Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Although men have greater societal and economic privileges, men have higher all-cause mortality rates than women, even after controlling for education. Further, racial/ethnic mortality disparities exist among men with varying levels of education differs across racial/ethnic groups. Few studies have explored the independent effects of education and all-cause mortality between Non-Hispanic Black and Non-Hispanic White men with the same level of education. Our purpose was to identify trends in racial differences in all-cause mortality between Non-Hispanic White and Non-Hispanic Black men with the same level of education. Data for the study came from the National Health Interview Surveys 2000-2011 linked to the 2000-2009 Mortality Files 2000 -2009. The Student's t and Chi-square tests were used to assess the mean and proportional differences between Non-Hispanic White and Non-Hispanic Black men (≥18 years of age) across a range of demographic and health-related factors. Cox proportional hazard models were specified to examine the association between level of education and all-cause mortality adjusting for the demographic and health characteristics. Except for men who did not complete high school, statistically significant differences in all-cause mortality are present between Non-Hispanic Black and Non-Hispanic White men with the same level of education. The findings reveal the importance of understanding the level of education on differences in all-cause mortality between Non-Hispanic Whites and Non-Hispanic Blacks.