Female mortality at age 35-59 years for liver cirrhosis and
three other common diseases: United Kingdom, 1950-2007
Comment: In early middle-aged British women, death from liver cirrhosis is now about as common as death from coronary heart disease. Four decades ago,
there were 16 coronary deaths at this age for each cirrhosis death. Most liver cirrhosis in the UK is caused by alcohol. The corresponding graph for
men is shown here.
Method: Mortality rates calculated using data from the World Health Organization and the
United Nations Population Division,
then standardised for age (by taking unweighted averages of component rates) and smoothed (as weighted 3-year moving averages). For details, see
the Info page.
Caution: Trends can reflect not only changes in disease occurrence or treatment, but also changes in how a cause of death is
defined or coded. (The same factors can also account for differences in mortality rates between different countries.) Those due to changes in definition or
coding are artefacts, and may be indicated here by dotted (or thin) lines.
But, many artefactual trends have no such indication.
Comment: In early middle-aged British women, death from liver cirrhosis is now about as common as death from coronary heart disease. Four decades ago, there were 16 coronary deaths at this age for each cirrhosis death. Most liver cirrhosis in the UK is caused by alcohol. The corresponding graph for men is shown here.
Method: Mortality rates calculated using data from the World Health Organization and the United Nations Population Division, then standardised for age (by taking unweighted averages of component rates) and smoothed (as weighted 3-year moving averages). For details, see the Info page.
Caution: Trends can reflect not only changes in disease occurrence or treatment, but also changes in how a cause of death is defined or coded. (The same factors can also account for differences in mortality rates between different countries.) Those due to changes in definition or coding are artefacts, and may be indicated here by dotted (or thin) lines. But, many artefactual trends have no such indication.