Chest
Clinical InvestigationsCopdAge-Related Trends in Mortality From COPD in Lithuania, 1989 to 1998
Section snippets
Materials and Methods
Data were obtained for 10-year period from 1989 to 1998 from the Statistics Department in the Lithuanian Government. All deaths occurring in Lithuania are included by law in the vital statistics death registration system. Thus, mortality statistics provided by the Statistics Department are not estimates. The cause of death coded and tabulated on the National Mortality Database is the underlying cause of death, which is defined as either the disease or injury that initiated events leading
Results
Ten-year (1989 to 1998) mortality data on COPD (ICD-9 codes 490–496) obtained from the Statistics Department of Lithuania were analyzed. Mean mortality rates due to COPD between 1989 and 1991 and between 1996 and 1998, starting with the age group of 35 to 39 years, are shown in Figure 1. According to these data, there was a strong positive association in mortality from COPD with aging in men and women. Mean mortality rate in men between 1989 and 1991 in the age group of 35 to 39 years was
Discussion
According to the data sources from epidemiologic studies in various countries, mortality from COPD was increasing until 1985.3 Several years later, it was stated that mortality in men from COPD had leveled off, but it was still increasing in women4; however, in some countries, the rise in mortality from COPD was observed until 1995.5 During the last decade of the 20th century in the United States and other developed countries of the world, mortality due to COPD began to decline. The greatest
Conclusion
Analysis of mortality from COPD (ICD-9 codes 490–496) in the Lithuanian population, during a 10-year period from 1989 to 1998, revealed that mortality rates directly related to older age, and the indexes of men in various age groups were twofold to threefold greater than those of women. Mortality from COPD in Lithuania was decreasing in middle-aged (35 to 64 years) and the elderly (≥ 65 years) populations and both in men and women. Decrease in mortality from COPD moved at a slower rate in the
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The author thanks Professor Jadvyga Petrauskiene from the Social Medicine Department for her assistance in providing the data, Mrs. Zita Stanioniene for her support in preparing the figures, and Erin Rader, RN, MSN, in Cleveland, OH, for editorial assistance.
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