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An interesting article from the BBC, including maps of cause of death, stratified by age, across the UK.
I think the interesting thing is what the reporter says right at the very end about what people actually die of, as opposed to what government policy thinks is a cause of death worth spending money on preventing.
I think the interesting thing is what the reporter says right at the very end about what people actually die of, as opposed to what government policy thinks is a cause of death worth spending money on preventing.
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We do need to have better provision for getting help to people who want help, certainly - but I don't think that "forcibly prevent people from killing themselves" is anything even close to a good idea.
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Terrrrsm, of course. And smut on the internet.
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For starters, it feels potentially misleading to map the modal causes of death: with nine categories, the cause they show could represent anything from 11% to 100% of deaths! More octogenartans than teenagers could be dying on the roads and the maps would leave us none the wiser.
Secondly, the outline doesn't look entirely like the UK to me. Is it some kind of magic stretch so that each hex has the same population, or has something altogether stranger happened to the map? In any case, it makes it very hard for me, at least, to overlay the map with my general geographical knowledge of the UK: I couldn't reliably point to Cambridge on the map, let alone figure out the extent of the London conurbation.
But mainly, it feels like someone ought to be doing some number crunching to build graphics that illustrate trends. The BBC's article says cancer dominates in rural areas in late middle age: it would be interesting to see an aggregate line graph for all areas judged rural, plotting prevalence of each cause of death against age. Similarly, such graphs for a few latitudinal bands might better illustrate the North-South disparities.
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(BTW, I'm reminded of my favourite case of maps being misleading. Look at a red/blue map of the USA, and you come to the conclusion that poor states vote Republican, rich states vote Democrat. However, if you survey individual people, you find that poor people (especially those in rich states) tend to vote Democrat, and rich people (especially those in poor states) tend to vote Republican. And that there are plenty of people whose voting habits run against the geographical and income trends. No particular connection to the maps at hand, just a general reminder that maps can be misleading.)
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I wish the government would think more about what they _do_ want people to die from.
I am also interested in what the 'mental disorder' cause of death is. It's not suicide (a separate category). Mortality rates (google shows me) are higher for people with mental disorders, but I am assuming this is because misuse of drugs, misprescription or mis-taking of drugs is higher, that this group is less likely to appropriately self-care, and the health service may be less inclined to provide appropriate care to people who have mental health issues.