Adult Mortality - Longitudinal Sample

Two factors are important for mortality studies: sex and age.

Civil registration data provide the number of deceased persons by sex and age and censuses, or population estimates, provide the corresponding population numbers.

These data then make it possible to establish mortality tables by sex and age each year, reflecting the year's mortality. They are also adapted to breakdown these indicators by region or department.

However, they do not take into account other factors that influence mortality, such as social category, level of education, marital status or living conditions. In particular, the profession indicated on the death certificate is not necessarily the one that best represents the professional history of the deceased.

On the other hand, comparing the number of deceased persons by social category indicated on the death form, information filled in by a third person, therefore sometimes imprecise or even erroneous, with the number of persons by social category resulting from the census, information filled in by the person himself, can prove delicate.

The mortality samples were developed to study differences in mortality by integrating factors other than gender and age.

The general principle is to draw a relatively large sample of people, based on surveys providing socio-demographic descriptors at a given date (censuses for example), and then to monitor year after year the vital status of the sampled individuals.

Studies on differential mortality based on certain factors observed at the time the sample was formed are then possible.

Mortality samples were compiled from the censuses (1954, 1975, 1982, and 1999) to permit studies on differential mortality by social category.

Panel

Annual