A comparative study on mortality patterns among Koreans, Korean-Chinese and Chinese

In order to understand the causal mechanism of disease aggregates peculiar to place and ethnicity, mortality data of Yanji city, China (1993) were col lected, examined for validity and analyzed, Age standardized, age specific mortality rates and ten leading causes of death were compared with 1993 Kor ean mortality statistics, Age standardized mortality rates for both sexes w ere highest in Korean-Chinese followed by Koreans and Chinese (the lowest). Out of ten leading causes of death (54%-70% of the total deaths), seven fo r male and six causes of death for female were common in all groups, Korean -Chinese females had more similar patterns to Chinese females than males di d. Differences in mortality rates by causes of death among groups suggested that hypertensive diseases and respiratory tuberculosis were associated wi th ethnicity, homicide/injuries inflicted by others, diabetes mellitus and chronic renal disease with environment, and others with both ethnicity and environment. These results suggest that a few causes of death were attribut ed to either ethnicity or environment whereas most of the ten leading cause s of deaths were attributed to mixed impacts of both ethnicity and environm ent.