Determinants of mortality

Abstract

Domestic and international studies on the effect of socioeconomic and environmental factors, genetic and behavioral features, and the health care system on mortality are analyzed. The necessity to distinguish between the notions factors affecting mortality rates and factors affecting mortality (longevity) is specified. Mortality rates are significantly affected by demographic processes (birth rate, mortality, migration), while mortality depends on a complex of factors, the significance of each of which is still undetermined and, in the opinion of the authors, varies substantially in various populations depending on combinations of these factors.