Geographical Variability in Mortality in Urban Areas: A Joint Analysis of 16 Causes of Death

Topic: Risk, prevention and care in population studies

The geographical distribution of mortality has frequently been studied. Nevertheless, those studies often consider isolated causes of death. In this work, we aim to study the geographical distribution of mortality in urban areas, in particular, in 26 Spanish cities. We perform an overall study of 16 causes of death, considering that their geographical patterns could be dependent and estimating the dependence between the causes of death. We study the deaths in these 26 cities during the period 1996-2015 at the census tract level. A multivariate disease mapping model is used in order to solve the potential small area estimation problems that these data could show. We find that most of the geographical patterns found show positive correlations. This suggests the existence of a transversal geographical pattern, common to most causes of deaths, which determines those patterns to a higher/lower extent depending on each disease. The causes of death that exhibit that underlying pattern in a more prominent manner are chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), lung cancer, and cirrhosis for men and cardiovascular diseases and dementias for women. Such findings are quite consistent for most of the cities in the study. The high positive correlation found between geographical patterns reflects the existence of both high and low-risk areas in urban settings, in general terms for nearly all the causes of death. Moreover, the high-risk areas found often coincide with neighborhoods known for their high deprivation. Our results suggest that dependence among causes of death is a key aspect to be taken into account when mapping mortality, at least in urban contexts.

Key findings

• We perform an overall study of 16 causes of death, considering that their geographical patterns could be dependent and estimating the dependence between the causes of death.
• Our results suggest that dependence among causes of death is a key aspect to be taken into account when mapping mortality, at least in urban contexts.

Why it matters

This study looked at the geographic distribution of 16 causes of death, including dementias, across 26 Spanish cities and found that many causes shared similar geographic patterns. It does not test any treatment, cure or prevention, and the authors say dependence among causes of death should be considered when mapping mortality.

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Study details

• Evidence strengthLow

Read the original

• DOI: 10.3390/ijerph18115664
• PubMed: 34070635
• Original source →
• Free full text: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health →

Full text: free to read — OpenAlex lists this copy as free to read: the link above (checked 6 Feb 1020).

@article{martinezbeneito2021-34070635,
  author  = {Martínez‐Beneito, Miguel A. and Vergara-Hernández, Carlos and Botella-Rocamora, Paloma and Corpas‐Burgos, Francisca and Pérez‐Panadés, Jordi and Zurriaga, Óscar and Aldasoro, Elena and Borrell, Carme and others},
  title   = {{Geographical Variability in Mortality in Urban Areas: A Joint Analysis of 16 Causes of Death}},
  journal = {International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health},
  year    = {2021},
  doi     = {10.3390/ijerph18115664},
  pmid    = {34070635},
  url     = {https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18115664}
}

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