Reconstruction of the Temporal Correlation Network of All-Cause Mortality Fluctuation across Italian Regions: The Importance of Temperature and Among-Nodes Flux

All-cause mortality is a very coarse grain, albeit very reliable, index to check the health implications of lifestyle determinants, systemic threats and socio-demographic factors. In this work, we adopt a statistical-mechanics approach to the analysis of temporal fluctuations of all-cause mortality, focusing on the correlation structure of this index across different regions of Italy. The correlation network among the 20 Italian regions was reconstructed using temperature oscillations and traveller flux (as a function of distance and region's attractiveness, based on GDP), allowing for a separation between infective and non-infective death causes. The proposed approach allows monitoring of emerging systemic threats in terms of anomalies of correlation network structure.

Automated summary

In this study, a statistical-mechanics approach was used to analyze the temporal fluctuations of all-cause mortality in different regions of Italy, with a focus on the correlation structure of this index. By reconstructing the correlation network among the regions, it was possible to monitor emerging systemic threats and their impact on health.