Study of two caucasian and native American populations of females from 1900-1945 to 1946-2000: comparison of death distributions, survivorship, and age-specific mortality rates.

Abstract

Throughout the US, there are many distinct ethnic groups coexisting in the same geographic area that share access to resources. One would expect to find ethnic populations living in the same local area, to have similar demography. However, many factors outside of geography influence demography. These include differential access to resources and different lifestyle practices. We examined death distribution, survivorship, and age-specific mortality rates of Caucasian and Native American female populations in Emmet County, northern Michigan between 1900-1945 and 1946-2000. Both Caucasian and Native American female populations showed a significant difference in death distributions for 1900-1945 (X2 = 39.71, df 2, P <= 0.05) and 1946-2000 (X2 = 17.21, df 2, P <= 0.05). We also found that there was no statistical difference in mean age-specific mortality rates for Caucasian females (t = 1.363, df 42, P = 0.180) and for Native American females (t = 0.933, df 42, P = 0.356) for both periods. Based on past studies, we concluded that differential access and distinct lifestyle practices were more influential on demographic differences between Caucasian and Native American female populations from 1900-2000.