Causes of Death in Russia : Assessing Trends since the 50s

France Meslé, Institut National d'Études Démographiques (INED)
Jacques Vallin, Institut National d'Études Démographiques (INED)
Véronique Hertrich, Institut National d'Études Démographiques (INED)
Evgueni Andreev, Institute of Economic Forecasting, Russia
Vladimir Shkolnikov, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research

Many studies are available on recent mortality trends in Russia but those which deal with long-term trends are scarce. The recent fluctuations hide the fundamental health deterioration which has occurred since the mid-60s. To better understand the present situation, it is very important to discuss the reversal of the cause-of-death trends which occurred at this turning point. In the frame of a collaborative project between CDHE (Moscow) and INED (Paris), it was possible to access unpublished data from Goskomstat’s archives for the years since 1956. After a patient work of reconstruction, the analysis of continuous series of deaths by cause, free from disruptions due to changes in Classification, can now be performed. It appears that the reversal in mortality trends is more a matter of changing cause-of-death weights than specific reversal of cause-of-death trends.