摘要：Background: Socioeconomic mortality differentials are known to exist almost universally. Many studies show a trend towards convergence with increasing age. Information about the highest ages is very rare, though. Objective: We want to find out whether socioeconomic factors determine the chance of death in the United States among the oldest people. Methods: Based on official death count records, we employ the extinct cohort method to estimate the age-specific probability of dying by level of education. Results: We present evidence that socioeconomic differentials in mortality exist even at the highest ages (95+), although the gap is small. Comments: To our knowledge, this is the first population-based study to analyze socioeconomic mortality differentials at ages 95 and higher. We present, furthermore, a novel field of application for the extinct cohort method.
关键词：extinct cohort;oldest old mortality;socioeconomic differentials
