Short History of Epidemiology for Noninfectious Diseases in Japan. Part 2: Epidemiology of Stroke and Hypertension up to 1970

摘要

The mortality due to stroke had been around 170 per 100,000 population in 1930s in Japan, ranking second only to that from tuberculosis. According to Aizawa, only a few studies were reported on the topic of stroke at scientific meetings of internal medicine. In those days, it was only an occasional topic of discussion among the clinical specialists at the cerebrovascular sections of the Japanese Society of Circulation and Neurological Society, indicating a paucity of general interest in this disease entity. This was an era when average life expectancy was only slightly over 40 years; mortality for young and middle-aged adults was very high; the middle-aged and aged population rarely visited medical institutions; diseases were often diagnosed after they had advanced to a grave state; and effective therapies were relatively rare. Sasaki stated that in the 1930s, few medical researchers focused on the mortality from cerebral apoplexy and did not note its seriousness until Sadamu Watanabe called their attention to it.