Is cancer overtaking cardiovascular diseases as the killer number one in men in Tuscany?

Aims And Background: For the first time in 2006, cancer became the main cause of death in men in Italy, exceeding cardiovascular disease. The aim of the study was to verify whether the overtaking of cancer male mortality occurred also in Tuscany or in some of its 12 subregional areas and whether there was a geographical trend.

Methods: Age-standardized mortality rates from the Tuscan Regional Mortality Registry, 1987-2008, were calculated for neoplasms, cardiovascular diseases, and respiratory diseases, considering the whole region and its 12 areas.

[Mortality among the elderly in Tuscany in the period 1987-2003].

Aim: to assess cause-specific mortality and its temporal trend in Tuscan elderly residents.

Design: descriptive epidemiologic study based upon death certificates, collected and registered since 1987 by the Tuscan Regional Mortality Registry (RMR) according to standardized procedures.

Methods: Major groups of causes: temporal trends are described calculating annual truncated age-adjusted mortality rates (based on age-specfic rates subdivided in three classes: 75-79; 80-84 and > or =85; standard: European population) and estimating annual percent changes (EAPC, Estimated Annual Percent Change) using ]oinpoint regression models.