Predicting all-cause mortality with machine learning among Brazilians aged 50 and over: results from The Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSI-Brazil)

Felipe Mendes Delpino, Alexandre Dias Porto Chiavegatto Filho, Juliana Lustosa Torres, Fabíola Bof de Andrade, Maria Fernanda Lima-Costa, Bruno Pereira Nunes

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

We aimed to develop a machine-learning model to predict all-cause mortality among Brazilians aged 50 and over, incorporating demographic, health, and lifestyle characteristics as predictors. We analyzed data from the Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Aging (ELSI-Brazil), waves 1 and 2 (2015–2021), a nationally representative sample from 70 municipalities across Brazil’s five regions. Nine algorithms, including Random Forest, Gradient Boosting, XGBOOST, and Logistic Regression, were tested on 9412 participants (54.6% female), with 970 deaths recorded over approximately five years. Using 59 predictor variables, we assessed performance with metrics like AUC, accuracy, precision, and F1-Score. Random Forest excelled with an AUC of 0.92 (95% CI: 0.90–0.94). SHAP analysis highlighted age, sex, BMI, medication use, and physical activity as top predictors. Integrating these models into healthcare systems can improve policy planning and enable targeted interventions, ultimately fostering better health outcomes for aging populations.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number22
Journalnpj Aging
Volume11
Issue number1
Early online dateMar 28 2025
DOIs
StateE-pub ahead of print - Mar 28 2025

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Aging
  • Geriatrics and Gerontology

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