Cause-specific mortality and its rural–urban patterning across 1,890 Japanese municipalities before (2017–2019) and during (2020–2022) the COVID-19 pandemic: a nationwide small-area ecological study of rurality and deprivation
National and regional mortality summaries can conceal local inequalities. We compared cause-specific mortality and its associations with rurality and area deprivation across Japanese municipalities before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. This nationwide ecological study compared 2017–2019 with 2020–2022 a...