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Prevalence and Mortality Rates of Microcephaly in Japan, 1969–1992
Author(s) -
IMAIZUMI Yoko
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
congenital anomalies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1741-4520
pISSN - 0914-3505
DOI - 10.1111/j.1741-4520.1994.tb00796.x
Subject(s) - microcephaly , mortality rate , demography , medicine , population , age groups , cause of death , pediatrics , disease , environmental health , sociology
The prevalence and death rates for microcephaly were analyzed using Japanese Vital Statistics for the period 1969–1992. The prevalence rate was 0.23 per 10,000 births in 1979 and the overall rate was 0.20 during the period 1979–1982. The prevalence rate slightly increased with paternal age, whereas the rate remained constant with maternal age except the 40 years age group. Overall death rates per 10,000 population under 20 years of age were 0.094 for males and 0.090 for females. In both sexes, the death rate gradually decreased with age. The proportion of deaths with microcephaly under 5 years old was 78% and under 20 years old was 97%. Geographical variations in the death rate of microcephaly were observed with the highest death rate in Tottori Prefecture (0.245), and the lowest in Fukui Prefecture (0.018). The mean age at death in microcephalics increased from about 3 years in 1969–1971 to 13 years in 1990–1992 for both sexes.