Volume 36 - Article 19 | Pages 589–608  

Adult mortality patterns in the former Soviet Union’s southern tier: Armenia and Georgia in comparative perspective

By Géraldine Duthé, Michel Guillot, France Meslé, Jacques Vallin, Irina Badurashvili, Mikhail Denisenko, Natalia Gavrilova, Karine Kuyumjyan, Liudmila Torgasheva

Abstract

Background: While the health crisis in the former USSR has been well-documented in the case of Russia and other northern former Soviet republics, little is known about countries located in the southern tier of the region, i.e., the Caucasus and Central Asia.

Objective: This paper presents new mortality information from two Caucasian countries, Georgia and Armenia. Results are compared with information from two relevant countries previously examined in the literature, Kyrgyzstan and Russia.

Methods: Using official statistics (with adjustments when necessary), we compare adult mortality patterns in the four countries since 1979, for all causes and by cause for the recent period. For Kyrgyzstan results are presented by ethnicity, as its mortality levels have been impacted by its large Slavic population.

Results: Adult mortality patterns in Armenia and Georgia have been more favorable than in Russia. This appears to be due to a large extent to lower mortality from alcohol-related causes. Mortality patterns in these Caucasian republics resemble those observed in Kyrgyzstan, especially when considering the native portion of the population.

Conclusions: As far as mortality is concerned, Armenia and Georgia have weathered the collapse of the Soviet Union better than Russia. These results document a distinct southern tier pattern of adult mortality in the former Soviet Union.

Contribution: This article enriches our understanding of the health crisis in the former Soviet Union by bringing new information from two lesser-known countries and further documenting the scale of heterogeneity in mortality experiences across this vast region.

Author's Affiliation

• Géraldine Duthé - Institut National d'Études Démographiques (INED), France EMAIL
• Michel Guillot - University of Pennsylvania, United States of America EMAIL
• France Meslé - Institut National d'Études Démographiques (INED), France EMAIL
• Jacques Vallin - Institut National d'Études Démographiques (INED), France EMAIL
• Irina Badurashvili - Georgian Centre of Population Research (GCPR), Georgia EMAIL
• Mikhail Denisenko - National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE), Russian Federation EMAIL
• Natalia Gavrilova - University of Chicago, United States of America EMAIL
• Karine Kuyumjyan - National Statistical Service of the Republic of Armenia, Armenia EMAIL
• Liudmila Torgasheva - National Statistical Committee of the Kyrgyz Republic, Kyrgyzstan EMAIL

Other articles by the same author/authors in Demographic Research

Mortality in the Caucasus: An attempt to re-estimate recent mortality trends in Armenia and Georgia
Volume 22 - Article 23

Life expectancy in two Caucasian countries. How much due to overestimated population?
Volume 5 - Article 7

The question of the human mortality plateau: Contrasting insights by longevity pioneers
Volume 48 - Article 11

Geographical diversity of cause-of-death patterns and trends in Russia
Volume 12 - Article 13

Convergences and divergences in mortality: A new approach of health transition
Special Collection 2 - Article 2

Frailty at death: An examination of multiple causes of death in four low mortality countries in 2017
Volume 49 - Article 2

Estimating mortality from census data: A record-linkage study of the Nouna Health and Demographic Surveillance System in Burkina Faso
Volume 46 - Article 22

Adult mortality among second-generation immigrants in France: Results from a nationally representative record linkage study
Volume 40 - Article 54

Estimating mortality from external causes using data from retrospective surveys: A validation study in Niakhar (Senegal)
Volume 38 - Article 32

On the correspondence between CAL and lagged cohort life expectancy
Volume 24 - Article 25

Revisiting the mortality of France and Italy with the multiple-cause-of-death approach
Volume 23 - Article 28

Estimating health expectancies from two cross-sectional surveys: The intercensal method
Volume 21 - Article 17

The effect of changes in fertility on the age distribution of stable populations
Volume 20 - Article 24

Adult mortality in a rural area of Senegal: Non-communicable diseases have a large impact in Mlomp
Volume 19 - Article 37

Tempo effects in mortality: An appraisal
Volume 14 - Article 1

Data Resources for Biodemographic Studies on Familial Clustering of Human Longevity
Volume 1 - Article 4

Mortality in Central and Eastern Europe: Long-term trends and recent upturns
Special Collection 2 - Article 3

Most recent similar articles in Demographic Research

Sample selection bias in adult mortality estimates from mobile phone surveys: Evidence from 25 low- and middle-income countries
Volume 51 - Article 37    | Keywords: adult mortality, data collection, mobile phones, selection bias, sibling survival histories

Using household death questions from surveys to assess adult mortality in periods of health crisis: An application for Peru, 2018–2022
Volume 51 - Article 8    | Keywords: adult mortality, data quality, household surveys, Peru

The vanishing advantage of longevity in Nicoya, Costa Rica: A cohort shift
Volume 49 - Article 27    | Keywords: adult mortality, blue zones, extreme longevity, long-lived populations, median life, old-age survival

Using multiple cause of death information to eliminate garbage codes
Volume 45 - Article 11    | Keywords: cardiovascular diseases, cause of death, garbage codes, International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, mortality, multiple causes of death, Poland

Assessing the quality of education reporting in Brazilian censuses
Volume 42 - Article 15    | Keywords: adult mortality, Brazil, census data, data quality, developing countries, education misreporting