Regional disparities in perinatal mortality rate in Ibaraki prefecture.
10.2185/jjrm.37.18
- VernacularTitle:茨城県における周産期死亡率の地域格差に関する検討
- Author:
Yoshiro URUTA
- Publication Type:Journal Article
- From:Journal of the Japanese Association of Rural Medicine
1988;37(1):18-31
- CountryJapan
- Language:Japanese
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Abstract:
Ibaraki Prefecture is noted for its high mortality rates among babies in the perinatal period. During 1984, 10. 9 of every 1, 000 perinatal babies died, compared with the national average of 8. 7. In the prefecture, however, there are considerably wide gaps in the survival odds of perinatal babies from region to region.
Statistics covering 92 cities, towns and villages in Ibaraki Prefecture showed that perinatal mortality rates during the period of 1979-83 stood at 13.4 on the average. The average of the top 10 municipalities on the deathrate list was 22.7, while that of the last 10 municipalities was 7.18. The municipalities marking higher rates are concentrated in the southeastern part (6regions) and western part (1 region) of the prefecture, and the municipalities marking lower rates are located in northern Ibaraki (6 places).
The reason for this uneven distribution remains to be seen. However, we have investigated into the situations of these municipalities in terms of the size of population, live birth rate, fatal mortality rate, infant mortality rate, neonatal mortality rate and early neonatal deaths. Furthermore, a survey was carried out on the number of deliveries in hospitals and weight of newborns in the northern, southeastern and southern/central parts of the prefecture.
It was found that only three medical institutions have NICU (intensive care unitfor neonates) across the prefecture. This number is rather small considering the number of beds. This may be partly responsible for the high rate of perinatal mortality rate in Ibaraki Prefecture. The rate in our hospital, wich is located in the southern part of the prefecture, has dropped from 19.8 to 9.7 since a NICU was installed.
The present paper will also discuss other findings in the high perinatal mortality rate regions in southeastern Ibaraki Prefecture.
