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Rapid industrialization and an enormous economic growth during last decades since 1960 has changed disease pattern considerably in Korea; from infectious diseases to degenerative diseases in terms of major causes of mortality and morbidity. This study was carried out in the six health insurance demonstration areas with around 620,000 population to identify chronic diseases of public health importance by collecting and analyzing data for its prevalence and epidemiologic characteristics. The definition of chronic disease is adopted from the operational definition of chronic condition used in USA health survey though crude. The results are summarized as followings: 1. The overall prevalence rate of chronic diseases per 100,000 population was 8193 persons for males and 11070 persons for females, 1.4 times more among females. musculoskeletal system, diseases of the nervous system, mental disorders, chronic obstructive lung diseases and hypertensive diseases for males, diseases of musculoskeletal system, mental disorders, diseases of nervous system, hypertensive diseases and chronic obstructive lung diseases for females. 3. The chronic diseases that revealed higher prevalence more than two times among male population than female were syphilis and other venereal diseases(x 3.4), malignant neoplasms of respiratory organs(x 2.2), and open wounds(x 2.2); diseases of higher prevalence among females were malignant neoplasms of genitourinary system(x 5), malignant neoplasms of bone, connective tissue(x 2. Five leading chronic diseases were diseases of 2.1), and neoplasms of unspecified nature(x 2.3). 4. When the chronic diseases of this study as compared with that of other countries, i.e., data of interview survey in Japan(1980) and U.S.A.(1986), the prevalence of chronic diseases of infectious nature such as tuberculosis and diseases of ear and mastoid precess are much higher among Koreans but the diseases of degenerative nature such as hypertensive diseases, cerebrovascular diseases, chronic obstructive lung diseases, ischemic heart diseases, diseases of pulmonary circulation and diabetes mellitus were much lower among Koreans.