Health inequalities in Britain: continuing increases up to the end of the 20th century

Abstract

Poverty was indexed by a modified version of the Breadline Britain index, based on lack of basic amenities and car access, unskilled and semi-skilled manual occupations, unemployment, non-owner occupier households, and lone parent households. This is a validated indicator of deprivation.3 Parliamentary constituencies were ranked according to the poverty measure and divided into equal population size deciles on the basis of this ranking. The same ranking deciles, based on 1991 census data, are used for each of the time periods. Standardised mortality ratios (SMRs) were calculated separately for men and women for these deciles, using their overall age specific mortality rates for England and Wales for the periods under consideration.