Social science & medicine. Part D, Medical geography最新文献

During the past 15 years, Japan has experienced a steep decrease in the prevalence of tuberculosis (TB). However, the fact that the mortality rate from TB in 1978 is as high as those of Scandinavian Countries in 1950s and 1960s indicates that the TB problem in Japan is still a matter of concern for public health.

The areal difference in TB prevalence between prefectures and cities is one of the important problems to be solved in the enforcement of TB control programs in Japan.

It was found that the present situation in TB prevalence in each prefecture in Japan is closely related with the level of the implementation of TB control programs, socio-economic conditions and level of urbanization. It was also suggested that climatic environment had some effects on the areal differences in TB in Japan.

The Central European Encephalitis (CEE) is a virus infection of the nervous system transmitted by ticks. Its main vector in Europe is Ixodes ricinus. The time of first evidence and the distribution pattern in some European countries is pointed out. 121 cases of tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) in Baden-Württemberg (Fed. Rep. of Germany) from the period of 1969–1976 are analysed regarding their relation to potential natural vegetation and climatological data and 8 natural foci are pointed out. In newly reported cases from 1978 and 1979 the biotopes of infected ticks are analysed more in detail.

The spatial distribution of cancer mortality and morbidity has been studied by many authors, and its characteristic pattern as to the various cancer sites was the object of the research of many epidemiologists.

It has been generally recognized that any of the specific factors do not contribute independently but interdependently to the etiology in chronic diseases. With this in mind, it is natural to assume that there exist multiple factors which collaborate with each other in the pathogenesis of cancer of various sites.

To test interdependence of variables, we set out to analyse the pattern of the geographical distributions of the cancer deaths in Japan, using the method of factor analysis which has been characterized as a useful method for analyzing the correlated variables.

Five independent factors are extracted from the mutual correlations among the site-specific mortality rates on various cancers and that these factors were commonly found in both sexes, although slight discordance was noticed in some factors. Among the factors extracted, the first one attracted us the most, since the fact that bone, bladder, skin and buccal cancers clustered in one group suggest a possible relationship of these cancers to atmospheric temperature. An alternative fact that interests us is the conspicuous variability in the geographical distribution of lung cancer. Finally, we add that consistently high correlations were obtained for the mortality rates between any two of the different three time periods.

The long-term variations of seasonal distribution of births in three places distant from one another, Osaka City in Japan, the northern U.S.A. (Massachusetts and Missouri) and Görlitz in East Germany were investigated, using several kinds of historical records.

The birth periods covered were 1755–1975 for Osaka, 1741–1941 for the northern U.S.A. and 1675–1816 for Görlitz, respectively. The sample size of births before the era of modern vital statistics were 6536 for Osaka, 4132 for northern U.S.A. and 41,507 for Görlitz, respectively.

The birth patterns in the mid-20th century are known to be different among the three areas in the following manner: early spring peak in Japan, fall peak in the U.S.A. and spring peak in Europe.

However, this observation of the long-term variation of birth seasonably has revealed that there had been secular changes of the seasonal distribution of births in all three areas, and that a pattern of alternation had been occasionally alike and synchronous.

It seems that both the spring-peak and fall-peak birth patterns seen recently in Europe, Asia and the U.S.A. were not fixed for certain geographical locations, and that the interchangeability of these patterns could be seen rather commonly.

Based on the various phenomena collected to date about the seasonal distribution of human births, a hypothesis—the epidemic seasonally-infertile factors hypothesis—on the causality of the seasonal distribution of births was put forth.

In Japan cerebrovascular disease is a dominant cause of death, although the overall death rate has recently declined. The age-adjusted death rate for cerebrovascular disease is higher in Japan than in any European countries, whereas the crude death rate appears to be higher in some European countries than in Japan.

The age-adjusted death rate for cerebrovascular disease is highest in the northeastern prefectures of the main island (Tohoku Region), and lower in the southwestern, especially in prefectures surrounding the Inland Sea Seto, with the exception of the northernmost island of Hokkaido.

As for the cause of such a peculiar pattern some factors are suspected such as ambient temperature, local agricultural products, dietary habits biased to rice with salty foods, and the biogeochemical environment in these volcanic islands.

The term political epidemiology expresses the importance of political and bureaucratic processes in coping with epidemiological information. Political assimilability might well be the overriding consideration when the epidemiological picture of a particular health problem is confused, inadequate, contradictory or a matter of considerable economic import. Australia faces a future based increasingly upon primary resource and mineral development, especially coal, and the epidemiological bases of health impact assessment in these developments will need to be improved and processes of discussion made more open if health considerations are to be given proper scientific and evaluative treatment. Bureaucratic systems often reflect historical compromises between economic, political and environmental health concerns and may hinder some processes of health impact assessment. An Australian case study will be discussed.