Objective: To determine the mortality rate and risk factors for death in a selected population in Songkhla province in southern Thailand.
Material and method: The southern subjects were part of the Thai cohort which together with the cohort from China comprised the InterASIA survey which was conducted in the year 2000. Collected variables were the conventional ones and included the 2 ethnic groups which are specific for southern Thailand, i.e. Malay Muslims and Thai-Chinese Buddhists. Causes of death were determined by reviewing hospital records, verbal autopsies and a consensus by 2-3 physicians. Kaplan Meier's model was used to evaluate the independent factors related to death.
Results: The follow-up was 5 years. Out of the original 1,006 subjects, the status could be examined in 86% and of these, 50 had died giving the Kaplan Meier 5-year survival rate of 94.3%. Sixteen died from cardiovascular diseases (CVD), 6 from strokes and 10 from coronary heart disease, and 15 died from cancer. Half of the deaths occurred in subjects older than 70 years. Independent risks for death were age, hypertension and diabetes mellitus. Risk for the major causes of death did not include ethnicity. Similar to the only existing prospective report of risk factors for death in Thailand (the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand study), neither high total cholesterol, high triglyceride nor obesity were independent risks for death from CVD, but the present study differed in that the high density lipoprotein cholesterol was not found to be a protective factor for CVD death.
Conclusion: Risk factors for death in a five-year follow-up in Southern Thailand did not include lipids, ethnicity or urbanization but hypertension and diabetes mellitus did.