Typology of Regions and Cities of Russia by Causes of Death

Abstract

The problem of the high mortality rate, in comparison with countries with similar living standards, is extremely urgent in Russia. It is especially noticeable at the regional level, where differences in mortality and its structure are enormous. The regions of Russia are at different stages of epidemiological transition. This is expressed in differences in their mortality rates and differences in the structure of causes of death. The regions and largest cities of the country are sometimes diverge radically, which greatly complicates research. This paper presents a typology of regions and large cities of the Russian Federation according to the main classes of causes of death in 2015 and its cartography. The spatial features of mortality according to the main causes of death are determined separately for men and women. The assessment was carried out using classification by demographic indicators (causes of mortality: some infectious and parasitic diseases; tumours; diseases of the circulatory system; respiratory diseases; diseases of the digestive system; external causes of death). The dataset included 250 territorial units: 85 regions (including cities of federal significance) and 165 large cities with populations of over 100,000. Based on the primary statistics, standardised mortality rates were calculated. The classification was carried out according to an algorithm developed by one of the authors. The classification presented allows us to highlight the specific characteristics of individual groups of regions and analyse them with a greater degree of accuracy.