Violent Mortality Patterns in Immigrants in Israel (1990–95)

Abstract

Since 1989, a large number of immigrants, mostly from the former Soviet Union, have arrived in Israel, increasing the local population (c. 5 million) by 700,000. The morbidity and mortality of this immigant population have been the concern of many investigations. In the present study we examine the mortality pattern of a sample of 1,000 immigrants, whose deaths occurred during the years 1990–95 and were examined at the L. Greenberg (National) Institute of Forensic Medicine. The sample was divided into two subgroups, natural and unnatural, according to manner of death. Seventy-five per cent of the victims in the violent death subgroup were males with a mean age of 44.6 (SD 17.3) years, while the females of the same category were 52.7 years old on average (SD 19.9). The age distribution of the whole sample showed peaks in the 25–34-year-old group for males and the 35–44-year-old group for females. The most frequent causes of death were accident (44.1%), suicide (12.6%) and homicide (7%). In 5% of cases the cause of death could not be determined. The pattern of mortality from violent causes in the immigrant population differed from that of the country of origin in all parameters. The incidence of unnatural death in immigrants resembled the local pattern in Israel, and was significantly lower than that of their homeland.