Incomes should have been adjusted in the two studies

EDITOR,—Whether inequalities in the distribution of income in advanced industrial societies are associated with average levels of population health is a contentious issue.1 The papers by George A Kaplan and colleagues and Bruce P Kennedy and colleagues seem to support the view that some indicators of income inequality are correlated with mortality, at least in the United States.2 3 Given that the United States is the most inegalitarian of the richest industrial nations, such findings are …