Ricerc@Sapienza

The evolution of lifespan disparity is gaining a central role in mortality
literature. From the beginning of the new millennium, its evolution has led scholars to
give more emphasis to longevity and its relationship with causes-of-death evolution.
Following this line of research, we propose a novel model aiming to provide the
causes-of-death mortality surface, exploiting the relationship between mortality rates
by cause-of-death and lifespan variability. Taking advantage of this relationship, and

Assessments of age-specific mortality and life expectancy have been done by the UN Population Division,
Department of Economics and Social Affairs (UNPOP), the United States Census Bureau, WHO, and as part of
previous iterations of the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD). Previous iterations of
the GBD used population estimates from UNPOP, which were not derived in a way that was internally consistent
with the estimates of the numbers of deaths in the GBD. The present iteration of the GBD, GBD 2017, improves on

The increasing life expectancy at birth and the improvement of general health observed worldwide over the previous years are likely due to many factors. In this regard, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has highlighted the favourable situation of the Italian population, which is amongst the most privileged in the world. In Italy, the national healthcare system is easily accessible to the whole population without direct costs, and alcohol abuse and cigarette smoke are less widespread compared to neighbouring countries.