Background Extreme weather events can cause disastrous damages among individuals or societies with poor resilience. However, epidemiological surveys have not been performed systematically after the events, so that it is rare for identifying the basic information of the deaths from meteorological disasters in Korea. Aims The aim of this study is to analyze the general characteristics and the direct causes of deaths from meteorological disasters by comparing those of the control group. Methods We used Annual Report of Causes of Deaths Statics published by Statistic Korea. Case-control study was performed involving 740 deaths from meteorological disasters and 2,960 deaths with other causes from 2000 to 2011. The 2,960 deaths of control group were randomly selected from the same data after matching the provinces and date of death. Student t-test and chi-square analysis were used to compare the differences between two groups. Results The mean age of meteorological disaster casualties was 51.64(male: 48.73, female: 56.44), which was lower than that of control groups by 15.96(p＜0.001). Every death from meteorological disasters was related with injury. On the other hand, the highest 26.4% died a malignant neoplasm-related death, and 24.9% died of cardiovascular disease in control group (p＜0.001). While 52.8% of control group died at a medical institution, the highest 41.4% of the landslide casualties died at home. Most of the flood casualties had no place of death identified (p＜0.001). Diverse differences between two groups in occupation and educational background were identified according to the sex and age group (p＜0.001). Conclusions Casualties by meteorological disasters have various differences from the general deaths according to socio-demographic elements including sex, age, educational background, and vocation as well as the cause and place of death.
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