**Assessment of Avoidable Mortality Concepts in the European Union Countries, Their Benefits and Limitations**

Beata Gavurova and Tatiana Vagasova

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/67818

#### **Abstract**

[21] Wendt C., Frisina L. and Rothgang H. (2009) Healthcare System Types: A Conceptual Framework for Comparison. Social Policy & Administration, 43: 70-90.

[22] Böhm K, Schmid A, Götze R, Landwehr C, Rothgang H. Five types of OECD healthcare systems: Empirical results of a deductive classification. Health Policy. 2013; 113(3): 258-

[23] Wendt C. Mapping European healthcare systems: a comparative analysis of financing, service provision and access to healthcare. Journal of European Social Policy. 2009; 19(5):

[24] Reibling N. Healthcare systems in Europe: towards an incorporation of patient access. Journal of European Social Policy. 2010; 20(1): 5-18. DOI: 10.1177/0958928709352406. [25] Joumard I, André C, Nicq C. Health care systems: efficiency and institutions. Economics Department Working Papers 769 (No. ECO/WKP(2010)25). Paris: OECD; 2010.

doi:10.1111/j.1467-9515.2008.00647.x

70 Advances in Health Management

269. DOI: 10.1016/j.healthpol.2013.09.003.

432-445. DOI: 10.1177/0958928709344247.

The concept of avoidable mortality is intended to assessing health care system performance. It is defined as premature deaths from selected disease groups that are considered either treatable through the timely and effective health care (amenable mortality), or preventable by public health interventions (preventable mortality). The purpose of study is to analyse the impact of four lists of causes of death created by researchers on amenable mortality by country, sex and cause of death. Data on deaths were obtained from the WHO database for 20 European Union countries in 2014. We applied the method of direct standardisation using the European Standard Population, Spearman rank‐order correlation with statistical significance tests and confidence intervals. We found that the selection of diseases considered as amenable has not significantly impact on the cross‐ country comparison, but the weight of selected list of causes of death is significant at the national level. The concept has several limitations relating to selection of diseases and setting age threshold over time, availability of health care resources, prevalence of diseases or variation of causes of death coding among countries. However, indicator of avoidable mortality offers a way of the evaluating effectiveness of health systems in maintaining and improving population health.

**Keywords:** avoidable mortality, amenable mortality, preventable mortality, health care system performance, health policy
