The Mortality Trends of Gastric Cancer among Municipalities in Yamaguchi Prefecture

The mortality trends of gastric cancer in the municipalities of Yamaguchi prefecture were analyzed by the 1963-82 Standardized Mortality Ratios (SMR's), where the whole population of Yamaguchi prefecture was used as the standard. In this analysis, the twenty years (from 1963 to 1982) were grouped into two ways…four five-year periods and two ten-year periods. The results were as follows : 1. During the five-year period (1978-82), municipalities with a significantly high SMR were Shimonoseki, Obatake and Kaminoseki and during the same period those with a significantly low SMR were Hikari and Ogori. 2. During the ten-year period (1973-82), municipalities with a significantly high SMR were Shimonoseki, Ube, Onoda, Obatake, Kaminoseki and Toyoura and during the same period those with a significantly low SMR were Yamaguchi. Tokuyama, Waki, Hongo, Nishiki, Kano and Kawakami. 3. Municipalities with a comparatively high SMR were in the west part of Yamaguchi prefecture while those with a comparatively low SMR were in the middle and east parts of Yamaguchi prefecture. 4. No clear trends of the SMR on the period from 1963 to 1982 were seen in all municipalities, except Kaminoseki in which the significantly high SMR was seen in recent years though the low SMR in the past.