Russian mortality beyond vital statistics

Analyses of routine data have established that the extreme mortality fluctuations among young and middle-aged men are the most important single component of both temporal changes in Russian life expectancy at birth and in the gap between male and female life expectancy. It is also responsible for the largest share of the life expectancy gap between Russia and other industrialised countries. A case-control study has been used to identify factors associated with mortality among men aged 20 to 55 in the five major cities of the Udmurt Republic in 1998-99. Men dying from external causes and circulatory disease are taken as cases. Matched controls were selected from men of the same age living in the same neighbourhood of residence. Information about characteristics of cases and controls was obtained by interviewing proxies who were family members or friends of the subjects. After exclusion of those deaths for which proxy informant could not be identified, a total of 205 circulatory disease and 333 external cause cases were included together with the same number of controls. Educational level was significantly associated with mortality from circulatory diseases and external causes in a crude analysis. However, this could largely be explained by adjustment for employment, marital status, smoking and alcohol consumption. Smoking was associated with mortality from circulatory disease (crude OR=2.44, 95% CI 1.36-4.36), this effect being slightly attenuated after adjustment for socio-economic factors and alcohol consumption. Unemployment was associated with a large increase in the risk of death from external causes (crude OR=3.63, 95% CI 2.17-6.08), an effect that was still substantial after adjustment for other variables (adjusted OR=2.52, 95% CI 1.43-4.43). A reported history of periods of heavy drinking was linked to both deaths from circulatory disease (crude OR=4.21, 95% CI 2.35-7.55) and external cause mortality (crude OR=2.65, 95% CI 1.69-4.17). Adjustment for other variables reduced the size of these odds ratios, but they remained strikingly large for circulatory disease (adjusted OR=3.54, 95% CI 1.76-7.13) and considerable for external causes (adjusted OR 1.75, 95% CI 1.02-3.00). These may be underestimates of the true effects as nearly all of them increased when employment status (which can in part at least be seen as being on the causal pathway) was excluded from the final model. In summary, however, our key finding is that a history of heavy drinking in the recent past is strongly associated with risk of death from circulatory disease. This provides the first individual-level evidence in support of the hypothesis that episodic heavy drinking is key to explaining the heavy burden of circulatory disease mortality among Russian men of working age.alcohol, case-control, mortality, Russia, smoking, socio-economic factors

Regional disparities in infant mortality in Canada: a reversal of egalitarian trends

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Although national health insurance plans and social programs introduced in the 1960s led to reductions in regional disparities in infant mortality in Canada, it is unclear if such patterns prevailed in the 1990s when the health care and related systems were under fiscal duress. This study examined regional patterns of change in infant mortality in Canada in recent decades.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We analysed regional changes in crude infant mortality rates and in infant mortality rates among live births with a birth weight ≥ 500 g and ≥ 1,000 g in Canada from 1945 to 2002. Associations between baseline infant mortality rates in the provinces and territories (e.g., in 1985–89) and the change observed in infant mortality rates over the subsequent period (e.g., between 1985–89 and 1995–99) were assessed using Spearman's rank correlation coefficient. Trends in regional disparities were also assessed by calculating period-specific rate ratios between provinces/territories with the highest versus the lowest infant mortality.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Provincial/territorial infant mortality rates in 1945–49 were not correlated with changes in infant mortality over the next 10 years (rho = 0.01, P = 0.99). However, there was a strong negative correlation between infant mortality rates in 1965–69 and the subsequent decline in infant mortality (rho = - 0.85, P = 0.002). Provinces/territories with higher infant mortality rates in 1965–69 (Northwest Territories 64.7 vs British Columbia 20.7 per 1,000 live births) experienced relatively larger reductions in infant mortality between 1965–69 and 1975–79 (53.7% decline in the Northwest Territories vs a 36.6% decline in British Columbia). This pattern was reversed in the more recent decades. Provinces/territories with higher infant mortality rates ≥ 500 g in 1985–89 experience relatively smaller reductions in infant mortality between 1985–89 and 2000–02 (rho = 0.82, P = 0.004). The infant mortality ≥ 500 g rate ratio (contrasting the province/territory with the highest versus lowest infant mortality) was 3.2 in 1965–69, 2.4 in 1975–79, 2.2 in 1985–89, 3.1 in 1995–99 and 4.1 in 2000–02.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Fiscal constraints in the 1990s led to a reversal of provincial/territorial patterns of change in infant mortality in Canada and to an increase in regional health disparities.</p

Vital Statistics of Iowa in Brief, 2004

This publication is an historical recording of the most requested statistics on vital events and is a source of information that can be used in further analysis

African vital statistics

A journal article on vital statistics of the African population of Southern Rhodesia in the mid- 1950's.The second sample survey of the African population was designed to cover the whole territory in two years. For various reasons arising from movements of population, changes in district boundaries, illness of field officers, etc., a few districts remained to be surveyed in 1955. The preliminary results of the districts surveyed in 1953 have been published, hut those of the 1954 survey are still being analysed. Information is not sufficiently complete to enable comparisons of the 1948 and 1953 surveys to he made by provinces, and in the report on the preliminary results comparisons are therefore made over the total area for which results have been secured. The comparable area embraces 14 out of the 36 native districts in existence in 1948. In addition the sample covered three new districts, of which two have been formed since 1948. the third being one which was omitted from the 1948 results

The Foundation Performance Dashboard: Vital Statistics for Social Impact

Boards and foundation leadership rarely have a clear, consistent, and comprehensive picture of their foundation's performance. Interestingly, this situation persists despite the fact that nearly 60% of foundation CEOs would like to have more board involvement in reviewing the foundation's philanthropic mission and effectiveness. Our experience suggests that this conundrum results from a fundamental uncertainty: Foundations are unsure how to bridge the chasm between the readily available and concise metrics for investment performance and the much more complex, expensive, and subjective data from internal operations and program evaluations

Community vital statistics, Arizona

abstract: Statistics for births and deaths (both infants and general population) in Arizon