Recent Pattern of Mortality in Korea

최근의 사망패턴에 관한 고찰

In this paper, an attempt has been made to examine the pattern of mortality in Korea during 1970~80. By applying the age-sex specific mortality rates quoted from 1978~79 life tables for Korea published by NBOS, EPB to those of the West pattern of regional model life tables and the far eastern pattern of model life tables for developing countries, life expectancy at birth were calculated. Also the author reviewed the trends of death rates, life expectancy and cause of death using vital registration data and other materials. Summarized results are as follows; 1. Crude death rates in Korea was reduced to one fifth in the 1983 compared to that in 1920's. Life expectancy also improved to almost double in 1985 compared to 1920's. But the difference in the life expectancy between male and female increased during that period and it was recorded as 6.4 years in 1985. This discrepancy was mainly due to the different tempo of decreasing in mortality level by sex, particularly, for the age 40 and above. 2. For the pattern of mortality in Korea, it showed that female mortality could accounted closer to the West pattern model life tables. There were high similarity between actual pattern prevalent in Korea and West pattern. And its coefficient of variance was also very low. However for the case of male, it was difficult to find the exact model life tables for explaining the actual situation on the male mortality pattern which means exist considerable dissimilarity in older ages. The Far eastern pattern of U.N. model life tables show better results than West pattern, however, the deviation of the pattern to actual was severe. Also in Far eastern pattern, high coefficient of variance was existed. Furthermore it was found in the paper that the mortality level of Korean male for the age 40 and above were much higher than that of Far eastern pattern which was reflected the high mortality of the male adult in Far east region. 3. The analysis of cause of death showed that circulatory disease such as cerebrovascular disease and hypertensive disease accounted for the leading cause of death in Korea for the age 40 and above. There should he paid special attention to chronic retrogressive diseases for the older age groups. For younger age groups, injury and poisoning were reported as important cause of death.