Features of the level and structure of mortality by causes in the Komi Republic

In the COVID-19 pandemic, a noticeable increase in the mortality rate of population actualizes research in the fi eld of mortality and life expectancy. The article compares the dynamics and the level of mortality from the main causes of death in Russia and the Komi Republic on the eve of the pandemic. The purpose of the research is to identify regional opportunities for increasing life expectancy due to the peculiarities of the mortality structure by causes. The study was conducted on the basis of official Rosstat data for the period 1990-2019, characterized by multidirectional trends in life expectancy. The authors have used the methods of system, statistical and dynamic analysis, and comparison. The main hypothesis of the study is the assumption that there are signifi cant regional reserves for increasing life expectancy based on the mortality specifi cs due to causes. The work establishes that in Russia as a whole, the period under review is characterized by a decrease in mortality from respiratory diseases, external causes and diseases of the circulatory system, and in the Komi Republic it is only from a group of external causes. At the same time, the mortality rate from external causes and its share in the mortality structure in the republic remain signifi cantly higher than the national average. It still represents the main reserve for increasing life expectancy. There was a convergence with the all-Russian parameters of the level and share of mortality from cardiovascular diseases which previously distinguished the region favorably. The Komi Republic is characterized by noticeably more unfavorable dynamics and the level of mortality from diseases of the digestive organs and from neoplasms. By the beginning of the pandemic, the republic came up with a worse situation with mortality from respiratory diseases, but with a more prosperous one-from infectious and parasitic diseases. The region has reserves for increasing life expectancy for almost all major causes of mortality. The novelty and practical signifi cance of the research lies in the fact that identifi cation of the specifi cs of the mortality structure by causes allows determining priorities in the regional demographic policy in the mortality.