Journal of Korean Medical Science

Korean Acad Medical Sciences (대한의학회)
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Decreasing Trends of Neonatal and Infant Mortality Rates in Korea: Compared with Japan, USA, and OECD Nations

  • Chang, Ji-Young (Department of Pediatrics, Kyung Hee University School of Medicine) ;
  • Lee, Kyung-Suk (Department of Pediatrics, Kyung Hee University School of Medicine) ;
  • Hahn, Won-Ho (Department of Pediatrics, Kyung Hee University School of Medicine) ;
  • Chung, Sung-Hoon (Department of Pediatrics, Kyung Hee University Graduate School and Department of Neonatology, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine) ;
  • Choi, Yong-Sung (Department of Pediatrics, Kyung Hee University Graduate School and Department of Neonatology, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine) ;
  • Shim, Kye-Shik (Department of Pediatrics, Kyung Hee University School of Medicine) ;
  • Bae, Chong-Woo (Department of Pediatrics, Kyung Hee University School of Medicine)
  • Published : 2011.09.30
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Abstract

Neonatal mortality rate (NMR) and infant mortality rate (IMR) are two of the most important indices reflecting the level of public health of a country. In this review, we investigated changes in NMR and IMR in Korea and compared the results with those of Japan, USA, and OECD nations. During the past 20 yr, NMR and IMR have lowered remarkably from 6.6 and 9.9 in 1993 to 1.7 and 3.2 in 2009, respectively, in Korea. It is an impressive finding that Korean IMR (3.2 in 2009) is lower than the average of OECD nations (4.7 in 2008), and USA (6.3 in 2009), although higher than Japanese IMR (2.8 in 2009). The proportion of NMR among the IMR calculation decreased from 66.7% in 1993 to 53.1% in 2009. The reason the value of Korea was higher than Japan but lower than USA was speculated to be an aspect of the health care service system. Several suggestions in perinatal, neonatal and infantile health care such as establishment of perinatal care center, research network system, regionalization, and new policies for care of pre-term and high risk pregnancy, are elucidated to achieve further improvement on NMR and IMR in Korea.

Keywords

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