Psychosocial Stress and Sociodemographic Differentials in Mortality from Ischaemic Heart Disease in Finland

Abstract

This report describes differences in mortality from ischaemic heart disease (IHD) and other selected causes of death according to region, marital status, language group (Finnish vs Swedish), social group and rural-urban divisions in Finland. The data include all deaths in Finland during 1971-75 in the cohorts of men aged 35-64 and women aged 35-74 on January 1st 1971 (33,862 IHD deaths). The sociodemographic characteristics of the decreased were obtained through computerized linkage from the records of the 1970 census by means of personal identification codes. IHD mortality was found to be higher than average in Eastern Finland, in the Finnish speaking population and in lower social groups. There was a higher mortality in non-married than in married categories among men, but among women the differences were smaller. The findings are discussed in the light of differences in stressrelated mortality.