Ethnic Mortality differences in Colombia between 1980-2007 and 2008-2015

In Colombia, Indigenous and Afro-descendants are dying, on average, earlier than white-mestizo persons and persistently from different causes. This means that deaths from infectious diseases and homicide are more frequent in indigenous and black people respectively. These mortality differences have been recently proved; however, it is unknown whether this mortality gap between ethnic groups is getting larger or smaller over time. The lack of studies that analyse this problem and also the poor quality of mortality data by ethnic group have hindered a greater understanding of this topic.
In my Ph.D. project, I propose to analyse the mortality differences by ethnic group in Colombia between 1980-2007 and 2008-2015. For the period 1980-2007 the ethnic variable will be reconstructed with statistical methods of ethnicity classification, and from 2008 to 2015, it can be taken from mortality registers. This study attempts not only to characterize the epidemiological profile of each ethnic group (variability of age at death, mains causes of death, and life expectancy) but also, to use a new methodology to assign the ethnic background to deceased persons in mortality studies. This represents a great opportunity for countries where the ethnic mortality data are of poor quality or are not available. The outputs of this study will allow us to understand better the health inequalities in Colombia, and therefore, to design more effective public health policies.
Mortality data for this study were already provided by the Colombian Office for National Statistics (DANE).