[Mortality trends in Switzerland 1951-1977. Principal categories of the causes of death].

Analysis of age-standardized death rates for the main categories of deaths, over the period 1951--1977, shows a three-quarter fall in mortality from infectious diseases, a reduction of mortality from cardiovascular disease more accentuated in women (-46%) than in men (-23%) and a decrease in mortality from tumors in women only (-21%). Suicide rates slightly increased and mortality from accidents started to decrease in 1971, more markedly in men than in women. As regards the last category including all other causes of deaths, a decline in mortality of approximately a half in both sexes was observed. Calculation of the potential years of life lost between ages 1 and 70 (PYLL) reveals that in men, for the year 1977, 25% were due to accidents, 23% to tumours and 22% to cardiovascular diseases, whereas in women tumours came first (36%) and preceded cardiovascular disease (17%). Analysis of PYLL by individual cause of death shows, in decreasing order of importance, for men: motor accidents, suicide, ischaemic heart disease, other accidents, cancer of lung, cerebrovascular disease and cirrhosis of liver, and for women: suicide, breast cancer, motor accidents, other accidents, cerebrovascular disease, ischaemic heart disease and uterine cancer. Finally, life expectancy at birth increased, over the period 1951--1977, from 66.4 to 71.8 years in men and from 71.0 to 78.4 years in women, which ranks Switzerland third among the 10 industrialized countries studies.