For the basic study of the impact of qulaity of health care services on the health status of population, mortality from potentially avoidable causes of death in Korea for the period of 1982-1991 was analyzed, based ona list which was revised from
the
original version by Rutstein et al(1976). The conditions listed were suggested to serve as negative indicatiors of the quality care services provided to target populations. Data for analysis were from the Annual Report on the Causes of Death
Statistics
1982-1991 by thd Korea National Statistical Office.
In 1991, 24.9% of death were classified as avoidable. There was large decline for avoidable causes of death by 37.4% of 1982. Mortality from all other causes, however, showed a smaller decline of 24.6%. Mortality from avoidable causes decreased
more
remarkably for male than female.
As for age groups, decrease in avoidable deaths was more prominent than unavoid able deaths in the population of age more than 65 years, while in younger age groups deaths due to unavoidable causes were more sharply decreased.
The most rapidly declined cause of mortality was acute respiratory disease, and nutritional deficiency, pneumonia and influenza, meningitis, and hypertension showed similar decreasing tendencies. Among causes, mortality from epilepsy and
rheumatic
diseases was not so markedly lessened.
In Korea, compared to other developed countries, the rate of decrease in deaths from avoidable causes was rather lower. Additional analyses, however, should be performed for move valid information on the features of mortality patterns, offer
validation
of existing mortaling data. In the consecutive studies, the change of health services factors would be correlated with mortality changes.
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