26
Table 6: Causes of death, ages 55-70, column percentage, by group
Military
Non-military
Cohort
31-32
38-39
31-32
38-39
Acute myocardial infarction
4.5
1.6
3.0
1.8
Ischemic heart diseases
2.0
0.7
1.2
0.9
Alcohol
1.2
0.9
0.5
0.5
Narcotics
0.0
0.0
0.1
0.0
Mental and behavioral disorders
0.0
0.3
0.3
0.3
External causes
1.0
1.2
0.9
0.6
Stroke
0.5
0.7
0.4
0.2
Neoplasms (tumors)
7.0
4.9
5.9
5.5
Other
3.0
1.6
3.5
2.9
Total deaths, ages 55-70
19.2
11.8
15.7
12.8
Alive at 70
80.8
88.2
84.3
87.2
Total
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
Observations
598
695
11,097
7,596
Note. ICD-codes (International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems) are: Acute
myocardial infarction: ICD10 I21-I22, ICD9 410; Ischemic heart diseases except acute myocardial infarction: ICD10
I20, I23-I25, ICD9 411-414; Alcohol: an alcohol-related diagnosis is mentioned among causes of death (as main or
contributing diagnosis); Narcotics: a narcotics-related diagnosis is mentioned among causes of death (as main or
contributing diagnosis); Mental and behavioral disorders: ICD10 F00-F99, ICD9 290-319; External causes of
morbidity and mortality: ICD10 V01-Y98, ICD9 E810-E999; Stroke: ICD10 I63-I64, ICD9 433, 434, 435;
Neoplasms (tumors): ICD10 C00-D48, ICD9 140-239.
gives descriptive statistics of the cause of death for eight classifications (and a
separate category, “other”, which includes all remaining deaths) in our sample, by
cohort and by military status. There is some indication that deaths in acute myocardial
infarction, ischemic heart diseases, and neoplasms (tumors) are reduced by the reform
(simple difference-in-difference estimator gives estimates ranging from -1.0 to -1.7
percentage points for these three diagnoses), while deaths by external causes or stroke
are somewhat increased by the reform (simple difference-in-difference estimator in the
order of +0.4 percentage points for both).
As can be seen from
some causes of death are quite infrequent (alcohol,
narcotics, mental and behavioral disorders, and stroke), so in order to estimate a
competing risk model, we aggregate alcohol and narcotics, and add mental and
behavioral disorders
to the “other” group. This leaves us with six large groups in the
competing risk model: (1) acute myocardial infarction, (2) stroke and ischemic heart
diseases, (3) alcohol and narcotics, (4) external causes, (5) neoplasms (tumors), and (6)
other. Estimated results from the competing risk model are presented in
From
this table, we can see that the risk of dying of acute myocardial infarction, up to the age
of 65, is reduced substantially by the reform. The effect is robust when we include
