The Decline in Winter Excess Mortality in The Netherlands

In most countries, numbers of deaths rise considerably during the winter season. This winter excess in mortality has, however, been declining during recent decades. The causes of this decline are hardly known. This paper attempts to derive a number of hypotheses on the basis of a detailed description of trends in winter excess mortality in the Netherlands. Numbers of deaths by age, cause of death, and month of death for the period 1953–1988 were analysed by loglinear regression. There was a 50% reduction in winter excess mortality between the 1950s and 1970 followed by a much smaller reduction... Mehr ...