Abstract
The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between socioeconomic factors and mortality caused by adult diseases. Data were collected from the statistics on standard mortality ratio (SMR) and many productive, consumptive and cultural indices for each prefecture in 1969-78. The centers of gravity were calculated by momental equations, at which mortality for each prefecture may be considerd as concentrated. These quantified some geographical bias of mortality apart from the centers of gravity supposed to be equal in mortality for all prefectures. Principal component analysis of socioeconmic factors revealed that the first and second principal components were considerd to be urbanization or industrialization factor, and rural environment factor, respectively. For m ales, the first principal component negatively correlated with mortality from all causes of death. Mortality from lung cancer were high in urbanized areas for both sexes, though females have somewhat higher correlations. It was suggested that total mortality for males and lung cancer mortality for females were more affected by urbanization. Changes of SMR from total mortality for males and appoplexy for both sexes were low in rural areas. There was no relationship between changes of principal component scores and mortality. Consequently, the socioecomic size seemed to have a larger influence on adult disease mortality than the socioeconomic change.
