Asian-American deaths near the Harvest Moon Festival.
OBJECTIVE
Reexamine the claim that elderly Chinese-American women are able to prolong their lives until after the celebration of the Harvest Moon Festival.


METHODS
See if independent 1985 to 2000 data for Chinese-, Korean-, and Vietnamese-Americans replicate results that were reported using 1960 to 1984 data for Chinese-Americans.


RESULTS
The original 1960 to 1984 data do not support the death-postponement theory unless deaths that occur on the festival day are classified as having occurred after the festival. The new data do not support the theory, no matter how deaths on the festival day are classified.


CONCLUSIONS
These data do not support the hypothesis that elderly Chinese-, Korean-, or Vietnamese-American women are able to prolong their lives until after the celebration of the Harvest Moon Festival.
Smith
Gary
G
Department of Economics, Pomona College, Claremont, CA 91711, USA. gsmith@pomona.edu
D000368:Aged / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D001213:Asian / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D044466:Asian People / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D001293:Attitude to Death / Q000208:ethnology*; D002423:Cause of Death; D005260:Female; D006693:Holidays / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009026:Mortality / Q000639:trends*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012107:Research Design; D012737:Sex Factors; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D014744:Vietnam / Q000208:ethnology; D014836:Volition