EDUCATION, INCOME, MATERIAL DEPRIVATION AND MORTALITY IN HUNGARY BETWEEN 2001 AND 2008

Abstract

In Hungary, as in other Central Eastern European countries, large inequalities in mortality by level of education have been observed based mostly on cross-sectional data. This paper explores prospective mortality data from Hungary to evaluate the role of education, income and material deprivation using negative binomial regression.

Education, income and material deprivation are all found to be important determinants of mortality. However, in the multivariate regression only low income and deep material deprivation remained important independent predictors of mortality for both men and women. Contrary to expectations, education had no independent effect on mortality once subjective income and material deprivation was taken into account. Medium-level deprivation increased mortality risk only among men, and medium to low income only among women.