The unequal city : Income and health inequalities in Toronto, 2008

The methods used for describing inequalities in health in this report are: Absolute difference – the difference in the rates of health outcomes between the lowest income group and the highest income group. [...] Relative difference – the ratio of the rate of health outcomes in the lowest income group compared to the highest income group. [...] The gradient for males was steep with the highest mortality rate (370 per 100,000) in the lowest income quintile and a step-wise decrease in rates to 240 per 100,000 in the highest income quintile (Q5). [...] In relative terms, the premature mortality rate for males in the lowest income quintile was 1.5 times the rate in the highest income quintile, and for females it was 1.3 times the rate in the highest income quintile. [...] Similar to the quintile analysis, the gradient for Toronto males by income decile was steep with the highest premature mortality rate (410 per 100,000) in the lowest income decile decreasing to 208 per 100,000 in the highest income decile.