Morbidity and mortality in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in the 1980's

The purpose of the present study was to examine the general morbidity and mortality rates in the three Baltic republics--Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania during a decade before the collapse of the Soviet Union. Official statistical data were used to compare morbidity and mortality rates. A method of standardization and life table functions were employed. Soviet morbidity statistics were predominantly descriptive, and based mainly on crude rates registered cases of illness during a year per 100,000 population. The death rates during the Soviet period are a better indicator of the health of the populations than more specific health indicators. A general deterioration of the ecological, social and economic situation in the Baltic republics at the end of the 1980s and early 1990s may have resulted in the mortality rising and aborted any trends to increasing life expectancy in the next few years thus requiring more radical reforms in health and social policy. The study demonstrates a noticeable difference in mortality rates between demographic and socio-economic groups in the Baltic states.