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

Sarcopenic obesity and risk of cardiovascular disease and mortality: a population-based cohort study of older men.

OBJECTIVES: To examine associations between sarcopenia, obesity, and sarcopenic obesity and risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and all-cause mortality in older men. DESIGN: Prospective cohort study. SETTING: British Regional Heart Study. PARTICIPANTS: Men aged 60-79 years (n = 4,252). MEASUREMENTS: Baseline waist circumference (WC) and midarm muscle circumference (MAMC) measurements were used to classify participants into four groups: sarcopenic, obese, sarcopenic obese, or optimal WC and MAMC. The cohort was followed for a mean of 11.3 years for CVD and all-cause mortality. Cox regression analyses assessed associations between sarcopenic obesity groups and all-cause mortality, CVD mortality, CVD events, and coronary heart disease (CHD) events. RESULTS: There were 1,314 deaths, 518 CVD deaths, 852 CVD events, and 458 CHD events during follow-up. All-cause mortality risk was significantly greater in sarcopenic (HR = 1.41, 95% CI = 1.22-1.63) and obese (HR = 1.21, 95% CI = 1.03-1.42) men than in the optimal reference group, with the highest risk in sarcopenic obese (HR = 1.72, 95% CI = 1.35-2.18), after adjustment for lifestyle characteristics. Risk of CVD mortality was significantly greater in sarcopenic and obese but not sarcopenic obese men. No association was seen between sarcopenic obesity groups and CHD or CVD events. CONCLUSION: Sarcopenia and central adiposity were associated with greater cardiovascular mortality and all-cause mortality. Sarcopenic obese men had the highest risk of all-cause mortality but not CVD mortality. Efforts to promote healthy aging should focus on preventing obesity and maintaining muscle mass

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

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

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

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