Objective: To analyse trends in socio-economic inequalities in mortality due to all injuries, as well as, suicide and motor vehicle injuries, in men in the census tracts of 26 Spanish cities for the periods 1996-2001 and 2002-2007.
Methods: Ecological study of trends based on two periods (1996-2001 and 2002-2007). The study population consisted of male residents in each city during the period 1996-2007. We fitted a hierarchical Bayesian model which takes into account the spatial structure of the data in order to obtain relative risks (RRs), and their 95% credible intervals (CIs), between mortality and a socio-economic deprivation index, in each period.
Results: In most of the cities, mortality due to total injuries presents the same geographical pattern as the deprivation index in the two periods. Moreover, inequalities remained stable. In contrast, socio-economic inequalities in mortality due to motor vehicle injuries tended to diminish in the second period in the majority of the cities, particularly Castellón (first period: RR(1)=2.56; 95%CI: 1.19-4.84; second period: RR(2)=1.06; 95%CI: 0.45-2.12), whereas in the case of suicides, the inequalities remain stable but are only significant in large cities.
Conclusion: This study has demonstrated that socio-economic inequalities in mortality due to all injuries in small areas of 26 Spanish cities remain stable over time. These results highlight the importance of intra-urban inequalities in mortality due to injuries and their evolution over time.
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