Old Age Mortality in Eastern and South-Eastern Asia

Danan Gu, United Nations Population Division
Kirill F. Andreev, United Nations
Nan Li, United Nations
Thomas Spoorenberg, United Nations Population Division
Gerhard K. Heilig, United Nations Population Division

Eastern and South-Eastern Asia has witnessed a marked decline in old age mortality in recent decades. Yet no studies have investigated the trend and patterns in overall morality and cause-of-death at older ages. We present data from the 2010 Revision of the World Population Prospects on old age mortality in terms of life expectancy at age 65, age-specific death rates for 13 countries/territories in the region from 1995 to 2010, and data from the WHO on cause-of-death for six countries from 1980 to 2010. We found that in 13 countries studied women witnessed a greater decline than men and young elders had a larger decline than the oldest-old. In all six countries examined for cause-of-death except Thailand, most of the increases in life expectancy at age 65 in both men and women were attributable to declines in mortality from stroke and heart diseases. Possible explanations are provided.