Body-mass index and all-cause mortality: individual-participant-data meta-analysis of 239 prospective studies in four continents

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The impact of heat waves and cold spells on mortality rates in the Dutch population.

We conducted the study described in this paper to investigate the impact of ambient temperature on mortality in the Netherlands during 1979-1997, the impact of heat waves and cold spells on mortality in particular, and the possibility of any heat wave- or cold spell-induced forward displacement of mortality. We found a V-like relationship between mortality and temperature, with an optimum temperature value (e.g., average temperature with lowest mortality rate) of 16.5 degrees C for total mortality, cardiovascular mortality, respiratory mortality, and mortality among those [Greater and equal to] 65 year of age. For mortality due to malignant neoplasms and mortality in the youngest age group, the optimum temperatures were 15.5 degrees C and 14.5 degrees C, respectively. For temperatures above the optimum, mortality increased by 0.47, 1.86, 12.82, and 2.72% for malignant neoplasms, cardiovascular disease, respiratory diseases, and total mortality, respectively, for each degree Celsius increase above the optimum in the preceding month. For temperatures below the optimum, mortality increased 0.22, 1.69, 5.15, and 1.37%, respectively, for each degree Celsius decrease below the optimum in the preceding month. Mortality increased significantly during all of the heat waves studied, and the elderly were most effected by extreme heat. The heat waves led to increases in mortality due to all of the selected causes, especially respiratory mortality. Average total excess mortality during the heat waves studied was 12.1%, or 39.8 deaths/day. The average excess mortality during the cold spells was 12.8% or 46.6 deaths/day, which was mostly attributable to the increase in cardiovascular mortality and mortality among the elderly. The results concerning the forward displacement of deaths due to heat waves were not conclusive. We found no cold-induced forward displacement of deaths

Mortality tempo versus removal of causes of mortality

We propose an alternative way of dealing with mortality tempo. Bongaarts and Feeney have developed a model that assumes a fixed delay postponing each death. Our model, however, assumes that changes take place with the removal of a given cause of mortality. Cross-sectional risks of mortality by age and expectations of life therefore are not biased, contrary to the model of the two authors. Treating the two approaches as two particular cases of a more general process, we demonstrate that these two particular cases are the only ones that have general properties: The only model enjoying a decomposable expression is the removal model and the only model enjoying the proportionality property is the fixed delay model.cause of death, causes of mortality, cross-sectional life-table, fictitious life-table, life tables, mortality tempo, multiple decrement life-table, reference life-table

Black mortality in antebellum Savannah

Black mortality in an urban environment in the antebellum South is relatively under-researched. This article is based on burial records from Savannah between 1853 and 1861 and argues that black mortality in Savannah was noticeably better than on nearby plantations and was broadly comparable to white mortality. This is in contrast to previous studies on slave mortality which have tended to stress that black mortality was worse than white. I conclude by arguing that mortality was linked to more closely to class than race in Savannah

Cancer mortality in Portugal

Following Population News, Trends and Attitudes #6 it was possible to identify that, despite circulatory system diseases represent the leading causes of death (COD) in Portugal, the share of deaths caused by neoplasms is increasing with time. Analysing data from 10th International Classification of Diseases available at Statistics Portugal (INE), one can observe that since 2010 mortality associated to neoplasms is the major COD for males. In 2015, males presented almost twice the number of deaths caused by neoplasms when compared to females: 356.0 against 169.9 per 100.000 individuals

Modelling stochastic bivariate mortality

Stochastic mortality, i.e. modelling death arrival via a jump process with stochastic intensity, is gaining increasing reputation as a way to represent mortality risk. This paper represents a first attempt to model the mortality risk of couples of individuals, according to the stochastic intensity approach. On the theoretical side, we extend to couples the Cox processes set up, i.e. the idea that mortality is driven by a jump process whose intensity is itself a stochastic process, proper of a particular generation within each gender. Dependence between the survival times of the members of a couple is captured by an Archimedean copula. On the calibration side, we fit the joint survival function by calibrating separately the (analytical) copula and the (analytical) margins. First, we select the best fit copula according to the methodology of Wang and Wells (2000) for censored data. Then, we provide a sample-based calibration for the intensity, using a time-homogeneous, non mean-reverting, affine process: this gives the analytical marginal survival functions. Coupling the best fit copula with the calibrated margins we obtain, on a sample generation, a joint survival function which incorporates the stochastic nature of mortality improvements and is far from representing independency.On the contrary, since the best fit copula turns out to be a Nelsen one, dependency is increasing with age and long-term dependence exists

Using HIV-attributable mortality to assess the impact of antiretroviral therapy on adult mortality in rural Tanzania.

BACKGROUND: The Tanzanian national HIV care and treatment programme has provided free antiretroviral therapy (ART) to HIV-positive persons since 2004. ART has been available to participants of the Kisesa open cohort study since 2005, but data to 2007 showed a slow uptake of ART and a modest impact on mortality. Additional data from the 2010 HIV serological survey provide an opportunity to update the estimated impact of ART in this setting. METHODS: The Kisesa Health and Demographic Surveillance Site (HDSS) has collected HIV serological data and demographic data, including verbal autopsy (VA) interviews since 1994. Serological data to the end of 2010 were used to make two estimates of HIV-attributable mortality, the first among HIV positives using the difference in mortality between HIV positives and HIV negatives, and the second in the population using the difference between the observed mortality rate in the whole population and the mortality rate among the HIV negatives. Four time periods (1994-1999, 2000-2004, 2005-2007, and 2008-2010) were used and HIV-attributable mortality estimates were analysed in detail for trends over time. A computer algorithm, InterVA-4, was applied to VA data to estimate the HIV-attributable mortality for the population, and this was compared to the estimates from the serological survey data. RESULTS: Among HIV-positive adults aged 45-59 years, high mortality rates were observed across all time periods in both males and females. In HIV-positive men, the HIV-attributable mortality was 91.6% (95% confidence interval (CI): 84.6%-95.3%) in 2000-2004 and 86.3% (95% CI: 71.1%-93.3%) in 2008-2010, while among women, the HIV-attributable mortality was 87.8% (95% CI: 71.1%-94.3%) in 2000-2004 and 85.8% (95% CI: 59.6%-94.4%) in 2008-2010. In the whole population, using the serological data, the HIV-attributable mortality among men aged 30-44 years decreased from 57.2% (95% CI: 46.9%-65.3%) in 2000-2004 to 36.5% (95% CI: 18.8%-50.1%) in 2008-2010, while among women the corresponding decrease was from 57.3% (95% CI: 49.7%-63.6%) to 38.7% (95% CI: 27.4%-48.2%). The HIV-attributable mortality in the population using estimates from the InterVA model was lower than that from HIV sero-status data in the period prior to ART, but slightly higher once ART became available. DISCUSSION: In the Kisesa HDSS, ART availability corresponds with a decline in adult overall mortality, although not as large as expected. Using InterVA to estimate HIV-attributable mortality showed smaller changes in HIV-related mortality following ART availability than the serological results

Size-related Hooking Mortality of Incidentally Caught Chinook Salmon, Oncorhynchus tshawytscha

Mortality associated with the incidental catch and release by commercial trollers of two size classes of chinook salmon, Oncorhynchus tshawytscha, was assessed. Observed cumulative mortality 4-6 days after hooking was 18.3 percent for sublegal-sizefish « 66 cm FL) and 19.0 percent for legal-sizefish. Size of fish was not significantly related to mortality; however, when the results were combined with data from a previous experiment, there was a significant inverse relationship between fish length and mortality. Hooking mortality estimates calculated from tagging experiments and observed relative mortality of legal-and sublegal-size fish held in net pens, were used to derive a range for total hooking mortality of 22.0-26.4 percent for sublegal-size chinook salmon and 18.5-26.4 percent for legal-size chinook salmon

Variations in amenable mortality--trends in 16 high-income nations.

BACKGROUND: There has been growing interest in the comparison of health system performance within and between countries, using a range of different indicators. This study examines trends in amenable mortality, as one measure of health system performance, in sixteen high-income countries. METHODS: Amenable mortality was defined as premature death from causes that should not occur in the presence of timely and effective health care. We analysed age-standardised rates of amenable mortality under age 75 in 16 countries for 1997/1998 and 2006/2007. RESULTS: Amenable mortality remains an important contributor to premature mortality in 16 high-income countries, accounting for 24% of deaths under age 75. Between 1997/1998 and 2006/2007, amenable mortality fell by between 20.5% in the US and 42.1% in Ireland (average decline: 31%). In 2007, amenable mortality in the US was almost twice that in France, which had the lowest levels. CONCLUSIONS: Amenable mortality continues to fall across high-income nations although the USA is lagging increasingly behind other high income countries. Despite its many limitations, amenable mortality remains a useful indicator to monitor progress of nations

Bivariate stochastic modeling of functional response with natural mortality

A correction due to Abbott (1925) is the standard method of dealing with control mortality in insect bioassay to estimate the mortality of an insect conditional on control mortality not having occurred. In this article a bivariate stochastic process for overall mortality is developed in which natural mortality and predation are jointly modeled to take account of the competing-risks associated with prey loss. The total mortality estimate from this model is essentially identical with that from more classical modeling. However, when predation loss is estimated in the absence of control mortality the results are somewhat different, with the estimate from the bivariate model being lower than that from using Abbott’s formula in conjunction with the classical model. It is argued that overdispersion in observed mortality data corresponds to correlated outcomes (death or survival) for the prey initially present, while Abbott’s correction relies implicitly on independence