Chest
Volume 124, Issue 1, July 2003, Pages 90-93
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Clinical Investigations
Copd
Age-Related Trends in Mortality From COPD in Lithuania, 1989 to 1998

https://doi.org/10.1378/chest.124.1.90Get rights and content

Objective

To assess the age-related trends in mortality from COPD in middle-aged and elderly populations of Lithuania during a 10-year period (1989 to 1998).

Methods

Annual mortality was reported as the age-standardized mortality rates. Mortality rates were standardized to the 1989 European population. Trends in mortality were assessed by logarithmic regression coefficient β that, expressed by percentage, estimated the average annual change in mortality.

Results

Analysis of mortality from COPD in the Lithuanian population during this 10 years 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. Annual change in mortality assessed by logarithmic regression coefficient in men aged 35 to 64 years was − 5.7% (p = 0.002) and in age group ≥ 65 years it was − 2.9% (p = 0.001); in women, the change in mortality was − 7.2% (p = 0.006) and − 2.5% (p = 0.03), respectively.

Conclusion

Mortality from COPD in Lithuania during the 10-year period was decreasing in middle-aged and elderly populations and in both men and women. Decrease in mortality occurred at a slower rate in the elderly population than in middle-aged population.

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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