Instituto de Saúde Coletiva, Universidade Federal da

An ecological study was carried out with the aim of analyzing the evolution of inequalities in mor-tality in Salvador, Bahia State, Brazil, between 1991 and 2006. The city was divided into four social strata from 95 geographic Information Zones. The variables used for social stratifica-tion were education level and income of heads of households. Crude and age-standardized mortality rates, age specific mortality rates, pro-portional Infant mortality and the proportional mortality ratio, were calculated for each zone and social strata. Data was obtained from Death Cer-tificates and the Populational Census. Although differences between strata were smaller in 2000 than in 1991, they persist and are still high, rang-ing from 28.7 % to 65.5%. The differences between Information Zones were as much as 575%. The authors discuss the shortcomings of information systems, recommending that health indicators should be estimated by social classes and point-ing out the limits and possibilities of the method-ology used here