Far eastern patterns of Mortality

Summary

In this paper a mortality pattern is identified which has not previously been described by model mortality schedules and seems to have occurred only in populations in the Far East. Mortality schedules in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Korea during the past several decades have been characterized by excessively high death rates of men at the older ages. This excess mortality has progressively diminished and most recent death rates for men show only slight deviations from West model life tables. An examination of statistics on causes of death suggests that tuberculosis is at least partly responsible for the excess mortality of men.