International Journal of Women's Health (Feb 2020)

Socio-Demographic Determinants of Mortality from Chronic Noncommunicable Diseases in Women of Reproductive Age in the Republic of Georgia: Evidence from the National Reproductive Age Mortality Study (2014)

  • Lomia N,
  • Berdzuli N,
  • Pestvenidze E,
  • Sturua L,
  • Sharashidze N,
  • Kereselidze M,
  • Topuridze M,
  • Antelava T,
  • Stray-Pedersen B,
  • Stray-Pedersen A

Journal volume & issue
Vol. Volume 12
pp. 89 – 105

Abstract

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Nino Lomia,1 Nino Berdzuli,1 Ekaterine Pestvenidze,1 Lela Sturua,2 Nino Sharashidze,3 Maia Kereselidze,4 Marina Topuridze,5 Tamar Antelava,6 Babill Stray-Pedersen1,7,†, Arne Stray-Pedersen1,8 1Institute of Clinical Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway; 2Department of Noncommunicable Diseases, National Center for Disease Control and Public Health, Tbilisi, Georgia; 3Department of Clinical and Research Skills, Faculty of Medicine, Iv. Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, Tbilisi, Georgia; 4Department of Medical Statistics, National Center for Disease Control and Public Health, Tbilisi, Georgia; 5Health Promotion Division, Department of Noncommunicable Diseases, National Center for Disease Control and Public Health, Tbilisi, Georgia; 6EVEX Medical Corporation, Tbilisi, Georgia; 7Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Rikshospitalet, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway; 8Department of Forensic Sciences, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway†Dr Babill Stray-Pedersen passed away on 24 April, 2019Correspondence: Nino Lomia Tel +995 595 197055Email [email protected]: Worldwide, noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) are the leading cause of premature death of women, taking the highest toll in developing countries. This study aimed to identify key socio-demographic determinants of NCD mortality in reproductive-aged women (15– 49 years) in Georgia.Materials and Methods: The study employed the verbal autopsy data from the second National Reproductive Age Mortality Survey 2014. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression models were fitted to explore the association between each risk factor and NCD mortality, measured by crude and adjusted odds ratio (AOR) with respective 95% confidence intervals (95% CI).Results: In the final sample of 843 women, 586 (69.5%) deaths were attributed to NCDs, the majority of which occurred outside a hospital (72.7%) and among women aged 45– 49 years (46.8%), ethnic Georgians (85.2%), urban residents (60.1%), those being married (60.6%), unemployed (75.1%) or having secondary and higher education (69.5%), but with nearly equal distribution across the wealth quintiles. After multivariate adjustment, the odds of dying from NCDs were significantly higher in women aged 45– 49 years (AOR=17.69, 95% CI= 9.35 to 33.50), those being least educated (AOR=1.55, 95% CI= 1.01 to 2.37) and unemployed (AOR=1.47, 95% CI= 1.01 to 2.14) compared, respectively, to their youngest (15– 24 years), more educated and employed counterparts. Strikingly, the adjusted odds were significantly lower in “other” ethnic minorities (AOR=0.29, 95% CI= 0.14 to 0.61) relative to ethnic Georgians. Contrariwise, there were no significant associations between NCD mortality and women’s marital or wealth status, place of residence (rural/urban) or place of death.Conclusion: Age, ethnicity, education, and employment were found to be strong independent predictors of young women’s NCD mortality in Georgia. Further research on root causes of inequalities in mortality across the socioeconomic spectrum is warranted to inform equity- and life course-based multisectoral, integrated policy responses that would be conducive to enhancing women’s survival during and beyond reproduction.Keywords: women’s health, mortality, noncommunicable diseases, socioeconomic factors, education, unemployment

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