入浴中の急死について : 奈良県における状況と文献的考察

Abstract

We investigated 685 cases of sudden death while bathing in Nara Prefecture in a period of 5 years from 2000 to 2004, and the following parameters were evaluated: month of death, age distribution, sex, discovery locations, discovery facilities, discovery history, and past history of the deceased. The number of men under 70 years of age was approximately twice that of women in the same age group. However, the number of women over 70 years of age was slightly greater than that of men in the same age group. The cases of sudden death were most frequent in winter, from December to February. While 94.5% of the deceased died at home, 93.7% were found dead in the bathtub. With respect to the manner in which the deceased were discovered, 50.3% of the cases were discovered because their time in the bath was noticed to be longer than usual. A past history of hypertension was observed in most of the deceased, and the incidences of cardiovascular diseases, diabetes mellitus, and cerebrovascular diseases were lower as compared to hypertension. In this study, we also review the considerations of the cause of death in the literature.