Advantageous impact of the post communist transition: mortality in Poland by causes of deaths

Agnieszka Fihel, University of Warsaw

On the eve of the post communist transition, after three decades of stagnation or regress life expectancies in many countries of Central Europe started to increase rapidly and systematically. Poland, one of the most populous countries in the region, witnessed sudden shift in the mortality trend relatively early, that is in 1992. Since then the life expectancy has been increasing considerably for both sex, reaching in 2009 71 years for men and 80 years for women. This paper presents the most significant tendencies in mortality which allowed for this extension of life expectancy, with special reference to causes of death. On the basis of the single cause-of-death data reclassified according to the ICD-10 for the period 1970-2009, it is possible to prove crucial importance of diseases of the circulatory system for the recent mortality developments. While many social determinants of the recent shift in mortality can be identified, the drop in the tobacco smoking prevalence remains the most remarkable.