title: [Analysis of foetal death rates in Japan based on legitimacy status of foetus and period of gestation].
abstract: The purpose of this study was to analyze spontaneous and artificial foetal death rates from the context of legitimacy status of the foetus and period of gestation. Data over five years, 1985 to 1989, were averaged and mainly used for analysis and compared to reference data for five other years, 1970 to 1974, with the following results. In the latter half of the 1980's, spontaneous foetal death rates for the illegitimate were very high compared to the legitimate. In all periods of gestation, spontaneous foetal death rates of the illegitimate were higher than those of the legitimate. For the 16th to the 31st week of gestation especially, rates of the illegitimate were ten times or more that of the legitimate. Spontaneous foetal deaths before the 24th week of gestation constituted nearly 90% of all spontaneous foetal deaths in the illegitimate. By comparison, the percentage was 66% in the legitimate. This data suggests that some artificial foetal deaths were being notified as spontaneous and this phenomenon caused the differences mentioned above. Artificial foetal death rates of the illegitimate were very high compared to the legitimate. Before the 24th week of gestation, artificial foetal death rates were 50 to 100 times that of the legitimate. These characteristics observed in the latter half of the 1980's, were also seen in the first half of the 1970's. From the comparison of the two observation periods, the registration of foetal deaths appears to be improving, especially in the period of 12 to 15 weeks of gestation.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nishida
mesh_terms: D000028:Abortion, Induced / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D005313:Fetal Death / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005865:Gestational Age; D006801:Humans; D007086:Illegitimacy; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D017533:Marital Status; D011247:Pregnancy