Income disparities in life expectancy in the City of Toronto and Region of Peel, Ontario.

INTRODUCTION To understand the lack of a gradient in mortality by neighbourhood income in a previous study, we used individual-level data from the 1991-2001 Canadian census mortality follow-up study to examine income-related disparities in life expectancy and probability of survival to age 75 years in the City of Toronto and Region of Peel. METHODS We calculated period life tables for each sex and income adequacy quintile, overall and separately for immigrants and non-immigrants. RESULTS For all cohort members of both sexes, including both immigrants and non-immigrants, there was a clear gradient across the income quintiles, with higher life expectancy in each successively richer quintile. However, the disparities by income were much greater when the analysis was restricted to non-immigrants. The lesser gradient for immigrants appeared to reflect the higher proportion of recent immigrants in the lower income quintiles. CONCLUSION These findings highlight the importance of using individual-level ascertainment of income whenever possible, and of including immigrant status and period of immigration in assessments of health outcomes, especially for areas with a high proportion of immigrants.