Old-age mortality in Israel: analysis of variation and change.

This study analyses differentials in life expectancy and cause-specific death rates among the elderly Jewish population in Israel in the early 1970s and early 1980s. We find substantial inequality in old-age mortality levels across subpopulations in geographic units and show that this inequality increased between the two periods. Much of the variation in old-age mortality is explained by differences in economic and social status, ethnicity and religiosity. The importance of religiosity is of particular interest in the context of Israeli society.