The project investigates socioeconomic status (SES) differences in mortality in the United States. Little is know about how some dimensions of SES-such as different sources of income and, importantly, the accumulation of assets-influence mortality risks. The principal purpose of this research is to develop an improved understanding of the linkage between income, assets, and cause-specific adult mortality that also takes into account the varied race/ethnic composition of the population. The specific aims of the study are to: (1) assemble an integral, prospective database that will allow us to simultaneously examine the effects of a more comprehensive set of income and asset variables on U.S. cause-specific adult mortality than has heretofore been the case, (2) test whether the effects of family income on adult mortality risk depend upon the type of income received, (3) examine whether the ownership of material assets, an important but often overlooked dimension of SES, influences mortality risks, even above and beyond the influences of family income, and (4) test whether family income and asset variables interact with race/ethnicity-non-Hispanic white, non-Hispanic blacks, Mexican Americans, Cuban Americans, Puerto Rican Americans, and Asian Americans-to affect the risk of mortality.
A database has been created from pooled information (five years of data) from the Family Resource Supplements (FRS) of the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), matched to death information from the National Death Index (NDI). The resultant dataset containing pooled information from the two surveys is the newest available source with national data that allows for detailed analysis of economic differences in cause-specific mortality.
