Department of Anatomy, St. Marianna University School of Medicine, 2-16-1 Sugao, Miyamae Ward, Kawasaki, Kanagawa, 216-8511, Japan.
Advanced Research Center for Human Sciences, Waseda University, 2-579-15 Mikajima, Tokorozawa, Saitama, 359-1192, Japan.
Int J Paleopathol. 2021 Jun;33:103-112. doi: 10.1016/j.ijpp.2021.04.002. Epub 2021 Apr 14.
This study tests the hypothesis that industrial development and urbanization negatively impacted the living circumstances and health of inhabitants.
The materials used in this study included 881 human skeletons aged 15 years and older from the Medieval (1185-1573), Edo (1603-1867), and Meiji (1868-1912) periods. The Meiji period corresponds to the period when the industrial revolution spread in Japan.
Age at death and sex were estimated for each skeleton, and demographic profiles of the Medieval, Edo, and Meiji periods were compared.
The rate of young deaths was higher in the Meiji period than in preceding periods, and urban inhabitants had a higher proportion of young deaths than rural inhabitants in the Edo period.
The results suggest that industrial development and urbanization led to a decline in human health.
The results produced through Bayesian methods are likely tentative, because they vary according to the priors and reference sample.
Paleodemographic approaches are a useful method to elucidate the impact of industrialization and urbanization on health.
Decline of health associated with industrialization should be examined combining paleopathological and paleodemographic methods.
本研究检验了以下假设，即工业发展和城市化对居民的生活环境和健康产生了负面影响。
本研究使用了来自中世纪（1185-1573 年）、江户时代（1603-1867 年）和明治时代（1868-1912 年）的 881 具 15 岁及以上人类骨骼。明治时代对应于工业革命在日本传播的时期。
对每具骨骼进行死亡年龄和性别的估计，并比较中世纪、江户和明治时期的人口统计特征。
明治时期的早逝率高于前几个时期，而江户时期的城市居民比农村居民有更高的早逝比例。
结果表明，工业发展和城市化导致人类健康状况下降。
贝叶斯方法得出的结果可能是暂定的，因为它们会根据先验和参考样本而有所不同。
古人口统计学方法是阐明工业化和城市化对健康影响的有用方法。
应结合古病理学和古人口统计学方法来研究与工业化相关的健康状况下降问题。
