Throughout their lives, Native Hawaiians have higher risks of death than white Americans, according to a University of Michigan study.
The research is the first known study to assess mortality patterns among Native Hawaiians at the national level, including those living outside the state of Hawai`i.
The study is published in the November 2010 issue of the American Journal of Public Health, online Sept. 16. It was funded by the National Center for Minority Health and Health Disparities, part of the National Institutes of Health.
"Native Hawaiians are far more likely than whites to suffer early death," said demographer Sela Panapasa, an assistant research scientist at the U-M Institute for Social Research (ISR) and lead author of the article. "Like Black Americans, they are also much more likely than whites to die in mid- and later-life."
Based on data from the US Census Bureau and the National Center for Health Statistics, the study shows that Native Hawaiian infants less than one year old and young people between the ages of 15 and 34 are particularly vulnerable to early death compared with corresponding age groups of white Americans.
"We also found that older Native Hawaiians have higher expected death rates than either Blacks or whites age 65 and over, suggesting that relatively fewer of this group have benefited from the increased longevity enjoyed by the rest of the nation," said Panapasa, who is a Pacific Islander of Polynesian heritage....
