Application of the concept ‘avoidable mortality’ in assessing the socioeconomic status related inequalities in health: a scoping review

Abstract Introduction Avoidable mortality is widely used by public health researchers to measure population health, and many related methodologies have been proposed for doing so. This scoping review presents a comprehensive view of global peer-reviewed and grey literature exploring the association between socioeconomic status (SES) and avoidable mortality. Methods We searched Ovid Medline, Scopus, and Web of Science to find articles that investigated SES inequalities in avoidable mortality. We limited our review to articles in English published between 2000 and 2020. For grey literature, we searched leading global and Canadian health information websites. We extracted data on different study characteristics, avoidable mortality definition, SES indicator, method of analysis of the association between avoidable mortality and SES, and main findings of the studies. Results We identified 34 articles to review, including 29 scientific papers and 5 grey literature documents. The findings of the selected articles consistently indicate a negative association between SES and avoidable mortality rates. Studies have not all used the same definitions of avoidable mortality or SES nor operationalized them in the same way. Conclusion Our review highlights the absence of a globally standard definition in avoidable mortality health equity research. Additional work to establish a standardized definition is crucial for supporting global comparability.