A Comparison of the Mortality Due to Parkinson’s Disease, Alzheimer’s Disease, and Other Senile Dementias of France and Italy Using the Multiple Cause-of-Death Approach

Aline Desesquelles, Institut National d'Études Démographiques (INED)
Antonio Salvatore, Università di Roma "La Sapienza"
Marilena Pappagallo, Istituto Nazionale di Statistica (ISTAT)
Luisa Frova, Istituto Nazionale di Statistica (ISTAT)
Monica Pace, Istituto Nazionale di Statistica (ISTAT)
France Meslé, Institut National d'Études Démographiques (INED)
Viviana Egidi, Università di Roma "La Sapienza"

Though the monitoring of mortality trends still relies on the underlying cause of the death, the multiple cause-of-death approach is emerging as a promising tool in order to study the mortality profile of ageing populations. At old ages, death is indeed often the final stage of a long morbid process that involves several conditions. We use this approach to compare the mortality due to Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and other senile dementias in Italy and France. Data are for year 2008. We first evaluate the underestimation of the role played by these conditions when the underlying cause only is taken into account. We then examine which combinations of causes reported on the death certificates frequently involve one of these conditions. The indicators we use (Standardized Ratio of Multiple to Underlying cause and Cause-of-Death Association Indicator) have been specifically developed for the purpose of our research.