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. 2021 Feb 5;16(2):e0246663.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0246663. eCollection 2021.

An open-sourced, web-based application to analyze weekly excess mortality based on the Short-term Mortality Fluctuations data series

László Németh  1 , Dmitri A Jdanov  1   2 , Vladimir M Shkolnikov  1   2
Affiliations

An open-sourced, web-based application to analyze weekly excess mortality based on the Short-term Mortality Fluctuations data series

László Németh et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic stimulated the interest of scientists, decision makers and the general public in short-term mortality fluctuations caused by epidemics and other natural or man-made disasters. To address this interest and provide a basis for further research, in May 2020, the Short-term Mortality Fluctuations data series was launched as a new section of the Human Mortality Database. At present, this unique data resource provides weekly mortality death counts and rates by age and sex for 38 countries and regions. The main objective of this paper is to detail the web-based application for visualizing and analyzing the excess mortality based on the Short-term Mortality Fluctuation data series. The application yields a visual representation of the database that enhances the understanding of the underlying data. Besides, it enables the users to explore data on weekly mortality and excess mortality across years and countries. The contribution of this paper is twofold. First, to describe a visualization tool that aims to facilitate research on short-term mortality fluctuations. Second, to provide a comprehensive open-source software solution for demographic data to encourage data holders to promote their datasets in a visual framework.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. The interface of the visualization tool.
The sidebar (indicated by green) contains the user input variables and links to the data source. The main figure appears in the area designated by orange color and summary statistical information is shown below the graphics in the blue area after user interaction.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Hover information of a polygon.
Information on the duration—the start, end and length—of an excess mortality polygon appears on hovering over a polygon.
Fig 3
Fig 3. Summary statistics information of a selection.
Information on death counts or death rates of the selected weeks by sex and type of difference are displayed below the figure.
Fig 4
Fig 4. Click point information.
Clicking in the figure helps identifying the nearest data point by revealing which year and week it pertains to.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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