Mortality trends in the past 20 years in Pu-Li, Taiwan

This study was based on a survey of the death certificates of Pu-Li Town in Taiwan, issued over the past 20 years from 1966 to 1985. Age-adjusted mortality trends as well as cause-specific mortality trends were analyzed and compared with nationwide Taiwan data. As a whole, Pu-Li had a higher age-adjusted mortality than that of the overall Taiwan area. This finding may result from a higher mortality from tuberculosis in Pu-Li. Based on these data, the five leading causes of death in Pu-Li were cerebro-vascular disease, accident, heart disease, cancer and tuberculosis. Hypertension and diabetes were the 5th and 6th leading causes of death in 1985 and ranked 12th and 13th, respectively, in 1966. This data point out the increasing importance of hypertension and diabetes rates in Pu-Li. Tuberculosis and pneumonia had been controlled, ranking from the 1st and 3rd in 1966 to the 10th and 12th, respectively, in 1985. Suicide, cancer, and accident were usually coded as the single cause of death without other co-existent causes of death noted, so that there was in most instances not much difference between analyses based on the underlying cause of death and multiple causes of death. However, this was not true for hypertension and diabetes. If multiple causes of death were analyzed, only 34.5% of hypertension and 66% of diabetes were coded as the underlying cause of death. 37.2% of cerebro-vascular diseases co-existed with hypertension, and 20.3% of diabetes co-existed with hypertension.