Cause of death diversity in multi-group settings: an application to Latin America and the Caribbean.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Cause of death (CoD) diversity indices measure the extent to which some populations die from more similar or variegated causes than others. Higher CoD diversity implies higher unpredictability of the causes of individuals dying and greater challenges for health systems. In this paper, we propose a novel method to decompose overall CoD diversity as the sum of two interpretable parts: the within- and between-group components.

Methods

The novel approach is applied to Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region to illustrate its usefulness. We decompose overall CoD diversity, measured by the Simpson index of diversity, into between-country and within-country components. In addition, we provide further decompositions assessing how each cause of death and each country

SUBMITTER: Calazans JA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12797717 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature