Infectious disease mortality among adults by race and socioeconomic status: Metropolitan Ohio, 1989–1991

Abstract

The data presented here are part of an on‐going longitudinal study of the relationship between socioeconomic status and mortality in the major metropolitan centers of Ohio. Using a Standardized Mortality Ratio, we find that mortality in the seven‐city urban aggregate exceeds that of the rest of the state by 39 per cent for the nonwhite population and only 1 per cent for the white population. Further, for the nonwhite population, living in a high income area has no discernible health benefit for nonwhites as compared to whites. On the other hand, for the AIDS virus, there is a clear inverse association between economic status and mortality from AIDS. It is clear that the interrelationship among race, economic status, and health continues to be a complex one on which further research is needed.