Epidemiological transition in Easter Island (1914-1996)

This study describes the mortality patterns during the present century (1914-1996) and investigates the epidemiological transition in a single community, Easter Island (Rapanui), the geographically most isolated inhabited island. Mortality patterns were reconstructed from civil records and included deaths of all island residents. The mean annual number of deaths is 9.3. A steady decline in the mortality rate linked to rapid modernization is the most relevant general trait. Although a small mortality crisis was detected in 9 years of the period studied, there was no significant seasonality in the deaths, possibly due to little climatic variation. The most serious sanitary problem was leprosy, endemic on the island from the end of the 19(th) century. Sanitary improvements, on one hand, and the effective breakdown of isolation, on the other, brought about the eradication of leprosy and the beginning of an epidemiological transition. In the latter years of the study, there was an increasing prevalence of degenerative diseases, connected, in part, with changes in the age structure of the population caused by the decline of mortality. A correspondence analysis shows the relationships between causes of death and age, and makes clear the different incidence of disease by age. The infant mortality rates were lower than in the Chilean population. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 12:371-381, 2000. Copyright 2000 Wiley-Liss, Inc.