Using the Internet technologies to explore huge databases with changing structure: the example of the World Health Organization International Mortality Database (WHO IMD)

Alexandre Avdeev, Université Marc Bloch, Strasbourg
Vladimir A. Pshenkin, Moscow State University
Alain Monnier, Institut National d'Études Démographiques (INED)
Alfred Nizard, Institut National d'Études Démographiques (INED)

The aim of this communication is to present a new system of exploration of the World Health Organization International Mortality Database. The authors put special emphasis on the technical decisions which permit everybody having an Internet access to get the information from that huge database containing more then 2 millions records (lines). No need of special software, or a deep knowledge about the original data structure to obtain such basic demographic indicators as age-specific and standardised cause-specific death rates, to get population pyramids and to plot the diagrams. Moreover once the original database is updated, the system is able to upgrade itself automatically checking out all new records including those representing a new countries or new causes of death. The system is open for such further development as the computation of sophisticated demographic indicators and cause-specific life tables including.