Standardised preventable and treatable mortality

The indicator measures the standardised mortality rate of avoidable (preventable and treatable) diseases. Mortality from preventable causes is as defined by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 2018, a classification adopted by Eurostat and used in international comparisons. This classification only includes deaths occurring before the age of 75 and describes two typologies of preventable causes, those that are preventable and those that are treatable.

Preventable mortality refers to mortality that can mainly be avoided through effective public health and primary prevention interventions (i.e. before the onset of diseases/injuries, to reduce incidence).From 2020, COVID-19 is included as a preventable disease.

Treatable mortality can mainly be avoided through timely and effective health care interventions, including secondary prevention and treatment (after the onset of diseases to reduce case-fatality).

Data on causes of death (CD) refer to the underlying cause which, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), is "the disease or injury that initiated the chain of morbid events leading directly to death or the circumstances of the accident or violence that led to the fatal injury". CM data are derived from death certificates. The medical death certificate is an obligation to all member states.

The data are presented as standardised death rates, meaning they are adjusted to a standard age distribution in order to measure death rates independently of different age structures of populations. This approach improves comparability over time and between countries. The standardised death rates used here are calculated on the basis of the standard European population.