Cause of Death Illustration: A Powerful Way to Visualize Mortality Data

What is a cause of death illustration? A cause of death illustration is a graphical representation of the leading causes of death in a given population, region, or time period. It can show the relative frequency, ranking, or trends of different causes of death, as well as the age, gender, or other demographic characteristics of the deceased. A cause of death illustration can be a chart, a map, a diagram, or any other visual format that conveys the information effectively.

Why is a cause of death illustration important? A cause of death illustration can help us understand the patterns and causes of mortality in our society. It can reveal the major health problems, risks, and challenges that affect different groups of people. It can also inform us about the effectiveness of public health interventions, policies, and programs that aim to prevent or reduce deaths from certain causes. A cause of death illustration can also raise awareness, educate, and inspire action among the public, policymakers, researchers, and health professionals.

How to create a cause of death illustration? There are many ways to create a cause of death illustration, depending on the purpose, audience, and data source. Here are some general steps to follow:

  • Define your research question and scope. What do you want to show with your cause of death illustration? Who is your target audience? What is the geographic or temporal scope of your data?
  • Gather and analyze your data. Where can you find reliable and relevant data on causes of death? How will you measure and compare different causes of death? How will you deal with missing or incomplete data?
  • Choose your visual format and design. What type of chart, map, or diagram will best suit your data and message? How will you use colors, shapes, sizes, labels, legends, and other elements to make your illustration clear and attractive?
  • Test and refine your illustration. How will you check the accuracy and validity of your illustration? How will you get feedback from your audience or experts? How will you improve your illustration based on the feedback?

Examples of cause of death illustrations. Here are some examples of cause of death illustrations that have been created by various organizations and individuals:

  • The World Health Organization (WHO) publishes an annual report on the global burden of disease, which includes charts and maps showing the leading causes of death by region, country, age group, and sex.
  • The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) produces an interactive tool called GBD Compare, which allows users to explore and compare causes of death across countries, regions, time periods, and demographics.
  • The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provides a web-based application called CDC WONDER, which enables users to query and analyze mortality data from the United States by various criteria.
  • The New York Times published an article titled “What’s Killing America’s Black Infants?”, which featured a map showing the infant mortality rates by race and county in the United States.
  • The Economist published an article titled “The 20th century’s biggest killers” which included a chart showing the estimated number of deaths from various wars, genocides, famines, and diseases in the 20th century.
  • Nathan Yau created a personal project called “Causes of Death”, which used data from his own family tree to visualize how his ancestors died over several generations.

I hope this article has given you some insights into what a cause of death illustration is, why it is important, how to create one, and some examples of existing ones. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to share them with me. Thank you for reading.

Doms Desk

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