Lumley, ThomasMilne, BarryBolton, Liza Lillian2024-01-212024-01-212022https://hdl.handle.net/2292/67251Background: While socioeconomic inequalities in mortality are well established, there are few studies with repeated measures of socioeconomic position (SEP) and high population coverage. Longitudinal associations have not been established for adults in Aotearoa New Zealand, a country with persistent ethnic disparities in mortality. Objective: Use repeated measures over time to better understand the association between SEP and mortality. Specifically: 1. To test support for life-course hypotheses—accumulation, sensitive period, and mobility—for multiple SEP indicators. 2. To assess the extent to which more/harsher experiences of deprivation over time explain mortality inequalities between the two largest ethnic groups, European settlers and Indigenous Māori. 3. To test whether religious affiliation, as an indicator of social/cultural capital, protects against low SEP. Data: The New Zealand Longitudinal Census links the 1981, 1986, 1991, 1996, 2001 and 2006 New Zealand Censuses of Population and Dwellings. The New Zealand Census-Mortality Study links mortality records to these censuses. Results: 1. Lower SEP is consistently significantly associated with higher mortality. However, most of the life-course hypothesis and SEP indicator combinations across adulthood I tested do not improve classification of mortality outcomes. Where they do, measures of SEP at a single point directly before mortality follow-up are sufficient. 2. There was not significantly more mediation of the inequality in mortality outcomes between Māori and European New Zealanders using repeated measures of SEP over time versus a single point directly before mortality follow-up. 40–50% of the inequality between these groups is explained by Europeans having better socioeconomic outcomes. 3. For most New Zealanders, religious affiliation does not protect against low SEP. It is instead associated with 10–15% higher odds of mortality after controlling for demographic, economic and health variables. Additionally, weighting for bias from missed census-to-census links does not change these findings. Conclusion: While lower SEP is consistently associated with higher mortality across various indicators and cohorts, measurements at a single point before mortality follow-up were often as effective at predicting or mediating mortality as repeated measures over adulthood.Items in ResearchSpace are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.https://researchspace.auckland.ac.nz/docs/uoa-docs/rights.htmhttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/nz/Thesis2024-01-14Copyright: The authorhttp://purl.org/eprint/accessRights/OpenAccess