Decreasing AIDS mortality rates among young adults in the city of Florence, 1987–1999
- 1UO Epidemiologia Clinica e Descrittiva-CSPO, Florence, Italy
- 2UO Epidemiologia Analitica e ambientale-occupazionale-CSPO, Florence, Italy
- Correspondence to: Dr E Crocetti, UO Epidemiologia Clinica e Descrittiva-CSPO, Via di San Salvi 12, 50135 Florence, Italy; e.crocetti{at}cspo.it
In a recent paper Borrell and colleagues described mortality trends in young adults in three European cities.1 The authors pointed out that in Barcelona, Bologna, and Munich, there was from 1986 to 1995, a statistically significant increase of AIDS mortality in both sexes.
To obtain further descriptive data on this topic, data from Florence, the main city in the Tuscany region, central Italy, were analysed. Moreover, a wider time period, 1987–1999, has been included to highlight recent changes.
In the Tuscany region, the Regional Mortality Registry (RMR) has been active since 1987. All the death certificates relative to deceased residents are collected, checked, coded (according to International Classification of Disease 9th revision) and registered in the RMR archive. We retrieved from the RMR archive death data for AIDS (ICD-9 code: 279.1) relative to subjects 15–34 years resident in the city of Florence. The population of Florence has decreased from 421 302 inhabitants in 1987 to 376 662 in 1999, with an increasing aging population.
During 1987–1999, 878 deaths occurred among the subjects resident in Florence in the 15–34 year old age group, 630 men (71.8%) and 248 (28.2%) women. Among these 142 (16.2%) were …
