Title
A divergence between underlying and final causes of death in selected conditions: An analysis of death registries in Peru
Date Issued
01 January 2018
Access level
open access
Resource Type
journal article
Publisher(s)
PeerJ Inc.
Abstract
Background: The underlying cause of death is used to study country and global mortality trends and profiles. The final cause of death could also inform the ultimately cause of death in individuals with underlying conditions. Whether there is a pattern between the underlying and final cause of death has not been explored using national death registries. We studied what final causes of death were most common among selected underlying causes using national death registries in Peru, 2015. Methods: Underlying and final causes of death were classified according to their ICD-10 codes. Underlying causes included chronic kidney disease (CKD), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), hypertension (HTN), diabetes, and selected cancers (cervix, breast, stomach, prostate, and lung). Final causes were categorized as: communicable, cardiovascular, and cancers. Descriptive statistics were used. Results: A total of 77,065 death registries were analyzed; cases had a mean age of 69.4 (SD: 19.3) years at death and were mostly men (53.9%). When the underlying cause was HTN, the most frequent final cause was cardiovascular diseases (82.3%). For all the other underlying causes, the most frequent final cause was communicable diseases: COPD (86.4%), CKD (79.3%), cancer (76.5%), and diabetes (68.3%). Conclusions: In four selected underlying causes of death there was a divergence with respect to the final cause, suggesting there was a shift from non-communicable to communicable causes. Although efforts should be deployed to prevent underlying non-communicable diseases, potential communicable complications should not be neglected.
Volume
2018
Issue
11
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Sistema cardiaco, Sistema cardiovascular
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85056633477
Source
PeerJ
ISSN of the container
21678359
Sponsor(s)
Antonio Bernabe-Ortiz is a Research Training Fellow in Public Health and Tropical Medicine funded by the Wellcome Trust (103994/Z/14/Z). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Sources of information: Directorio de Producción Científica Scopus