The public defence will be held as a video conference over Zoom.
The defence will follow regular procedure as far as possible, hence it will be open to the public and the audience can ask ex auditorio questions when invited to do so.
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Digital Trial Lecture – time and place
Adjudication committee
- First opponent: Professor Mika Gissler, Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, Finland
- Second opponent: Associate Professor Anne Kaasen, OsloMet - Oslo Metropolitan University
- Third member and chair of the evaluation committee: Professor II Siri Vangen, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo
Chair of the Defence
Professor Gunnar Bjune, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo
Principal Supervisor
Associate Professor Arne Stray-Pedersen, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo
Summary
Worldwide, reproductive-aged women increasingly face the disproportionate burden of chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs), ranking as the leading cause of death in many parts of the world. Concurrently, globally, road traffic injuries (RTIs) are now the leading cause of death in young people aged 15–29 years. Yet, socioeconomic inequalities across and within countries lead the mortality burden from these causes to be differentially born by different socioeconomic strata.
The aims of this thesis were to investigate the cause-specific mortality patterns and trends over time, and key socio-demographic determinants of NCDs and RTIs mortality among reproductive-aged women in Georgia, using the data from the national Reproductive Age Mortality Study 2014.
NCDs, particularly cancer, remain the major health threat to young Georgian women, followed by injuries. Breast cancer, road injuries, cervical cancer, cerebrovascular diseases, uterine cancer, brain cancer, suicide, stomach cancer, maternal disorders, and liver cirrhosis contributed to the 10 leading causes of death, with the majority substantially underreported in official statistics. Morality trends for nearly all causes appeared to be largely unchanged.
Being older, less educated, and unemployed were associated with the increased risk of NCD mortality, while this risk was lower in the “other ethnic” group.
Younger, employed and wealthier women were found to have an excess risk of RTI mortality.
Overall, reliable data on causal patterns of young women’s mortality is of critical importance to inform evidence-based health policy addressing avoidable premature female mortality. There is also the urgent need to adopt the life-course and equity-based approaches to curb the NCD and RTI mortality epidemics and enhance women’s survival during and beyond reproduction.
Additional information
Contact the research support staff.