Reducing socioeconomic inequalities in life expectancy among municipalities: the Brazilian experience

ObjectivesThis study analyzed the evolution of regional and socioeconomic inequality in life expectancy (LE) at birth and the probability of living up to 40 (LU40) and up to 60years of age (LU60) in Brazilian municipalities between 1991 and 2010.MethodsWe analyzed data from the last three national census (1991, 2000 and 2010) computed for the 5565 Brazilian municipalities. They were divided into centiles according to the average per capita income. Poisson regression was performed to calculate the ratios between the poorest and the richest centiles.ResultsThe average LE (+8.8years), LU40 [6.7 percentage points (pp)] and LU60 increased (12.2pp) between 1991 and 2010. The ratio of LE between the 1% of richest counties and the 1% of poorest counties decreased from 1.20 in 1991 to 1.09 in 2010. While in the poorest municipalities there was a gain of around 12years of life, among the richest this increase was around 7years.ConclusionsThere was a remarkable decrease in regional and socioeconomic inequality in LE, LU40 and LU60 in Brazil between 1991 and 2010.