For the above reasons, it is not possible to state how representative the sample used www.selleckchem.com/products/ipilimumab.html in this analysis is of the population of Scottish travelers dying. Although cause, date, and location of death were available for the analysis,
additional data on traveler type, time the deceased spent abroad before death, and data on risk factor/underlying conditions would have aided in discrimination of possible effectors on death. With respect to the cause of death bias may also have been introduced due to differences in recording the cause of death between different countries including Scotland or even inaccuracy in the cause of death communicated to the SEHD. The data also did not allow the distinction to be made between Scots living abroad (eg, expatriates) and Scots traveling selleck screening library abroad (eg, on holiday). This may have introduced bias into any comparisons with the reference Scottish population, as factors related to long-term residence abroad may have affected the cause and age at death. In addition, the lack of age-categorized denominator data for Scottish travelers necessitated the assumption that age distribution of UK travelers abroad was representative of Scottish travelers abroad to analyze the relationship between age at death due to circulatory disease and whether death occurred abroad or not. Finally, there are significant limitations related to the comparability of traveling and non-traveling
Scots, where, for example, the Scottish population will include those who for health reasons are unable to travel. In comparing across the age range 25 to 64, it was hoped to eliminate some of this bias associated with underlying conditions and ability to travel associated with older age. A total of 587 bodies were returned to Scotland for cremation between 2000 and 2004. Of these, 177 (30.2%) were females and 408 (69.5%) were males; 2 (0.3%) were not recorded for sex. The mean age at death was 57.8 years (range 0–93 years; median 61 years).
The cause of death was recorded in 572 (97.4%) patients (Table 1). Of these, only 9 (1.5%) were due to infectious causes; one of these was due to cerebral malaria, one due to a viral hemorrhagic fever, and the remainder due to septic shock. Trauma accounted for 120 deaths (20.4%), while other non-infectious causes accounted for 443 (75.5%) deaths. The causes of many of the 120 traumatic deaths were often difficult Dynein to accurately ascertain. In most cases (N = 95, 79.2%) they were broadly described as accidental deaths. The remainder consisted of those who died by suicide (17, 14.2%) and conflict (3, 2.5%); the cause was unrecorded in 5 (4.2%). Among those deaths which were neither caused by trauma nor infection (Table 2), the major cause of death was failure of the circulatory system (341, 77.0%) which contributed to 52.0% of all deaths. This was followed by failure of the respiratory (41, 9.3%) and gastrointestinal (20, 4.5%) systems with neoplasm accounting for 18 deaths (4.1%).