Does the variation in the socioeconomic characteristics of an area affect mortality?

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Abstract
For each of the 8464 wards in England we obtained the Townsend deprivation index from the 1981 census1 and directly standardised all cause mortality for 1981-5. Mortality under the age of 65 was used as an indicator of premature mortality. Male and female mortality rates were averaged for each ward. Twenty four wards were excluded because we could not compute the mortality rate, and two local authorities were excluded because each contained only one ward. The remaining 369 local authorities contained an average of 23 wards (6-47).