RESEARCH ARTICLE The contribution of health

Full list of author information is available at the end of the articleBackground Growing mortality differences between socioeconomic groups have been reported both in Finland and other developed countries during the last decades [1-3]. In a recent study from Finland, Tarkiainen et al. [4] report growing income group differences in life expectancy from the late 1980s to 2007. The gap in life expectancy at age 35 between the highest and lowest income quintile widened by 5.1 years among men and 2.9 years among women from 1988-92 to 2003-07. At the end of the study period they reported a 12.5 year difference among men and a 6.8 year difference among women. The most im-portant causes of death contributing to these differences were alcohol related deaths and some cancers in both genders and ischaemic heart disease (IHD) among men [4]. Socioeconomic differences in health behaviours have been reported in Finland and they have been estimated t