Mortality from violent causes among the elderly population in Finland in 1951-1979

The changes in violence-related mortality rates among the population aged 65 years or older in Finland from 1951-1979 were studied with the help of the official mortality statistics. Factors underlying these changes were also examined. The most distinctive findings were, first, the increase in accident-related mortality rates of both males and females in the 1950s and, second, the sharp decrease of those rates with respect to women from 1960-1975 compared to the decrease for males during that same period. The changes in mortality for males were mainly due to changes in frequency of motor-vehicle fatalities, whereas the changes for females were mainly due to changes in mortality caused by accidental falls and limb fractures. Improvements in classification methods resulting in the decrease of unspecified causes of death were apparently the main cause of the recorded increase in violent mortality in the early 1950s. The incidence of traffic accidents has decreased in the latter half of the 1970s. Thus, the minor decrease in motor-vehicle accident mortality for men most evidently was due to a decreased incidence. The incidence of hip and limb fractures in women increased. Thus, it was not a lowered incidence but instead a decreased case-fatality rate which caused the decreased mortality in females. Early mobilization after hip operations and decreased dependence level among the elderly apparently resulted in the decreased fatality rates.