Methods and problems of the nosological analysis of mortality in the period of COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

The article discusses different approaches to assessing mortality during the COVID-19 pandemic. The analysis of inter­national data shows that different countries use different approaches to assessing mortality from COVID-19 and the increase in mortality from all causes. The most probable reasons for the variability of the increase in mortality rates are the rate of spread of infection, the quality of isolation and quarantine measures, the commitment of the population to their implementation, the resource capacity of the healthcare system and the quality of medical care (both for the treatment of COVID-19 and other diseases), features of living conditions, socio-economic and political processes that are difficult to formalize (and therefore assess the contribution by methods of mathematical statistics). For a correct comparison of excess mortality rates, it will be necessary to calculate standardized indicators and compare data in five-year age groups.In 2021, serious problems should be expected with the comparison of mortality rates in different countries from individual causes. The methodology for recording deaths from COVID-19 and other causes is not uniform at the global level, prob­lems are associated with differences in approaches to determining the primary cause of death, difficulties in determining the cause of death if a patient has multimorbid pathology (especially without postmortem examination). A full-fledged analysis is possible only with transdisciplinary cooperation under the auspices of the WHO of doctors, mathematicians, economists, and information technology specialists.