The effect of competing risks on astronaut and cosmonaut mortality

The data do not support the hypothesis that observed reductions in mortality from natural causes are due in whole or in part to bias created by deaths from external causes at young ages. The data imply that reports of cause-specific mortality for astronauts and cosmonauts may in fact systematically overestimate mortality rates, though these findings should be interpreted with caution as the data are thin at the extremes of follow-up time.