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This study provides a full table of the mortality of prisoners in France. It is based on the 246 files archived at the French Ministry of Justice for individuals who died in 2011. Seven out of ten deaths were violent, primarily suicides and drug overdoses or medicinal poisonings. The analysis confirms excess mortality from suicide among male prisoners compared with the general population, as well as excess mortality due to other violent causes. Conversely, natural-cause mortality is lower among male prisoners than for males in the general population. The use of suspensions of sentence for medical reasons partly explains this result. For a given age group, the perpetrators of serious offences present a higher risk of death, whether due to violence or natural causes, than the perpetrators of less serious offences. The risk of violent death is also higher among pretrial detainees than among convicts. The description of the circumstances of death highlights the need for better alert systems and improved management of health incidents, especially at night. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cause-specific mortality statistics are essential for understanding a population's health situation and for developing and evaluating public policies. Yet collecting these data is not straightforward, and their reliability is often questioned. Different approaches can be used to assess their quality. Using cause-of-death data from four countries of different sizes, histories, and mortality levels, the authors propose an original method for assessing the quality of these health statistics based on regional variations within a country's mortality structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The worldwide COVID-19 emergency has led to substantial variations in the data collection process across countries scrambling to produce real-time information, resulting in imperfect mortality statistics. To address this problem, we analyze COVID-19 death counts from the Demography of COVID-19 Deaths database (https://dc-covid.site. ined.fr/en/) and discuss their limitations. We describe and illustrate important data-related issues that may hinder international comparisons. To alleviate these difficulties, we classify sources according to their data's completeness then analyze and compare death counts for 16 countries. Finally, we discuss the importance of understanding data collection characteristics and provide recommendations for dealing with imperfect statistics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Numerous studies have addressed the problem of hazardous alcohol consumption, alcohol-related causes of death and their relationship to persisting excess male mortality in the countries of the former USSR. Yet relatively little is known about the geographical patterns of alcohol-related mortality within these countries and the cross-border continuities of such patterns. This study aims at identifying the spatial distribution and the cross-border patterns of adult male mortality from alcohol poisonings and liver cirrhosis in Belarus and Lithuania. Methods: We use cause-specific mortality data for 2003-2007. We employ spatial econometric techniques to detect 'hot spots' of alcohol-related mortality across the combined territory of the two countries. Results: Specific patterns associated with extremely high rates of mortality from alcohol poisoning can be observed in Belarus, particularly in the areas bordering Russia and Lithuania. Meanwhile, patterns of alcohol-induced liver disease dominate in Lithuania, and continue across the border from eastern Lithuania into north-western Belarus. Conclusions: The districts located along the Belarusian-Lithuanian border appear to be especially problematic, as they suffer from an enormous burden of alcohol consumption. The situation is particularly severe on the Belarusian side, where there are extremely high levels of mortality from both alcohol poisoning and liver cirrhosis. These areas should be considered primary targets for antialcohol policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Do vanguard populations open new frontiers of survival and longevity that will eventually be reached by others? The main aim of this study is to identify the extent to which the non-vanguard populations in Finland, Norway, and Sweden might follow the mortality trajectories of the vanguard groups in these countries for different age ranges and for the major causes of death. The results show no systematic convergence between vanguard and non-vanguard sub-populations. On the contrary, they confirm the theory whereby each major epidemiological development initially gives rise to divergence in mortality trends. Our study found that at the sub-national level, rather than simply following (with a certain time lag) the same path as the vanguard groups, non-vanguard groups have their own pathways to low mortality which are related to specific determinants of mortality change. The study also found that a long time is needed for the non-vanguard group to attain the mortality levels already reached by the vanguard group at the start of the observation period. This is notably the case for the treatment and prevention of cardiovascular diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Both enhancing life expectancy and decreasing inequalities in lifespan between social groups are significant goals for public policy. To date, however, methodological tools to study progress in both dimensions simultaneously have been lacking. There is also a consensus that absolute and relative inequalities in lifespan must be studied together., Methods: We introduce a novel graphical representation that combines national mortality rates with both absolute and relative measures of social inequality in mortality. To illustrate our approach, we analyze French and German data stratified by place of residence., Results: For all-age mortality, in France we find a steady pace of decline in both mortality and in regional inequalities in mortality over recent decades. In Germany, substantial progress was made in the 1990s, mostly driven by convergence between eastern and western Germany, followed by a period of slower progress. Age-specific analyses for Germany reveal a worrying divergence in regional trends at ages 35-74 in recent years, which is particularly pronounced among women., Conclusion: Our novel visual approach offers a way to simultaneously examine two dimensions of progress in longevity, and facilitates meaningful comparisons between populations, even when their current mortality rates differ. The applied methods can be easily reproduced in any country for which long-term mortality series stratified by region, or any relevant socioeconomic characteristic, are available. It is useful for both scientific analysis and policy advice., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Background: The increasing prevalence of frailty in aging populations represents a major social and public health challenge which warrants a better understanding of the contribution of frailty to the morbid process., Objective: To examine frailty-related mortality as reported on the death certificate in France, Italy, Spain and the United States in 2017., Methods: We identify frailty at death for the population aged 50 years and over in France, Italy, Spain and the United States. We estimate the proportions of deaths by sex, age group and country with specific frailty-related ICD-codes on the death certificate 1) as the underlying cause of death (UC), 2) elsewhere in Part I (sequence of diseases or conditions or events leading directly to death), and 3) anywhere in Part II (conditions that do not belong in Part I but whose presence contributed to death)., Results: The age-standardized proportion of deaths with frailty at ages 50 and over is highest in Italy (25.0%), then in France (24.1%) and Spain (17.3%), and lowest in the United States (14.0%). Cross-country differences are smaller when frailty-related codes are either the underlying cause of the death or reported in Part II. Frailty-related mortality increases with age and is higher among females than males. Dementia is the most frequently reported frailty-related code., Conclusions: Notable cross-country differences were found in the prevalence and the type of frailty-related symptoms at death even after adjusting for differential age distributions., Competing Interests: Declaration of conflicting interests: The Authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

National authorities publish COVID-19 death counts, which are extensively re-circulated and compared; but data are generally poorly sourced and documented. Academics and stakeholders need tools to assess data quality and to track data-related discrepancies for comparability over time or across countries. "The Demography of COVID-19 Deaths" database aims at bridging this gap. It provides COVID-19 death counts along with associated documentation, which includes the exact data sources and points out issues of quality and coverage of the data. The database - launched in April 2020 and continuously updated - contains daily cumulative death counts attributable to COVID-19 broken down by sex and age, place and date of occurrence of the death. Data and metadata undergo quality control checks prior to online release. As of mid-December 2021, it covers 21 countries in Europe and beyond. It is open access at a bilingual (English and French) website with content intended for expert users and non-specialists ( https://dc-covid.site.ined.fr/en/ ; figshare: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.5807027 ). Data and metadata are available for each country separately and pooled over all countries., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

Competing Interests: Authors do not have anything to declare.

Every time the classification of causes of death is changed, time series of deaths by cause are disrupted in more or less profound ways. When changes involve only the merging of several items or splitting a single item into several new categories, the problems caused by these ruptures are not too difficult to solve. A more or less severe imbroglio occurs, however, each time a new item results from recombining portions of different split items. Sometimes, but very rarely, some countries proceed to a bridge coding during the year of transition, which can help reconstruct coherent time series. This article first summarizes the general principles of the method developed for France by Meslé and Vallin to reconstruct complete series for France from 1925 to 1999 in the detailed list of the 9th WHO International Classification of Diseases (ICD), doing so by successively bridging a posteriori the five versions of the ICD that were in use during that period. Second, it reports on several methodological improvements that have been developed with the aim to reconstruct and analyze mortality trends by cause in sixteen industrialized countries.

Objectives: We investigate the reporting of obesity on death certificates in three countries (France, Italy, and the United States) with different levels of prevalence, and we examine which causes are frequently associated with obesity., Methods: We use cause-of-death data for all deaths at ages 50-89 in 2010-2011. Since obesity may not be the underlying cause (UC) of death, we compute age- and sex-standardized death rates considering all mentions of obesity (multiple causes or MC). We use cluster analyses to identify patterns of cause-of-death combinations., Results: Obesity is selected as UC in no more than 20% of the deaths with a mention of obesity. Mortality levels, whether measured from the UC or the MC, are weakly related to levels of prevalence. Patterns of cause-of-death combinations are similar across the countries. In addition to strong links with cardiovascular diseases and diabetes, we identify several less familiar associations., Conclusions: Considering all mentions on the deaths certificates reduces the underestimation of obesity-related mortality based on the UC only. It also enables us to describe the various mortality patterns involving obesity.

Background: While the health crisis in the former USSR has been well-documented in the case of Russia and other northern former Soviet republics, little is known about countries located in the southern tier of the region, i.e., the Caucasus and Central Asia., Objective: This paper presents new mortality information from two Caucasian countries, Georgia and Armenia. Results are compared with information from two relevant countries previously examined in the literature, Kyrgyzstan and Russia., Methods: Using official statistics (with adjustments when necessary), we compare adult mortality patterns in the four countries since 1979, for all causes and by cause for the recent period. For Kyrgyzstan results are presented by ethnicity, as its mortality levels have been impacted by its large Slavic population., Results: Adult mortality patterns in Armenia and Georgia have been more favorable than in Russia. This appears to be due to a large extent to lower mortality from alcohol-related causes. Mortality patterns in these Caucasian republics resemble those observed in Kyrgyzstan, especially when considering the native portion of the population., Conclusions: As far as mortality is concerned, Armenia and Georgia have weathered the collapse of the Soviet Union better than Russia. These results document a distinct southern tier pattern of adult mortality in the former Soviet Union., Contribution: This article enriches our understanding of the health crisis in the former Soviet Union by bringing new information from two lesser-known countries and further documenting the scale of heterogeneity in mortality experiences across this vast region.

Objectives: To assess more accurately the contribution of infectious diseases (IDs) to mortality at age 65+., Methods: We use cause-of-death data for France and Italy in 2009. In addition to chapter I of the 10th International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10), our list of IDs includes numerous diseases classified in other chapters. We compute mortality rates considering all death certificate entries (underlying and contributing causes)., Results: Mortality rates at age 65+ based on our extended list are more than three times higher than rates based solely on ICD-10 chapter I. IDs are frequently contributing causes of death. In France, the share of deaths at age 65+ involving an ID as underlying cause increases from 2.1 to 7.3 % with the extended list, and to 20.8 % when contributing causes are also considered. For Italy, these percentages are 1.4, 4.2 and 18.7 %, respectively., Conclusions: Publicly available statistics underestimate the contribution of IDs to the over-65s' mortality. Old age is a risk factor for IDs, and these diseases are more difficult to treat at advanced ages. Health policies should develop targeted actions for that population.