Gender features of age-related risk of mortality associated with nervous diseases

Aim. To explore the hypothesis of equal age-related risk of mortality associated with nervous diseases in females and males.Methods. Descriptive statistics, qualitative analysis were performed. 13 580 medical certificates of cause of death, all related to nervous diseases (all classes of ICD-10) were analyzed.Results. The mortality rate increased with age. Age-specific mortality rates had gender differences. In most ages (20-24, 30-34, 45-49, 50-54, 55-59, 65-69), mortality rate was higher in males, at the age of 5-9, 15-19, 60-64, 70 and over - in females. Death relative risk in males of different age groups (compared to the similar rates in females) varied between 0.39 (in the age group of 5-9 years) to 5.93 (in patients aged 20-24 years). Overall, the level of mortality associated with nervous diseases was 130.02±1.69 per 100 000 in males and 163.41±1.86 per 100 000 in females, so, overall mortality rate was 1.25 times higher in females. After adjustment for age differences was performed, no significant differences were found between the groups (146.74 and 144.16 per 100 000 respectively for males and females).Conclusion. Gender features of age-related risk of mortality associated with nervous diseases were characterized by multidirectional alterations of mortality rates and share of nervous diseases among all reasons of mortality. These features were mainly caused by situational factors (different age structure and overall mortality level for males and females), and vanished after adjustment.