Sorry, I was being cheeky. I really don't think the heightened post 1990 mortalities can be attributed to the cardiovascular stuff. That's more long-term stuff, I think.
The sharp post 1990 rise could not be explained by that. And indeed it wasn't -- as should be clear from the age-specific mortalities and the leading causes of death. I think the US CDC released a number of reports on this matter and, as I recall, it told a sorry tale -- heightened mortality from diphteria and pneumonia, violence and suicides, strokes, and, yes, heart disease and alcohol poisoning. Basically, the distress of those years post-1990 and esp post 1992. Figures seemed to turn around post 1994/95, but there's some inconsistency there.
> Also odd is something abour the decline in the birth
> rate -- birthrate correlates INVERSELY with poverty.
Not odd at all. That's pretty standard demographic stuff -- and that's what makes a Cuba, say, stand out, because their stats don't comport with their income levels. Demographers have spent plenty of effort to explain this inverse relation -- from children as investment, to assurance against child mortality (e.g. my own grandma had 11 children, only 4 of which survived to adulthood), to pooling (reckoning the net economic contribution of children), etc. It's amazing how quickly the birth-rates can turn around with improvements in care/health services delivery and without substantial changes in income.
kj