🪵Intro to Demographic Methods Unit 5 – Mortality Measures and Trends
Mortality measures and trends are crucial tools in demography, providing insights into population health and longevity. These measures include crude death rates, age-specific mortality rates, and life expectancy, which help researchers analyze patterns across age groups and populations.
Standardization techniques allow for meaningful comparisons between populations with different age structures. Global mortality trends reveal improvements in life expectancy over time, though disparities persist. Data sources like vital registration systems and censuses are essential for calculating these measures and informing public health policies.
Indirect age standardization applies the age-specific mortality rates of a standard population to the age structure of the population being studied
Standardized mortality ratio (SMR) = ExpectedDeathsObservedDeaths×100
Choice of standard population can impact the results of standardization
Standardization techniques do not eliminate the effect of age structure but rather control for it to enable meaningful comparisons
Trends in Global Mortality
Global life expectancy has increased dramatically over the past century due to improvements in living conditions, healthcare, and disease control
Disparities in mortality persist across regions, countries, and socioeconomic groups
Epidemiological transition theory describes the shift from high mortality due to infectious diseases to lower mortality from chronic and degenerative diseases
Demographic transition theory links changes in mortality and fertility to modernization and economic development
Double burden of disease refers to the coexistence of both communicable and non-communicable diseases in low- and middle-income countries
Health transition encompasses broader social, cultural, and behavioral determinants of health and mortality
Compression of morbidity hypothesis suggests that the onset of chronic diseases can be postponed to later ages, reducing the duration of morbidity before death
Data Sources and Collection Methods
Vital registration systems are the primary source of mortality data in many countries
Vital registration records births, deaths, marriages, and divorces
Completeness and accuracy of vital registration data vary across countries
Population censuses provide denominators for calculating mortality rates and can include questions on household deaths
Sample registration systems (SRS) continuously enumerate vital events in a representative sample of the population (India's Million Death Study)
Demographic surveillance sites (DSS) longitudinally monitor populations in defined geographic areas to capture vital events (INDEPTH Network)
Verbal autopsy (VA) methods gather information about the cause of death through interviews with family members or caregivers in settings lacking medical certification
Indirect estimation techniques (Brass methods, sibling survival methods) are used to estimate mortality in the absence of complete vital registration data
International organizations (WHO, UN Population Division) compile and disseminate mortality data from various sources
Practical Applications and Case Studies
Monitoring progress towards Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets related to mortality (SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being)
Evaluating the impact of public health interventions on mortality (vaccination programs, safe motherhood initiatives)
Forecasting future mortality trends for population projections and planning (UN World Population Prospects)
Assessing the burden of disease and setting health policy priorities (Global Burden of Disease Study)
Investigating socioeconomic and geographic inequalities in mortality (urban-rural differentials, income gradients)
Studying the mortality impact of specific events or exposures (natural disasters, famines, pandemics)
Comparing the effectiveness of different healthcare systems in reducing mortality (cross-national studies)
Examining the relationship between mortality and other demographic processes (fertility, migration)