Concentration Of Death Research Articles

Pedestrian traffic injuries in Mexico: A country update

Road traffic injuries in general and pedestrian injuries in particular are a major public health problem in Mexico, especially in large urban areas. Analysis of mortality and road crashes at the national level was done using routine data recorded on death certificates. Fatality rates for different age groups were estimated by region for the year 2000. These data were supplemented by a cross-sectional study of pedestrian injuries in Mexico City based on death certificates information for pedestrians who lived and died in Mexico City between 1994 and 1997. Participant observation of physical spaces where crashes occurred was carried out. The spaces were filmed and in-depth interviews of survivors conducted. Road traffic crashes were responsible for approximately 17,500 deaths in Mexico during 2000. The mean age of the victims was 37 years. Mexico lost an average of 30 years of productive life for each individual who died in a traffic crash – 525,000 years in 2000. An estimated 9500 (54.3%) of all fatalities were pedestrians, and for every pedestrian death there were 13 others who sustained nonfatal injuries requiring medical care. The overall crude mortality rate for pedestrian injuries in Mexico City was 7.14 per 100,000 (CI 6.85-7.42). A concentration of deaths was observed in 10 neighborhoods at specific types of street environments. The underlying factors included dangerous crossings and the absence or inadequacy of pedestrian bridges, as well as negative perceptions of road safety by pedestrians. In conclusion, this study demonstrates the importance of elucidating the underlying contextual determinants of pedestrian injuries.

Rectangularization of the survival curve in The Netherlands, 1950-1992.

In this article we determine whether rectangularization of the survival curve occurred in the Netherlands in the period 1950-1992. Rectangularization is defined as a trend toward a more rectangular shape of the survival curve due to increased survival and concentration of deaths around the mean age at death. We distinguish between absolute and relative rectangularization, depending on whether an increase in life expectancy is accompanied by concentration of deaths into a smaller age interval or into a smaller proportion of total life expectancy. We used measures of variability based on Keyfitz' H and the standard deviation, both life table-based. Our results show that absolute and relative rectangularization of the entire survival curve occurred in both sexes and over the complete period (except for the years 1955-1959 and 1965-1969 in men). At older ages, results differ between sexes, periods, and an absolute versus a relative definition of rectangularization. Above age 60 1/2, relative rectangularization occurred in women over the complete period and in men since 1975-1979 only, whereas absolute rectangularization occurred in both sexes since the period of 1980-1984. The implications of the recent rectangularization at older ages for achieving compression of morbidity are discussed.

Association therapy as a prognostic factor in deep fungal infection complicating oncohaematological diseases

A group of 31 oncohaemopathic patients (17 male, mean age 44 +/- 6 years), diagnosed as having primary deep fungal infection involving the lungs, were retrospectively evaluated. When infection was suspected on a clinical basis the major associated risks for death were the duration of bone marrow aplasia (12 +/- 7 versus 21 +/- 6 days, P < 0.001), increase in white blood cells and, in particular, prolonged granulocytopenia (11 +/- 5 versus 24 +/- 8 days, P < 0.001) when survivors were compared with patients, who died. Our therapeutic empirical approach was based on the association of i.v. amphotericin B, 1 mg kg-1 day-1, with oral 5-fluorocytosine (5-FC) 150 mg kg-1 day-1. Only 9 subjects received combination therapy for more than 7 days. For majority of them, oral 5-FC was interrupted because of altered compliance or sustained liver damage. A chi 2 test for independent parameters showed (P = 0.0021) a concentration of deaths among patients who received amphotericin B alone (15/22); none of the patients treated with amphotericin B + 5-FC (9 cases) died. Results generally suggest that a more favourable outcome was statistically associated with empirical antifungal combination therapy in deep fungal infection, although both treatment regimens showed effectiveness in terms of survival. Nevertheless the low 5-FC compliance and the small sample do not indicate the safe use of this drug in a large population.

MORTALITY IN THE HUNTER REGION, NEW SOUTH WALES, 1970 TO 1977

For the past two decades, crude mortality rates for the Hunter Health Region of New South Wales have been consistently higher by about 5% than those for the State in general. This is, in part, attributable to a concentration of deaths, particularly of those from ischaemic heart disease and stroke, in two major industrial areas within the Region. Favourable modification of these mortality inequalities may be possible in some cases through legislation and education. The importance of these inequalities for planning health care resources is also discussed.

Deseasonalization of mortality in the world.

The statistical analysis of the seasonal variation of mortality in the 1960's in Japan and the Western countries reveals that the seasonal variation curve has become much flatter in the cold regions (Scandinavia, USA, Canada) and that deaths remain concentrated in winter in the comparatively warm region (Japan and the West Europe). Both types of seasonal variation have undergone chronological changes from decade to decade. In the USA the former seasonal type curve has become so flat that mortality might well be said to have been "deseasonalized", while in the other regions the concentration of deaths in the cold season has been growing more conspicuous in recent years. All this can be ascribed to the differences in the system of room heating.

Neo-Natal and Post-Neo-Natal Mortality in a Rural Area of Bangladesh

Factors concerning neonatal and post-neonatal mortality in rural Bangladesh were based on data obtained from matched birth and death certificates registered in a population of 117000 in 132 villages of Matlab thana between May 1968 and April 1969. Neonatal deaths are those occuring at ages 0-29 days. Post-neonatal deaths are those occuring from 30 days to 12 months. Neonatal deaths comprised 3/5 of all infant deaths in the period under study. This concentration of deaths in the first month is unusual in an undeveloped country where deaths from environmental and infectious causes usually loom larger than birth-related factors and gastric and respiratory ailments. As total infant mortality accounts for almost 40% of the death rate efforts in death control must be accompanied by birth control efforts if the growth rate is not to skyrocket. When the relationship between maternal age and neonatal mortality was considered the high-risk ages appeared in the younger portion of the structure while for women 25 years and older risk was evenly distributed. The pattern for post-neonatal risk differs slightly. Risk drops abruptly between the ages of 20 and those of 20-24 then rises again to almost the same level in the next 2 age groups and increases sharply at ages 35-39. In the oldest group the rate falls to approximately the level of ages 25-34. This surprising revelation is attributed to the existence of a number of older women with high parity and low mortality that is women who are highly successful at childbearing. Neonatal mortality exhibits the standard U shaped distribution with parity; for post-neonatal mortality the pattern is not as apparent. Risk remains relatively unchanged between parity 1 and 3 then increases for parities 4 and 5 and drops again for parity 6. This drop in the mortality rate is again attributed to the presence of high parity women with low child mortality in the larger family sizes contributing to the reduction of the overall rate.

死亡の季節変動の統計的解析

Based upon their previous studies in the concentration of deaths in winter in Japan and the West European countries, on the one hand, and, on the other hand the considerable moderation of seasonal variation in mortality, or rather “ deseasonalization ” of deaths, in the Scandinavian countries and the United States in this paper the authoresess attempt to analyze quantitatively the difference between these two types of seasonal variation in mortality and specifically the geographical difference in relationship between mortality (stroke and infant) and temperature in the three cities of London, Tokyo and New York, and they sincerely want to build up one of the groundworks necessary for long-term biometerorological forecast. For such statistical analysis, census method II and covariance analysis in the twoway layout are used.1. As for the seasonal variation of mortality, time series analysis appears to be the effective statistical methods. Thus, census method II has been adopted to analyze a time series of stroke mortality. Generally, the time series is composed of the trend cycle (TC) the seasonal variationcomponent (S) and the irregular component (I), but the second named alone is studied in this paper because it calls for serious considerations from the biometeorological standpoint. The time series cycle of the seasonal variation component is naturally regular in the three cities, but the amplitude is much smaller in New York than in London and Tokyo. The correlation coefficient between stroke mortality and temperature in terms of the seasonalcomponent comes at -0.9709 for Tokyo, or slightly larger than -0.9281 for London and -0.9015 for New York. As there is some time lag between mortality and temperature, the correlation coefficients are calculated with one to five months shifted, and it is seen that the coefficient is the largest for Tokyo in case there is no time lag, and that it appears to reach the peak, if half a month is shifted, for London and New York. Details of the time series analysiswith census method II will be published later.2. Covariance analysis indicates that there is no significant difference among the three cities between the regression equation of mortality (stroke and infant) on temperature in spring and that in autumn in the 1960's, so the changes per 10°C in the death rate are calculated by average regression coefficient. Mortality is inversely related to temperature, and the increase or decrease per 10°C in the death rate for stroke turns out to be larger than that for infant mortality in the three cities. In both Tokyo and London, the rise of the death rate for stroke in autumn is considerably large, or 24.0% and 32.4%, respectively, contrasted to only 8.3% in New York (over three and four times larger, respectively).As for infants, the mortality rate decreases or increases very slightly (not more than 1.5%) in New York along with the ups and downs of temperature. The corresponding rate of increase or decrease comes at about 8-9% in London. In Tokyo, however, the infant death rate declines by about 16.0% with tempearture up 10°C and goes up by as much as 17.5% with the similar drop of temperature.The changes in death rate with the variation of temperature turn out to be the smallest in New York among the three municipalities. All this clearly indicates that central heating, widely adopted in the American city, has brought about favorable bearings upon mortality, especially that of infants who can live in the artificial climate. It is also to be noted that mortality from stroke undergoes much larger changes with the ups and downs of temperature in London than in Tokyo, and vice versa in the case of infant mortality.

Active Immunization

PertussisDespite the fact that infant deaths from pertussis have decreased 70 per cent in the last forty years, it remains the most frequent cause of death among the acute contagious diseases of early childhood: "The concentration of deaths in the first two years of life, especially under six months, is constant for all parts of the United States."193 A recent editorial194 points out that in Massachusetts from 1924 to 1943, 58 per cent of all deaths from this disease occurred in the first year of life, and 84 per cent in the first two years. Furthermore, the disease in . . .

VITAMIN C IN AN ESTRIN PRODUCING OVARIAN TUMOR

This paper provides an overview of territorial patterns of COVID-19 deaths in four European countries severely affected by the pandemic, Spain, France, Italy, and the United Kingdom. The analysis focuses on cumulated COVID-19 mortality at the sub-regional level, following the territorial subdivision of countries adopted by the European Union. The paper builds upon a dataset with highly granular information on COVID-19 deaths assembled from various sources. The analysis shows remarkable differences in territorial patterns of COVID-19 mortality, both within and across the four countries reviewed. Results somewhat differ depending on the aspect considered (concentration of deaths or mortality rates) but, in general, Italy, France and Spain display significant territorial disparities, with selected sub-regions being disproportionately affected by the pandemic. Instead, the picture is more uniform in the UK, with comparatively lower differences across the various sub-regions. These findings suggest that analyses of COVID-19 mortality at the national level (and, sometimes, even at the regional level) may conceal major differences and therefore be of limited use, both analytically and from an operational viewpoint.