Sex and Age Differences in Mortality in Southern China, 2004-2010.

Leibin Yu,Hongyang Tang,Jian Shi,Quanxing Nong,Zongfu Mao,Xinqin Lin,Haiyan Liu

doi:10.3390/ijerph120707886

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to describe the mortality patterns in the southern provinces of China, and to provide epidemiologic data on sex and age differences of death outcomes. Reliable mortality and population data from January 2004 to December 2010 were obtained from 12 Disease Surveillance Point (DSP) sites in four provinces of China. Death data from all causes and respiratory disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), pneumonia and influenza, circulatory disease, and ischemic heart disease, were stratified by year, month of death occurrence and sex, seven age groups, and summarized by descriptive statistics. The mean annual mortality rates of the selected 12 DSP sites in the southernmost provinces of China were 543.9 (range: 423.9–593.6) deaths per 100,000 population. The death rates show that noted sex differences were higher in the male population for all-cause, COPD and circulatory diseases. Pneumonia and influenza death rates present a different sex- and age-related distribution, with higher rates in male aged 65–74 years; whereas the death rates were opposite in elderly aged ≥75 years, and relatively higher in young children. This study had practical implications for recommending target groups for public health interventions.

Highlights

Calculating the cause-specific death rates by sex and age is the first step to define the disease burden of a population, which is essential for a government to support the development of public health policy. it plays a key role in the estimation of the direct and indirect burden of infectious diseases [1].A typical case is influenza, for which laboratory testing and confirmation are not usually carried out in routine clinical practice, especially in the developing countries
Our study provides sex- and age-specific mortality data of all-cause and specific categories of respiratory or circulatory diseases in four subtropical and tropical southernmost provinces, based on a unique and representative surveillance system of mortality
We found that annual death rates were

Summary

Introduction

Calculating the cause-specific death rates by sex and age is the first step to define the disease burden of a population, which is essential for a government to support the development of public health policy. it plays a key role in the estimation of the direct and indirect burden of infectious diseases [1].A typical case is influenza, for which laboratory testing and confirmation are not usually carried out in routine clinical practice, especially in the developing countries. Calculating the cause-specific death rates by sex and age is the first step to define the disease burden of a population, which is essential for a government to support the development of public health policy. It plays a key role in the estimation of the direct and indirect burden of infectious diseases [1]. Using mortality data of specific categories of respiratory or circulatory diseases, we could assess the impact of seasonal and pandemic influenza in different regions of China, for example, the northern temperate and southern subtropical regions [3,4]

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