Mortality patterns in the Russian Federation: indirect technique using widowhood data

Objective The Russian mortality crisis of the early 1990s attracted considerable attention, but information on possible covariates of mortality is lacking, and concerns have been raised about the validity of official mortality data. To help elucidate the determinants of mortality, we examined whether indirect demographic techniques could be used to study mortality in countries such as the Russian Federation, where mortality data are inadequate, using input data independent from official vital statistics. Methods A national sample of the population was interviewed (n = 1600, response rate = 67%). Participants who had ever been married (82 % of the sample) were asked about the date of birth and vital status of their first spouse. Spousal mortality was then estimated indirectly for the 531 men and 710 women for whom valid data were available. Findings The estimated risk of death between the ages of 35–69 years was 57 % for male spouses and 17 % for female spouses