Problems of Maternity Medicine in Depopulated Areas

• Project/Area Number: 15590547
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Public health/Health science
• Research Institution: OKAYAMA UNIVERSITY
• Principal Investigator: SEKI Akihiko Okayama University, Graduate School of Medicine and Dentistry, Research Associate, 大学院・医歯学総合研究科, 助手 (20314685)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): ITO Takehiko Okayama University, Faculty of Education, Associate Professor, 教育学部, 助教授 (10291973) ; 吉良 尚平 岡山大学, 大学院・医歯学総合研究科, 教授 (50033212)
• Project Period (FY): 2003 – 2004
• Project Status: Completed (Fiscal Year 2004)
• Budget Amount: ¥1,600,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,600,000); Fiscal Year 2004: ¥500,000 (Direct Cost: ¥500,000); Fiscal Year 2003: ¥1,100,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,100,000)
• Keywords: Obstetrics / Maternity Medicine / Distribution of Medical Facilities / Maternity Care / Depolulated Area / Community Medicine

Research Abstract

1.Distribution of maternity hospitals in Japan
Distribution of maternity hospitals was visualized as a map. In depopulated areas, many regions with no maternity hospital were detected form the map.
2.Current conditions of pregnant women living in depopulated area
Pregnant women in depopulated areas took remarkably longer time and felt remarkably severe burden for attending maternity hospitals than pregnant women in urban areas. Pregnant women who needed more than 30 min to reach their maternity hospitals felt burden with high percentage.
3.Current conditions of maternity hospitals
Questionnaires were sent to and collected from obstetrical and/or gynecological hospitals in Chugoku and Shikoku areas. Almost half of the hospitals which had gynecological department did not have obstetrical department. Almost half of the hospitals which had gynecological department but not had obstetrical department had closed down the obstetrical department in the last 10 years. It was estimated that approximat ely 5 percentage of pregnant women needed more than 60 min for attending their maternity hospitals. Half of the obstetricians answered that a pregnant woman who needed more than 60 min for attending her maternity hospital was clinically risky.
4.Conclusion
Our research revealed that pregnant women living in the depopulated areas felt burdens for the distance to attend their maternity hospitals and that obstetricians was afraid pregnant women living in the depopulated areas would get into clinical trouble. It was suspected that the disparity of distribution of maternity hospitals between rural and urban area would expand more than now. However, this problem was less acknowledged than the problem of the emergency care sections of pediatrics departments. It is dispensable to inform the problems of maternity medicine in depopulated areas to the public, and to make regional plans that assures adequate distribution of maternity hospitals in collaboration with the national and/or local governments.