Territorial distribution of alcohol and drug addictions mortality concerning regional disparities in the slovak republic from year 1996 to year 2015
Abstract
BACKGROUND: This paper deals with the territorial distribution of alcohol and drug addiction mortality at the level of the districts of the Slovak Republic. AIM: The aim of the paper is to explore the relations within the administrative territorial division of the Slovak Republic, that is, between the individual districts, and hence, to reveal possibly hidden relations in alcohol and drug mortality.
METHODS: The analysis is divided into two segments - for both the sexes individually. The computed standardised mortality rate is employed to calculate similarity through the Euclidean distance.
Cluster analysis is performed with the clusters created by the mutual distances. The data comes from the database of the Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic and it covers the time span beginning in 1996 and ending in 2015.
RESULTS: Substantially, the Slovak Republic possesses the mortality regional disparities expressed by the standardised mortality rate computed particularly for the diagnoses assigned to alcohol and drug addictions at a considerably high level. However, the outcomes for the sexes differ.
The Bratislava III District keeps the most extreme position absolutely forming its own cluster for both the sexes, too. The Topoľčany District occupies a similar extreme position from the point of view of the male sex.
All the Bratislava districts maintain a mutual notable dissimilarity. Contrariwise, the development of the regional disparities among the districts show notable heterogeneity.
CONCLUSIONS: There are considerable regional discrepancies throughout the districts of the Slovak Republic. Hence, a common platform has to be established to help in tackling this issue.