Mortality Risk in India: The Differential contribution of Socioeconomic Factors across the Stages of Life course

Social class and economic well-being have been identified as important social determinants that shape health inequalities. In particular, socioeconomic inequalities in mortality not only explain prevailing exposure of disadvantaged individual and ecological circumstances but also cumulative exposure to adverse circumstances. This paper examines contribution of contextual and socioeconomic factors on mortality differential across the stages of life course using third round of large scale District Level Household Survey (2007-08). Multiple logistic regressions have been applied to evaluate the impact of socioeconomic variables (Gender, Caste, Wealth Index etc) on age-pattern of mortality. Age has been grouped into six categories to capture the different stages of life course:infant ( <1 year), young children (aged 2–5 years), children to adolescent (aged 6–18 years), young adult (aged 19–44 years), Middle-aged (aged 45–64 years), and elderly (aged 65 years and older). Finding clearly suggests mortality risk across the life course, is disproportionally associated with economically backward and lower caste people. Although, Income quintile gradient has found to considerable weaker in Adult ages as compared to younger ages. State level variation in mortality has also been observed which supports the contextual influence on mortality