Abstract
Since World War II, mortality rate in most Asian countries has declined in association with change in age-specific mortality patterns and extension of life expectancy, owing to social development and improvements in medical services and nutritional status. To classify life table mortality patterns and to examine their changes for the 16 selected Asian countries, we applied the age-specific mortality or survival rates to the Heligman-Pollard Model, which is a parameterized model, and the Ewbank Model, which is a relational model. Furthermore, the results were compared with the United Nations and Coale-Demeny model life tables. The age-specific mortality rates in most of the countries studied showed sharp decline initially in the younger ages and then in all ages; recently, the further decline has been observed in the middle and old age groups. The model life table-basedclassification revealed that most countries followed the West or Far East model pattern, indicating that they have considerably developed. However, some countries such as Bangladesh and India were classified as the South Asian model pattern, which reflects less improvement in mortality rate. In Japan, mortality rates in the middle and old age groups have markedly decreased, representing a shift from the West to the North model pattern.
