The underlying causes of UK deaths are wide and varied. 

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It should be acknowledged that, as mortality improvement stimuli, Longevity Catalysts can spring from a range of different areas as illustrated by the EMPERORS classification.  

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Furthermore, any one catalyst can impact upon a number of distinct causes of death.  For example, general reductions in the level of smoking can affect numbers of deaths arising from



• circulatory diseases (e.g. heart disease)

• respiratory diseases (e.g. bronchitis)

• cancers (e.g. lung)

Equally, the analysis of deaths in the UK according to "cause" can help to identify those areas in which there is most scope for further improvement.

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Indeed much of the improvements over the past 40 years are largely attributable to falls in deaths arising from circulatory diseases (heart disease and stroke).

 

It is therefore possible for the Longevity Catalysts framework to naturally co-exist with a causal modelling approach to future mortality improvements.  For example, Longevity Catalysts might help inform future improvement trajectories according to certain causes of death, but the exact nature of this interaction is dependent upon certain key features of the underlying causal model. 

 

A Cause of Death Working Party  within the profession is aimed at developing and documenting such a model.

   

 

 

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