On the Far Eastern pattern of mortality

Abstract

Since the early 1980s, it has been accepted widely that there is a Far Eastern pattern of mortality, a pattern characterized by excessively high death rates among older men relative to death rates among younger men and among women. It has been regarded as a unique regional mortality pattern, applying primarily to Far Eastern populations. A re-examination of the mortality data of some Far Eastern populations reveals that changes in both age patterns of and sex differentials in mortality have been widely observed. Further, mortality patterns similar to the so-called Far Eastern mortality model have been found in many other populations.

Mortality Transition in East Asia

“…This has been observed previously in both these East Asian populations and other populations (Zhao 2003(Zhao , 2004. Accordingly, higher or lower sex ratios of death recorded in certain age groups may not indicate the existence of a specific mortality pattern in the population, but rather that the population may be in a particular stage of its mortality transition.…”

“…Since then, the so-called 'Far Eastern' mortality pattern has been widely accepted as a regional mortality model. In a previous study, one of the authors has challenged the validity of this view and shown that the Far Eastern mortality pattern is not region-specific and has been found in some other areas (Zhao 2003). 6 In this section, we will provide further evidence showing how age patterns of and sex differentials in mortality have changed over time in East Asia, and that mortality pattern in these populations did not always conform to the 'Far Eastern' model.…”

“…The degree of resemblance between the mortality model and observed rates is measured using the index of similarity (United Nations 1988;Zhao 2003). The comparison is made for males and females separately, but the discussion will mainly focus on the male populations since the examination of female mortality patterns has led to similar conclusions.…”

Mortality in an International Perspective

“…Another noteworthy lesson learnt from this and other studies (Zhao 2003(Zhao , 2007b) is that frequent changes in age patterns of mortality have often been observed in the process of the mortality transition. While regional variations in mortality patterns might have existed in the past when many populations lived in isolation and their mortality fluctuated around a high level, recent cross-population variations in age patterns of mortality were often related to the time and phase of the mortality transition.…”

Ancient and early modern mortality: experience and understanding1

“…27 27 Goldman, ‘Far Eastern patterns’, p. 17. See also Zhao, ‘Far Eastern pattern’, especially pp. 144–6, where he argues that even the Barclay et al., ‘Reassessment’, for traditional rural China does not match the so‐called East Asian model sufficiently closely.…”