Psychology and survival

We examined the deaths of 28 169 adult Chinese-Americans, and 412 632 randomly selected, matched controls coded "white" on the death certificate. Chinese-Americans, but not whites, die significantly earlier than normal (1·3-4·9 yr) if they have a combination of disease and birthyear which...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Lancet (British edition) 1993-11, Vol.342 (8880), p.1142-1145
Main Authors: Phillips, D.P., Ruth, T.E., Wagner, L.M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Asian Americans
Astrology
Attitude to Death - ethnology
Biological and medical sciences
California
Cause of Death
China - ethnology
Chinese American people
Chinese Americans
Death
Death Certificates
Factors
Female
Humans
Male
Medical research
Medical sciences
Miscellaneous
Mortality
Psychology
Psychophysiologic Disorders - ethnology
Public health. Hygiene
Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine
Random Allocation
Survival
Traditional medicine
Traditions
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Summary:We examined the deaths of 28 169 adult Chinese-Americans, and 412 632 randomly selected, matched controls coded "white" on the death certificate. Chinese-Americans, but not whites, die significantly earlier than normal (1·3-4·9 yr) if they have a combination of disease and birthyear which Chinese astrology and medicine consider ill-fated. The more strongly a group is attached to Chinese traditions, the more years of life are lost. Our results hold for nearly all major causes of death studied. The reduction in survival cannot be completely explained by a change in the behaviour of the Chinese patient, doctor, or death-registrar, but seems to result at least partly from psychosomatic processes.
ISSN:0140-6736
1474-547X
DOI:10.1016/0140-6736(93)92124-C