Volume 38 - Article 16 | Pages 373–400  

A network approach to studying cause-of-death interrelations

By Viviana Egidi, Michele Antonio Salvatore, Giulia Rivellini, Silvia D'Angelo

Abstract

Background: Multiple causes of death describe complex death processes marked by the simultaneous presence of several diseases and conditions, primarily at older ages.

Objective: We intend to explore the opportunity offered by the Social Network Analysis (SNA) in the study of multiple relationships in the causes of death.

Methods: SNA allowed us to reconstruct the complex system of relationships linking the causes of death mentioned in the same death certificate for Italian men and women aged 65 years and over in 2011. The causes can be represented as actors of a network where the relational tie establishes a linkage between a cause mentioned together with another. The strength of this association is represented by the frequency of the joint mentioning in the same certificate controlling for the confounding effect due to the different prevalence of the causes.

Results: The analysis clearly brought out that causes of death describe a very dense system of relationships. Considering only the strongest associations, the graphical analysis showed subgroups of causes, within which cross-references are very frequent while mentions external to the group are rare. Moreover, SNA concepts and instruments allowed us to identify causes playing important roles in death processes and mortality patterns.

Conclusions: SNA has proved to be very powerful in identifying the relationships between causes of death, on which health policies should take action to further reduce mortality risks of elderly persons.

Contribution: The method was able to highlight complex structures composing subgroups of diseases, offering a clearer picture of the characteristics of death processes than the analyses conducted so far have allowed.

Author's Affiliation

• Viviana Egidi - Università degli Studi di Roma La Sapienza, Italy EMAIL
• Michele Antonio Salvatore - Istituto Nazionale di Statistica (ISTAT), Italy EMAIL
• Giulia Rivellini - Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Italy EMAIL
• Silvia D'Angelo - Università degli Studi di Roma La Sapienza, Italy EMAIL

Other articles by the same author/authors in Demographic Research

Revisiting the mortality of France and Italy with the multiple-cause-of-death approach
Volume 23 - Article 28

Geographical mortality patterns in Italy: A Bayesian analysis
Volume 20 - Article 18

Frailty at death: An examination of multiple causes of death in four low mortality countries in 2017
Volume 49 - Article 2

Most recent similar articles in Demographic Research

Frailty at death: An examination of multiple causes of death in four low mortality countries in 2017
Volume 49 - Article 2    | Keywords: aging, causes of mortality, mortality, multiple causes of death

Ethnic and regional inequalities in Russian military fatalities in Ukraine: Preliminary findings from crowdsourced data
Volume 48 - Article 31    | Keywords: armed conflict, fatality, military, mortality, Russia, Ukraine, war

The question of the human mortality plateau: Contrasting insights by longevity pioneers
Volume 48 - Article 11    | Keywords: age, France, Gompertz mortality, mortality, mortality plateau, older population, parametric models, supercentenarians, survival analysis, trajectories

The Spanish flu and the health system: Considerations from the city of Parma, 1918
Volume 47 - Article 32    | Keywords: health system, individual-level sources, Italy, mortality, Spanish Flu, urban demography

Gender and educational inequalities in disability-free life expectancy among older adults living in Italian regions
Volume 47 - Article 29    | Keywords: disability, gender, health, inequalities, Italy, mortality, older adults, regions