Mortality pattern trends and disparities among Chinese from 2004 to 2016

BACKGROUND: With the changes in environmental, medical technique, population structure and national health projects, human mortality rates have undergone great changes all over the world. According to “World Health Statistics 2016: Monitoring Health for the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals)”, we can draw a globally vision about life expectancy and cause of death; also, significant inequality still persists within and among countries. This study was designed to research into the trend of mortality pattern in China, evaluate the disparities of age-specific and disease-specific mortality rates between male and female, and provides a scientific basis for further prevention strategies and policies design. METHODS: Data from the Chinese Disease Surveillance Points system were used to calculate crude and age-adjusted death rates, annual percent changes (APC) for men and women during 2004 to 2016. Age-standardized mortality rates (ASMR) were performed through the direct method with the World Health Organization’s World Standard Population. APC, according to log linear model, was adopted to describe the mortality rate trend. The χ(2) test was used to compare differences between age-specific and cause-specific mortality rates of men and women. Data analysis and figures were completed by R software. RESULTS: The mortality rates of men and women have decreased significantly (P < 0.05) during 2004–2016, and the APC were1.98 and 2.45%, respectively. In 2016, the crude mortality rate (CMR) and ASMR in all causes of death were 658.50 and 490.28 per 100,000 per year, respectively. The 5 leading causes of death were malignant neoplasm, cerebrovascular disease, heart disease, COPD, and accidental injury. The mortality rates of men were higher than that of women in all age groups. CONCLUSIONS: There are severe health gaps and disparities between male and female, and the chronic non-communicable diseases continue to be a serious health threat to Chinese residents. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12889-019-7163-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.