Inequalities in mortality of elderly people according to living conditions. Cuba, 2018

Corral Martín A.; Pría Barros M.C. · Revista Infodir (2023)

Resumen

Background: The Cuban population is aging, and this implies an increasingly complex care of older adults, requiring comprehensive information on mortality and morbidity to establish strategies to improve the quality of life through the identification of differential health behaviors in territories with different living conditions. Objectives: To determine the differential pattern and identify the gaps in mortality from selected causes in elderly people according to living conditions in Cuba, 2018. Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted to determine the differential pattern and identify the gaps in mortality from selected causes in older persons according to living conditions, the specific rates by age and strata of living conditions were calculated. The standardized mortality ratio and the absolute and relative population attributable risk were used to identify the gaps. Rates were adjusted by the direct and indirect method. Results: The highest mortality risks in older adults were found in the peoples of 80 years and older. Heart disease, malignant tumors, cerebrovascular diseases, are responsible for excess mortality in favorable strata and pneumonia and the external fatal causes in the most unfavorable strata. Conclusions: A differential pattern and reducible gaps of mortality were evidenced in the main causes of death due to non-communicable disease and external causes of death in older people that live in unfavorable living conditions.