Tokyo Medical Examiner's Office, Tokyo Metropolitan Government.
J Epidemiol. 2014;24(3):178-82. doi: 10.2188/jea.je20130060. Epub 2014 Apr 5.
There has been increasing interest in the formal review of child deaths in Japan. In this study we examined the causes and scene information regarding child deaths from injury in Tokyo, the capital of Japan, as preparation for implementation of a full-scale review of child deaths.
Documents on deaths from injury (excluding homicides) investigated by the Tokyo Medical Examiner's Office during the period from 2006 through 2010 were reviewed. Deaths of children younger than 18 years (N = 217) were selected as the study sample. We examined the cause of and information on the death and were particularly interested in whether a case had preventable factors.
Overall, 67% of the cases were deaths from unintentional injury. The main cause of death among children younger than 1 year was asphyxia, and the proportions of deaths from traffic accidents were higher in older age groups. Thirty percent of deaths from injury were due to suicide, and all cases of suicide were among children older than 10 years. Although analysis of preventable factors was difficult in some cases, owing to limited information on the death scene, 87% of deaths from unintentional injury, excluding those involving traffic accidents, had preventable factors.
Most unintentional child deaths from injury appear to be preventable. Development of a system to collect detailed information on the scene at the time of death will help decrease child deaths in Japan.
人们对日本儿童死亡的正式审查越来越感兴趣。本研究旨在为全面审查儿童死亡事件做准备，对日本首都东京因伤害导致的儿童死亡的原因和现场信息进行了调查。
对东京都法医办公室 2006 年至 2010 年调查的伤害死亡（不包括他杀）案件的相关文件进行了回顾。选择了年龄小于 18 岁的（N=217）死亡儿童作为研究对象。对死亡原因和现场信息进行了检查，特别关注是否存在可预防的因素。
总体而言，67%的病例是因非故意伤害导致的死亡。1 岁以下儿童的主要死亡原因是窒息，而在年龄较大的儿童中，因交通事故导致的死亡比例更高。30%的伤害死亡是自杀导致的，所有自杀案例均发生在 10 岁以上的儿童中。尽管由于对死亡现场的信息有限，某些情况下对可预防因素的分析存在一定难度，但 87%的非交通事故导致的非故意伤害死亡是可以预防的。
大多数因非故意伤害导致的儿童死亡是可以预防的。建立一个系统来收集死亡时现场的详细信息将有助于减少日本的儿童死亡事件。
