Disaster epidemiology in Korea

ABSTRACT

The effects of disasters have recently become an important worldwide health issue. In Korea, there have been many disaster events since 2000. Recently, there was a consensus to develop a scientific research framework for disaster. According to this consensus, disaster is defined as an event associated with more than 10 deaths or more than 50 injured individuals. Besides the mortality rate of the event, the early or late mortality rate can also be used to analyze the effect of disasters. According to international and domestic databases, technical disasters have increased and become potentially deadly. Common natural causes of disaster are storms and floods and common human-made causes are fire and transportation accidents. Most disaster studies are retrospective and observational. The mortality rate of disasters ranges from 0% to 77.7%. To analyze the effect of disaster on health and to establish appropriate health policies, epidemiological research into disaster is essential.