Socioeconomic inequalities in mortality are well known in working aged populations. Several studies suggest that they have widened over the recent decades. Less is known about trends in socioeconomic inequalities among older adults; few studies have focused on trends and differences in mortality among the oldest and hardly any with a dataset covering more than 15-20 years. However, as most health problems, diseases and deaths in industrialized countries occur after retirement ages, the largest incidence of morbidity and mortality attributable to being among the socioeconomic disadvantaged groups occur in these age groups.
We want to study whether educational differences in mortality have changed over time in an elderly population. The aims of this study are (i) to describe overall mortality trends among old Norwegians between 1960 and 2008 by sex, age and educational level, (ii) to estimate temporal trends in relative and absolute educational inequalities in mortality and (iii) to assess the population impact of such inequalities among the aged.