The Association of Geographic Coordinates with Mortality in XXXX with Lower and Higher Education and with Mortality Inequalities in Spain.

@entity1 @entity204 @entity5
OBJECTIVE: Geographic patterns in total mortality and in mortality by cause of @entity204 are widely known to exist in many countries. However, the geographic pattern of inequalities in mortality within these countries is unknown. This study shows mathematically and graphically the geographic pattern of mortality inequalities by education in Spain. METHODS: Data are from a nation-wide prospective study covering all @entity1 living in Spain's 50 provinces in 2001. Individuals were classified in a cohort of subjects with low education and in another cohort of subjects with high education. Age- and sex-adjusted mortality rate from all causes and from leading causes of @entity204 in each cohort and mortality rate ratios in the low versus high education cohort were estimated by geographic coordinates and province. RESULTS: Latitude but not longitude was related to mortality. In subjects with low education, latitude had a U-shaped relation to mortality. In those with high education, mortality from all causes, and from cardiovascular, respiratory and digestive diseases decreased with increasing latitude, whereas @entity5 mortality increased. The mortality-rate ratio for all-cause @entity204 was 1.27 in the southern latitudes, 1.14 in the intermediate latitudes, and 1.20 in the northern latitudes. The mortality rate ratios for the leading causes of @entity204 were also higher in the lower and upper latitudes than in the intermediate latitudes. The geographic pattern of the mortality rate ratios is similar to that of the mortality rate in the low-education cohort: the highest magnitude is observed in the southern provinces, intermediate magnitudes in the provinces of the north and those of the Mediterranean east coast, and the lowest magnitude in the central provinces and those in the south of the Western Pyrenees. CONCLUSION: Mortality inequalities by education in Spain are higher in the south and north of the country and lower in the large region making up the central plateau. This geographic pattern is similar to that observed in mortality in the low-education cohort.
