文章基本信息

标题：Causes of death and demographic characteristics of victims of meteorological disasters in Korea from 1990 to 2008
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作者：Hyung-Nam Myung ; Jae-Yeon Jang
期刊名称：Environmental Health - a Global Access Science Source
印刷版ISSN：1476-069X
电子版ISSN：1476-069X
出版年度：2011
卷号：10
期号：1
页码：82
DOI：10.1186/1476-069X-10-82
语种：English
出版社：BioMed Central
摘要：Meteorological disasters are an important component when considering climate change issues that impact morbidity and mortality rates. However, there are few epidemiological studies assessing the causes and characteristics of deaths from meteorological disasters. The present study aimed to analyze the causes of death associated with meteorological disasters in Korea, as well as demographic and geographic vulnerabilities and their changing trends, to establish effective measures for the adaptation to meteorological disasters. Deaths associated with meteorological disasters were examined from 2,045 cases in Victim Survey Reports prepared by 16 local governments from 1990 to 2008. Specific causes of death were categorized as drowning, structural collapse, electrocution, lightning, fall, collision, landslide, avalanche, deterioration of disease by disaster, and others. Death rates were analyzed according to the meteorological type, specific causes of death, and demographic and geographic characteristics. Drowning (60.3%) caused the greatest number of deaths in total, followed by landslide (19.7%) and structural collapse (10.1%). However, the causes of deaths differed between disaster types. The meteorological disaster associated with the greatest number of deaths has changed from flood to typhoon. Factors that raised vulnerability included living in coastal provinces (11.3 times higher than inland metropolitan), male gender (1.9 times higher than female), and older age. Epidemiological analyses of the causes of death and vulnerability associated with meteorological disasters can provide the necessary information for establishing future adaptation measures against climate change. A more comprehensive system for assessing disaster epidemiology needs to be established.
关键词：climate change ; disasters ; flood ; typhoon ; death rate ; vulnerability ; epidemiology