Code Red: Explaining Average Age of Death in the City of Hamilton

The aim of this study is to identify the underlying factors that explain the average age of death in the City of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, as identified in the Code Red Series of articles that were published in the city's local newspaper in 2010. Using a combination of data from the Canadian Census, the Government of Ontario and the Canadian Institute for Health Information, factor analysis was performed yielding three factors relating to poverty, working class, and health and aging. In a regression analysis these factors account for 42% of the total variability in the average ages of death observed at the census tract level of geography within the city.