Changing Ways of Death: Statistical Analysis of Medical Records in Our Hospital 1968-1992 / 日本農村医学会雑誌

Between 1968 and 1992, a total of 174, 632 people were discharged from our hospital, of which 6, 265, or 3.6%, were dead. During the 25-year period, the number of discharges increased by 1.5 times, while the number of deaths by 2.6 times. We looked into, physicians' reports to find out the age, sex and the cause of death of the patients. Age-wise death rates have been on the decline among the younger patients and on the increase among the eledery patients of 60 years and above, during the period under review. Malignant neoplasms accounted for 62.2% of the causes of death. Especially worthy of note was the fact that deaths from lung cancer have increased at an alarmingly fast rate.