.228	6.186	6.759***
Individuals aged 20 and older
Years of education	8.482	6.680***	9.592***
Married	0.375	0.292***	0.357
Living with partner	0.095	0.117	0.132**
Widowed	0.087	0.180***	0.053***
Divorced	0.034	0.033	0.056**
Never married	0.409	0.378	0.402
Health status
Self-reported health status	2.169	2.978***	2.042***
Self-reports excellent health	0.365	0.180***	0.388
Self-reports very good health	0.282	0.211***	0.311
Self-reports good health	0.217	0.230	0.200
Self-reports fair health	0.089	0.208***	0.072**
Self-reports poor health	0.047	0.171***	0.029***
Individuals aged 20 and older
Any chronic conditions	0.261	0.451***	0.184***
Any symptoms/illness in last 30 days	0.613	0.698**	0.526***
Score on CES-D10 depression scale	8.220	9.367***	7.492***
Number of difficulties with activities of daily living	0.339	0.956***	0.244**
Smoker	0.204	0.301***	0.303***
Drinks alcohol regularly	0.091	0.118	0.171***
Severe hypertension (systolic >179 or diastolic >109)	0.049	0.093*	0.029***
Underweight (BMI < 18.5)	0.056	0.153***	0.047
Normal weight (18.5 ≤ BM I <25)	0.404	0.434	0.485***
Overweight (25 ≤ BMI < 30)	0.255	0.215	0.264
Obese (30 ≤ BMI < 40)	0.237	0.153***	0.165***
Morbidly obese (BMI ≥ 40)	0.048	0.045	0.039
Observations – all	20 371	728	3 942
Observations – aged 20 and older	9 997	630	2 289

Notes: Means are weighted using the Wave 1 post-stratification weights. Asterisks in column 2 indicate whether differences in means between those who were still alive and those who had died by wave 2 are significant at the 1% (***), 5% (**) and 10% (*) levels. Similarly, asterisks in column 3 indicate significant differences between those who were still alive and those whose vital status is unknown at Wave 2. CES-D10, Center for Epidemiologic Studies Short Depression Scale (Radloff, 1997).

Table 3: Demographic characteristics, socio-economic status and mortality

	Dependent variable: deceased at Wave 2
	All	All	All	Aged 20 and older
Female	0.621***
	(0.073)
Coloured	0.855	0.850	0.824	0.872
	(0.130)	(0.130)	(0.103)	(0.113)
Indian	0.304	0.309	1.030	0.935
	(0.225)	(0.230)	(0.415)	(0.402)
White	0.500*	0.496*	0.663	0.604*
	(0.202)	(0.201)	(0.187)	(0.169)
Female × aged 0 to 19		1.005	1.067
		(0.253)	(0.185)
Female × aged 20 to 39		0.778	0.991	0.662***
		(0.142)	(0.136)	(0.095)
Female × aged 40 to 59		0.374***	0.424***	0.411***
		(0.073)	(0.056)	(0.056)
Female × aged 60-plus		0.590**	0.521***	0.360***
		(0.149)	(0.071)	(0.055)
Urban			1.276***
			(0.113)
Household size			1.003
			(0.016)
Assets			0.946***
			(0.013)
Logarithm of per-capita household expenditure			0.939
			(0.058)
Living with partner				1.875***
				(0.302)
Widowed				2.264***
				(0.319)
Divorced				1.617*
				(0.412)
Never married				2.050***
				(0.258)
Years of education				0.975**
				(0.012)
Observations	21 083	21 083	21 083	10 530

Notes: Selected odds ratios from logistic regression models. Each regression includes a quartic in age. Robust standard errors that allow for correlation in the unobservables for individuals drawn from the same primary sampling unit are presented below the odds ratios in parentheses (***p < 0.01, **p < 0.05, *p < 0.1). Regressions are weighted using the Wave 1 post-stratification weights. Regressions exclude individuals whose vital status at Wave 2 is unknown.

Figure 2: Years of education by age and vital status at Wave 2

Figure 3: Self-reports of poor or fair health by age and vital status at Wave 2

Table 4: Self-reported health status – demographic, socio-economic and health correlates

	Dependent variable: self-reported health
	All	Aged 20 and older	Aged 20 and older
Female	1.163***	1.355***	1.068
	(0.049)	(0.074)	(0.072)
Coloured	0.727***	0.835	0.868
	(0.078)	(0.109)	(0.130)
Indian	1.454**	1.695***	1.639***
	(0.275)	(0.214)	(0.231)
White	0.679**	0.862	1.004
	(0.132)	(0.176)	(0.174)
Urban	1.096	1.224*	1.013
	(0.116)	(0.132)	(0.100)
Household size	0.995	1.014	1.013
	(0.010)	(0.010)	(0.010)
Assets	0.978*	0.985	0.986
	(0.012)	(0.013)	(0.013)
Logarithm of per-capita household expenditure	0.910*	0.958	0.971
	(0.044)	(0.050)	(0.048)
Years of education		0.924***	0.942***
		(0.008)	(0.008)
Living with partner		1.467***	1.282**
		(0.196)	(0.156)
Widowed		1.383***	1.200*
		(0.144)	(0.122)
Divorced		1.030	0.909
		(0.182)	(0.220)
Never married		1.301***	1.203**
		(0.114)	(0.104)
Any chronic conditions			3.198***
			(0.210)
Smoker			1.044
			(0.087)
Regular alcohol drinker			0.912
			(0.108)
CES-D10 score			1.055***
			(0.008)
Number of difficulties with activities of daily living			1.281***
			(0.030)
Any minor illnesses/symptoms			2.736***
			(0.186)
Severe hypertension			1.067
			(0.131)
Underweight (BMI < 18.5)			1.132
			(0.132)
Overweight (25 ≤ BMI < 30)			0.860*
			(0.071)
Obese (30 ≤ BMI < 40)			1.034
			(0.081)
Morbidly obese (BMI ≥ 40)			0.944
			(0.163)
Observations	20 984	10 468	10 487

Notes: Selected odds ratios from ordered logistic regressions. Each regression includes a quartic in age. Robust standard errors that allow for correlation in the unobservables for individuals drawn from the same primary sampling unit are presented below the regression coefficients in parentheses (***p < 0.01, **p < 0.05, *p < 0.1). Regressions are weighted using the Wave 1 post-stratification weights. Regressions exclude individuals whose vital status at Wave 2 is unknown. Regression in column 3 includes indicators that BMI and blood pressure measurements are missing. CES-D10, Center for Epidemiologic Studies Short Depression Scale (Radloff, 1997).

Table 5: Self-reported health status and mortality

	Dependent variable: deceased at Wave 2
	All	Aged 20 and older	Aged 20 and older	Aged 20 and older	Aged 20 and older
Very good self-reported health	1.348	1.457	1.630	1.418	1.389
	(0.265)	(0.368)	(0.587)	(0.355)	(0.350)
Good self-reported health	1.588**	1.614*	1.647	1.525*	1.385
	(0.329)	(0.400)	(0.568)	(0.374)	(0.360)
Fair self-reported health	2.483***	2.627***	3.398***	2.369***	1.706**
	(0.550)	(0.665)	(1.154)	(0.608)	(0.444)
Poor self-reported health	3.538***	3.700***	4.449***	3.179***	2.085***
	(0.748)	(0.916)	(1.483)	(0.771)	(0.553)
Female × very good self-reported health			0.751
			(0.364)
Female × good self-reported health			0.907
			(0.400)
Female × fair self-reported health			0.563
			(0.260)
Female × poor self-reported health			0.655
			(0.315)
Controls for socio-economic status	No	No	No	Yes	Yes
Controls for health characteristics	No	No	No	No	Yes
Observations	20 984	10 541	10 541	10 468	10 418

Notes: Selected odds ratios from logistic regressions. Each regression includes a quartic in age, an indicator that the individual is female and indicators for population group. Robust standard errors that allow for correlation in the unobservables for individuals drawn from the same primary sampling unit are presented below the regression coefficients in parentheses (***p < 0.01, **p < 0.05, *p < 0.1). Regressions are weighted using the Wave 1 post-stratification weights. Regressions exclude individuals whose vital status at Wave 2 is unknown. The regressions in columns 4 and 5 include controls for years of education, indicators for marital status, an indicator that the individual lives in an urban area, a count of household assets, the logarithm of per-capita household expenditure and household size. The regression in column 5 includes additional indicators for any chronic conditions, severe hypertension, BMI categories, any minor illnesses, smoking, regularly drinking alcohol, score on the CESD10 depression scale, the number of problems with activities of daily living and indicators that BMI and blood pressure measurements are missing. CES-D10, Center for Epidemiologic Studies Short Depression Scale (Radloff, 1997).

Table 6: Health indicators, health-related behaviours and mortality

	Dependent variable: deceased by Wave 2
Any chronic conditions	2.055***
	(0.338)
One chronic condition		1.817***
		(0.317)
More than one chronic condition		2.934***
		(0.611)
Any minor illnesses/symptoms			1.353*
			(0.231)
CESD10 score				1.031**
				(0.013)
Number of difficulties with activities of daily living					1.209***
					(0.042)
Smokes						1.299
						(0.227)
Ex smoker						1.103
						(0.305)
Drinks alcohol regularly							1.010
							(0.229)
Severe hypertension								1.368
								(0.391)
Underweight (BMI < 18.5)									2.136***
									(0.404)
Overweight (25 ≤ BMI < 30)									0.858
									(0.175)
Obese (30 ≤ BMI < 40)									0.700
									(0.154)
Morbidly obese (BMI ≥ 40)									0.942
									(0.327)
Observations	10 530	10 530	10 494	10 515	10 530	10 509	10 521	10 530	10 530

Notes: Select odds ratios from logistic regression models. Each regression includes a quartic in age, an indicator for sex and indicators for population group. Robust standard errors that allow for correlation in the unobservables for individuals drawn from the same primary sampling unit are presented below the regression coefficients in parentheses (***p < 0.01, **p < 0.05, *p < 0.1). Regressions are weighted using the Wave 1 post-stratification weights. Regressions exclude individuals whose vital status at Wave 2 is unknown and are restricted to individuals aged 20 and older. All regressions include the following controls for socio-economic status: years of education, indicators for marital status, an indicator that the individual lives in an urban area, a count of household assets, the logarithm of per-capita household expenditure and household size. Regressions in columns 8 and 9 include indicators that blood pressure and BMI measurements are missing respectively. CES-D10, Center for Epidemiologic Studies Short Depression Scale (Radloff, 1997).

Radloff, LS, 1997. The CES-D scale: A self-report depression scale for research in the general population. Applied Psychological Measurement 1, 385–401. doi: 10.1177/014662167700100306

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