Competing Causes of Death: An Analysis using Multiple-Cause-of-Death Data from The Netherlands

The standard methodology for cause-elimination life tables assumes that the various causes of death are statistically unrelated to one another, so that the mortality risks of those who are saved from an eliminated cause equal the risks of dying from other causes which are observed for the general population. In the analysis reported in this paper, data on multiple causes of death for the year 1990 in the Netherlands were used to investigate whether this is likely to be a valid assumption. For four groups of underlying causes of death (malignant neoplasms, cardiovascular diseases, respiratory d... Mehr ...