Longevity and occupation.

SIR—A Korean supreme patriarch died a natural death at 81 years. An author died aged 27 years. Does longevity vary with occupation? We have studied longevity in different occupations in Korea by examining obituary notices in newspapers. We classified socially prominent occupations into 11 groups and investigated 2,143 cases. Because of small numbers, we excluded soldiers, doctors and policemen. We also excluded accidental deaths. We collected data from daily, political and local newspapers from January 1963 to February 2000. We noted the deceased peoples’ names, age at death, occupation and reported cause of death. Longevity by occupation is shown in Table 1. On average, clergymen lived over 14 years longer than media personalities. Clergy are perhaps under less stress because of the possible protective effects of the religious life. Moreover, they may have a longer life as they live in a more pleasant natural environment away from pollutants [1].