Ward Mark, May Peter, Briggs Robert, McNicholas Triona, Normand Charles, Kenny Rose Anne, Nolan Anne
The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland.
Centre for Health Policy and Management, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland.
HRB Open Res. 2020 Nov 19;3:43. doi: 10.12688/hrbopenres.13083.2. eCollection 2020.
Research on mortality at the population level has been severely restricted by an absence of linked death registration and survey data in Ireland. We describe the steps taken to link death registration information with survey data from a nationally representative prospective study of community-dwelling older adults. We also provide a profile of decedents among this cohort and compare mortality rates to population-level mortality data. Finally, we compare the utility of analysing underlying versus contributory causes of death. Death records were obtained for 779 and linked to individual level survey data from The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA). Overall, 9.1% of participants died during the nine-year follow-up period and the average age at death was 75.3 years. Neoplasms were identified as the underlying cause of death for 37.0%; 32.9% of deaths were attributable to diseases of the circulatory system; 14.4% due to diseases of the respiratory system; while the remaining 15.8% of deaths occurred due to all other causes. Mortality rates among younger TILDA participants closely aligned with those observed in the population but TILDA mortality rates were slightly lower in the older age groups. Contributory cause of death provides similar estimates as underlying cause when we examined the association between smoking and all-cause and cause-specific mortality. This new data infrastructure provides many opportunities to contribute to our understanding of the social, behavioural, economic, and health antecedents to mortality and to inform public policies aimed at addressing inequalities in mortality and end-of-life care.
在爱尔兰，由于缺乏关联的死亡登记和调查数据，对人口层面死亡率的研究受到了严重限制。我们描述了将死亡登记信息与一项针对社区居住老年人的全国代表性前瞻性研究的调查数据相链接所采取的步骤。我们还提供了该队列中死者的概况，并将死亡率与人口层面的死亡率数据进行比较。最后，我们比较了分析根本死因与促成死因的效用。获取了779份死亡记录，并将其与爱尔兰老龄化纵向研究（TILDA）的个体层面调查数据相链接。总体而言，9.1%的参与者在九年随访期内死亡，平均死亡年龄为75.3岁。肿瘤被确定为37.0%的根本死因；32.9%的死亡归因于循环系统疾病；14.4%归因于呼吸系统疾病；其余15.8%的死亡由所有其他原因导致。TILDA年轻参与者的死亡率与总体观察到的死亡率密切相符，但TILDA老年组的死亡率略低。当我们研究吸烟与全因死亡率及特定病因死亡率之间的关联时，促成死因提供了与根本死因相似的估计。这种新的数据基础设施为增进我们对死亡率的社会、行为、经济和健康先兆的理解，以及为旨在解决死亡率和临终关怀方面不平等问题的公共政策提供信息，提供了诸多机会。
