DEATH RATES AND DEATH DATA FOR ASIAN AMERICAN ELDERLY

这一老龄化人口统计学项目的目的是分析亚裔美国老年人的死亡经历。通常通过将生命统计数据和人口普查数据结合起来计算的死亡率，亚洲或太平洋岛民(API)种族类别的死亡率比任何其他种族类别的死亡率低得多--不到白人死亡率的三分之二，也低于预期寿命最长的国家日本的死亡率。在得出这一群体真正更健康的结论之前，可能是由于某种组合的“健康移民”效应或财富，必须排除数据来源的问题。具体地说，有理由怀疑死亡证明和人口普查之间的种族编码不一致。此外，综合API类别可能掩盖了六个主要种族群体之间的相当大的异质性：日本人、中国人、韩国人、越南人、亚裔印度人和菲律宾裔美国人。拟议的项目将使用一种方法来确定这六个群体中每一个65岁以上人群的年龄和性别特定死亡率，这种方法通过使用分子和分母的单一数据来源--社会保障管理局(SSA)的总受益人记录--来避免将生命状况和人口普查数据结合在一起的陷阱。我们将根据种族代码、姓氏/婚前姓氏和出生地，使用上一个项目开发的亚裔族裔识别方法，在六个群体中每组识别65岁以上的人。已确定人员的特别安全援助死亡记录将与死亡证明、年龄和种族数据进行比较。我们将解决这些研究问题：在六个主要的亚裔美国人群体中，特定年龄、特定性别的老年人死亡率是否存在差异？死亡率是否因出生地不同而不同，即在美国出生的和在外国出生的？亚裔美国老年人死亡证明上的年龄和种族信息有多可靠？可靠性是否因种族、年龄、出生地或死亡状态而异？按种族和出生地划分的特定死因死亡率是多少？这项工作将使这些快速增长的种族人口能够更准确地预测寿命，促进更好地了解移民与健康之间的关系，并将确定每个群体的主要死亡原因，从而为未来的流行病学研究提供信息。

The purpose of this project in the demography of aging is to analyze the mortality experience of Asian American elderly. Death rates, routinely constructed by combining vital statistics and census data, are much lower for the race category "Asian or Pacific Islander (API)" than those for any other race category - less than two-thirds of white rates, and are also lower than death rates in Japan, the country with highest life expectancy. Before concluding that this population is truly healthier, perhaps due to some combination of "healthy immigrant" effect or wealth, problems with data sources must be ruled out. Specifically, there is reason to suspect inconsistencies in race coding between death certificates and the census. Further, the aggregate API category may mask considerable heterogenity among the six major ethnic groups: Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Asian Indian, and Filipino Americans. The proposed project would determine age- and sex-specific death rates for those 65+ in each of these six groups using methodology which avoids the pitfalls of combining vital status and census data by employing a single data source for numerators and denominators, the Master Beneficiary Record at the Social Security Administration (SSA). We would identify persons 65+ in each of the six groups using methods for Asian ethnic identification developed in a previous project, based on race code, given name, surname/maiden name and place of birth. SSA death records for identified persons will be compared with death certificate age and race data. We will address these research questions: Do age-specific, sex-specific death rates for the elderly differ among the six major Asian American Populations? Do death rates differ by nativity, i.e. U.S.-born versus foreign-born? How reliable are age and race information on death certificates for Asian American elderly? Does reliability vary by ethnic group, age, nativity, or state of death? What are the cause-specific death rates by ethnic group, and by nativity? This work will allow more accurate projections of longevity for these rapidly growing ethnic populations, foster a better understanding of the relationship between immigration and health, and will identify major causes of mortality in each group, thus informing future epidemiologic research.