The Relationships of Occupational Class, Educational Level and Deprivation with Mortality in Korea.

Son, Mia

Original Article

Korean Journal of Preventive Medicine 2002;35(1): 76-82.

Center for Occupational Medicine, Hallym University Medical Center, Korea.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the relationships of occupational class, educational level and deprivation with mortality in Korea. METHODS: This study used existing South Korean national data on occupation, educational level, and deprivation and death. Mortality was investigated using registered death data from 1993 to 1997 obtained from the Korean National Statistics Office (NSO) with denominators drawn from the 1995 Census. Statistical analysis consisted of poisson regression modeling and multilevel analysis. RESULTS: The lower occupational class (manual workers) group had a higher mortality rate than the higher occupational class (non-manual workers) group. Educational level, and deprivation were both inversely related withand mortality. Occupation was strongly associated with education. Area-based deprivation indicators and individual indices for social class made an independent contribution to the mortality risk. CONCLUSIONS: The findings of this study suggests that the relationships of occupational class, educational level and deprivation with mortality appears to be stronger in Korea than in European countries.

Key words: Occupational class; Education; Deprivation; Mortality