The first edition of Lineamientos básicos para el análisis de la mortalidad was published in 1992 as part of technical cooperation activities implemented by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) to strengthen the competencies of health ministries and national statistics institutes at the local and regional levels, and of personnel involved in mortality analysis.

This edition presents historical background and current approaches to mortality analysis. Despite the problems entailed in using mortality to study health, mortality data are usually available and are widely used to measure population health.

The purpose of these guidelines is to convey the basic elements of mortality analysis and serve as reference material at the subnational and regional levels, contributing to mortality analysis and a better understanding of the role of these data in the epidemiological profile of the population. These basic guidelines have been in high demand in Latin America and the countries of the Region have long requested that they be updated.

The Health Information and Analysis Unit of PAHO (CHA/HAS) fulfilled the commitment to update them, enlisting the support of professionals from various Latin American institutions. The goal was to keep the content simple in order to enable researchers to conduct basic mortality analysis. This document is the product of that effort and contains relevant updates and innovations that we hope will be useful both to decision makers and to those who work with mortality data every day.