Clustering of the Deadliest Diseases among Iranian Men from 1990 to 2016: A Growth Mixture Model Approach

Background: Paying attention to men’s health seems quite important for a variety of reasons. We evaluated the change of mortality rates due to various causes in Iranian men over the past decades. Study design: A cross-sectional study. Methods: The mortality rates for deadliest causes of diseases among Iranian men during 1990-2016 were extracted from the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study. Latent Growth Mixture Models (LGMM) were applied to determine subgroups’ cause of death. In this way, the causes within each group showed similar trends of mortality rates over time. Results: The LGMM clustered causes into 4 classes. Diabetes mellitus, hypertensive heart disease and neurological disorders have had increasing trend. Causes in class 2, including diarrhea, lower respiratory and other common infectious diseases, ischemic heart disease, ischemic stroke, neonatal disorders, and other non-communicable diseases manifested a slow decreasing trend. Most causes were allocated to 3rd class with a slow increase in mortality rates over time. Finally, within the last class, transport injuries and unintentional injuries revealed a decreasing trend. Conclusion: Most factors have rising trend, despite the fact that some have shown a very slight downward trend. Consequently, according to the four distinguished clusters resulting from LGMM, it is essential to provide programs to attain the goal of access to prevention, treatment, and support for high-risk mortality factors.