Improvement of the general standard of living induced the reduction of the death rates and prolonged expectation of life. On the other hand recently the patterns of diseases have changed and the tendency of increasing chronic illnesses is noted. We performed statistical analysis of the various annual reporting data from government and discussed the causes of death with respect to several aspects.
The results of the study are as follows :
1. According to the comparative analysis of the statistical data concerning the death rates by the major causes of death in 44 countries, as for liver cancer, Korea showed the highest death rate as 23.9 per 100,000 persons, and as for stomach cancer and chronic liver diseases Korea showed the second and fourth highest death rate as 30.6 and 28.6 respectively. In contrast, lung cancer, colon cancer, and ischemic heart disease were placed very low as 35th, 39th and 44th in ranks in Korea.
2. The death rate of diabetes mellitus increased to 25.5 in 1992 from 10.1 in 1981, but infectious diseases decreased from 49.7 to 26.1. Cancer and circulatory diseases showed the tendency to increase.
3. Among the 208,322 death cases in 1992, male cases were 122,047 and female cases were 86, 275. As for the causes of death by sex, in case of male neoplasm showed the highest death rate as 136.9, and accident(100.3), cerebrovascular diseases(75.4), chronic liver diseases(45.7) and heart diseases(42.8) followed it in that order. In case of female, cerebrovascular diseases showed the highest death rate as 86.7, and neoplasm(83.6), heart disease(44.7), accidents(35.9) and hypertensive diseases(29.2) followed it in that order respectively.
4. As for the first leading cause of death by age group, it is cancer which showed the highest death rate in the age group of 40 to 70, accident in the age group under 40, and cerebrovascular illness in the age group over 70.
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