The causes of death in the province of Rome between 1981 and 2007 and a focus on the city of Rome. A geographical analysis

In this paper we provide an overview of the main causes of death in the province of Rome in 1981 and 2007, showing the most relevant variations which have been recorded over time. Using ArcGIS 9.2 software, we have drawn up several medical-geographical thematic maps and specific land use maps which corroborate the temporal and spatial analysis, and which provide suggestions about the relation between causes of death and certain risk factors. Particular attention is given to the diseases of the circulatory system and neoplasms which caused, respectively, 38.4% and 32.6% of deaths in 2007 and which followed substantially different trends. Then, we focus on the city of Rome, where we examine the evolution of land use between 1980 and 2001 in order to investigate, by means of detailed screening, the changes recorded in a city where, in 2007, 67% of the inhabitants of Rome province lived.