Zeitschriftenartikel
The impact of education misreporting on education-specific mortality and educational inequalities in mortality: a scenario-based study
Population Studies, 1–17 (2026)
Open Access
Reproduzierbar
Abstract
In many countries, educational inequalities in mortality are estimated using unlinked data sources: death certificates and censuses. However, education misreporting in these sources can introduce biases of unknown direction and magnitude. This study comprehensively quantifies such biases by taking a scenario-based approach, where distortions in education reporting are introduced to evaluate their effect on education-specific mortality rates and educational inequalities in mortality. Our results show that education misreporting can greatly bias mortality estimates, with the direction and magnitude of the bias influenced by the composition of and inequality in the population. We identify two bias patterns in inequality measures, based on whether they account for the ordering of education groups. Additionally, we demonstrate how education overstatement on death certificates can lead to crossovers in education-specific mortality rates and reversals in inequality. This study highlights the need for improved data quality to estimate educational inequalities in mortality accurately.
Schlagwörter: bias, data evaluation, defective data, education, inequality, mortality measurement, quality of data, socio-economic differentials