The contribution of smoking to regional mortality differences in the Netherlands

BACKGROUND Smoking is an important preventable determinant of morbidity and mortality. Knowledge about its role in regional mortality differences can help us to identify relevant policy areas, and to explain national mortality differences. OBJECTIVE We explored the extent to which the regional differences in all-cause mortality in the Netherlands could be due to smoking, by examining its link with regional differences in smoking-attributable mortality. METHODS All-cause mortality, lung cancer mortality, and population numbers were obtained from Statistics Netherlands for the period 2004-2008,... Mehr ...