• Survey Research
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.1-26
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• 2011

Mortality for oldest-old age (aged 80 or over) in Korea has never been studied mainly due to lack of data leaving its quality aside. The rapid aging recently occurring in Korea, which no other country has never experienced, must introduce a drastic change in the structure of future population pyramid, requring a careful investigation on mortality level, pattern, and trend for the oldest-old age in Korea. For mortality trend, we need to extend the past mortality data, which has provided only an open-ended age interval 80 or 85 years and over, to age-specific mortality up to 115 years old. A prerequisite for such an extension is constructing a Korean standard mortality by which one can figure out the mortality level and pattern of the oldest-old age. A Korean standard mortality is proposed by applying one relational model and eleven functions from which we select best models for each sex in terms of three measures of fits and three consistencies of mortality. Then we extend the mortality of the open-ended age intervals by providing a method to avoid the longitudinal consistency of mortality.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.103-108
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• 2001

Recently, numerous studies have focused on the health effects of ambient particulate pollutants. Compared to earlier studios that focused on severe air pollution episodes, recent studies are more relevant to understanding the health effects of air pollution at levels common to contemporary cities. We reviewed recent epidemiologic studies that evaluated health effects of particulate air pollution and concluded that respirable particulate air pollution is an important contributing factor to acute mortality and morbidity. We observed increased respiratory and cardiovascular deaths, increased hospital admissions and visits, and decreased lung function. We also observed increased mortality and morbidity in a Korean population. Theses health effects were observed at levels below the current Ambient Air Quality Standard for particulate air pollution.