Ethnic Mortality differences in Colombia between 1980-2007 and 2008-2015

在哥伦比亚，土著人和非洲人后裔的平均死亡时间比白人混血儿早，而且死因各不相同。这意味着土著人和黑人分别更经常死于传染病和凶杀。这些死亡率差异最近得到了证实;然而，还不知道随着时间的推移，族裔群体之间的死亡率差距是越来越大还是越来越小。缺乏分析这一问题的研究，以及按种族划分的死亡率数据质量差，阻碍了对这一主题的更好理解。在这个项目中，我提议分析1980-2007年和2008-2015年哥伦比亚各族裔群体的死亡率差异。在1980-2007年期间，将使用族裔分类的统计方法重新构建族裔变量，而在2008 - 2015年期间，可从死亡率登记册中提取。这项研究不仅试图描述每个种族群体的流行病学概况（死亡年龄、主要死亡原因和预期寿命的变化），而且还试图使用一种新的方法，在死亡率研究中将种族背景分配给死者。这对那些族裔死亡率数据质量差或无法获得的国家来说是一个很好的机会。这项研究的结果将使我们能够更好地了解哥伦比亚的健康不平等，从而设计更有效的公共卫生政策。本研究的死亡率数据已由哥伦比亚国家统计局提供。

In Colombia, Indigenous and Afro-descendants are dying, on average, earlier than white-mestizo persons and persistently from different causes. This means that deaths from infectious diseases and homicide are more frequent in indigenous and black people respectively. These mortality differences have been recently proved; however, it is unknown whether this mortality gap between ethnic groups is getting larger or smaller over time. The lack of studies that analyse this problem and also the poor quality of mortality data by ethnic group have hindered a greater understanding of this topic.In my Ph.D. project, I propose to analyse the mortality differences by ethnic group in Colombia between 1980-2007 and 2008-2015. For the period 1980-2007 the ethnic variable will be reconstructed with statistical methods of ethnicity classification, and from 2008 to 2015, it can be taken from mortality registers. This study attempts not only to characterize the epidemiological profile of each ethnic group (variability of age at death, mains causes of death, and life expectancy) but also, to use a new methodology to assign the ethnic background to deceased persons in mortality studies. This represents a great opportunity for countries where the ethnic mortality data are of poor quality or are not available. The outputs of this study will allow us to understand better the health inequalities in Colombia, and therefore, to design more effective public health policies. Mortality data for this study were already provided by the Colombian Office for National Statistics (DANE).