Mortality from cardiovascular diseases and life expectancy in Russia

Abstract

High premature mortality from cardiovascular disease (CVD) and its long-term negative trends are one of the main reasons for Russia's lag behind the developed countries in life expectancy, especially of its female population. Despite the decline in mortality since 2003, CVD mortality rates at particular ages (30-74 years for males and 30-49 for females) are still higher than in 1970. Decomposition of long-term changes in life expectancy in Russia shows a negative contribution of changes in CVD mortality for men (-1.0 years in 1972-2010) and a small positive contribution for women (+0.7 years from 1972 to 2010). The mortality structure within the full class of cardiovascular diseases in Russia is significantly different from that observed in the countries with the lowest level of CVD mortality. Ischemic heart disease constitutes more than half of all deaths, and this share, in contrast to Western countries, is tending to rise. Second place belongs to deaths from cerebrovascular diseases, the share of which is declining, but remains significantly higher than in Western countries. The share of deaths from other cardiovascular diseases accounts for about 50% of all CVD mortality in Western countries, while in Russia it is only about 15%, but these are characterized by a very low age at death. Regional patterns of CVD mortality in Russia are discussed, as well as the quality of statistics on causes of death and changes in the coding practices in the Russian Federation.

Keywords

• mortality
• life expectancy
• cardiovascular diseases
• ischemic heart disease
• cerebrovascular diseases
• age-specific mortality pattern