Interactive atlas helps learn about causes of death in the region

A new map of Spain reveals that the risk of laryngeal cancer in Alicante is 17% lower than in the rest of Spain, among other conclusions

RESEARCHERS have developed a digital atlas of mortality in Spain which will help learn about the main causes of death and influence their prevention.

The atlas, created by staff of the Bayensians Group of the Foundation for the Promotion of Health and Biomedical Research of the Valencia region (Fisabio) and of the General

Directorate of Public Health and Addictions of the Valencian Government, is an interactive tool that analyses separately all possible causes of death (grouped into 102 categories) in the 8,116 Spanish municipalities and makes it possible to study in a combined way if there are differences by geographical area, time and gender. A total 9.5 million death have been analysed from the period between 1989 and 2014.

Diving through generated maps reveals, for example, that in Alicante city the risk of cases of laryngeal cancer in men is 17% lower the than in the rest of Spain. In Valencia city it is 11% lower and in Castellón de la Plana the data is equivalent to the rest of Spain.

Significant results nationwide

The atlas also reveals that rural areas have much lower mortality than urban areas except in cases of death from osteoporosis and fractures in women or traffic accidents. The tool also shows that AIDS mortality has gone from being fundamentally urban in the early 1990s to having a much more prominent presence in areas of Spain with lower income.

Other striking results produced by the atlas are that coastal areas with a residential presence from northern Europe show particular patterns (increased risk of lung cancer mortality in women or a sustained temporary decrease in the risk of heart attack throughout the study period) or that diabetes has a clear ascending pattern of risk from north to south.

The causes of mortality that present the greatest geographical differences are generally the most unspecific, such as senility and cardiac arrest (the two diseases with the greatest geographical differences).