Measuring educational differences in mortality among women with defective data: the case of Brazil

Elisenda Rentería, Centro de Desenvolvimento e Planejamento Regional CEDEPLAR
Cassio M. Turra, Centro de Desenvolvimento e Planejamento Regional (CEDEPLAR)

SES inequalities in mortality have been studied for both sexes, although estimates for women remain more unclear. Measuring SES differentials in female mortality is especially difficult in developing countries due to the lack of reliable data. Brazil is a good example of a very unequal society where SES disparities in female mortality needs further investigation. Inspired on the orphanhood method, this study develops a new methodology that combines individual level data on the survival and the education of the mothers of participants from a Brazilian household survey collected in 1996 (Living Standards Measurement Study, PPV) to examine how mortality varies by level of education among adult women. Our results show that mortality is about three to four times higher among women with no schooling than among women with 9+ years of schooling. Our method may be helpful for examining female mortality rates by SES in countries with defective data.