Parental income gradients in child and adolescent mortality: Norwegian trends over half a century

Abstract

ABSTRACTBackgroundChild mortality declined rapidly the last century in many high-income countries. However, little is known about the socioeconomic differences in this decline, and whether these vary across causes of death.MethodsWe use register data including all Norwegian births between 1968 to 2010 (2.1 million), and analyse how all-cause and cause-specific child (0-5) and adolescent mortality (6-21) vary with relative parental income the year before the birthResultsChild all-cause mortality decreased with increasing parental relative income within all birth cohorts. Among children aged 0-5, the socioeconomic gradient for all-cause, accidental deaths, sudden infant death syndrome and perinatal factors declined over the periode, while there was no systematic decline related to congenital malformations. Among children 6-21, the gradient did not weaken similarly, although there were indications of declines in the socioeconomic gradient related to all-cause deaths, accidents, and suicides. While the absolute differences in mortality declined over time, the relative differences remained stable.ConclusionThere has been a large reduction in child mortality in all socioeconomic groups across 50 years for all-cause and most cause-specific mortality groups. However, children of parents in the lowest part of the income distribution still have an elevated mortality, and the relative differences have not always been declining.