The Atlas of Health Inequalities in Japan

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xxix

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Tomoki Nakaya

   Pages 1-7

3. The Shape of Japan: Backgrounds, Materials and Methods

   • Tomoki Nakaya, Keisuke Fukui, Yuri Ito, Keiji Yano, Yuzuru Isoda, Naoki Kondo

   Pages 9-27

4. Deaths Across Life Courses

   • Tomoki Nakaya, Yuri Ito, Kazumasa Hanaoka

   Pages 29-72

5. Deaths from Cancer

   • Yuri Ito, Yoshikazu Nishino, Seiki Kanemura, Tomoki Nakaya

   Pages 73-160

6. Deaths from Circulatory Diseases

   • Ryozo Matsuda, Shigeru Inoue, Hiroyuki Kikuchi, Yuri Ito

   Pages 161-245

7. Other Major Causes of Death

   • Takahiro Tabuchi, Mayuko Yonejima, Tomoya Hanibuchi, Tomoki Nakaya

   Pages 247-295

8. Synthesis

   • Tomoki Nakaya, Yuri Ito

   Pages 297-305

9. Back Matter

   Pages 307-343

   PDF

This new health atlas of Japan presents a series of maps about the health of the contemporary Japanese population, i.e. detailed maps of health indicators in small areas using cartograms. This is the first comprehensive small-area based health atlas about contemporary Japan using vital statistics from 1995-2014. Each map is supplemented with concise explanations written by leading epidemiologists and health geographers in Japan. The book employs various cutting-edge methods in spatial epidemiology, Bayesian spatial smoothing for the reliable mapping of mortality indices,  advanced cartographic transformations using the concept of aerial cartograms, and summary statistics of socioeconomic health inequalities. The atlas highlights geographical aspects of social gradients in health by comparing mortality maps with distribution of deprivation index during the recent long-lasting economic stagnation period of Japan known as the lost decades. This health atlas will be a usefulresource for international comparisons between Japan and other advanced countries in terms of health and related socioeconomic disparities between regions. It will be of interest to public health practitioners, administrators, researchers and students working on health geography and public health.

• New health atlas of Japan
• Health mapping
• Health inequality
• Life expectancy at birth
• Standard mortality ratio
• Cancer mortality
• medical geography

• Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan

  Tomoki Nakaya

• Department of Medical Statistics, Osaka Medical College, Takatsuki, Japan

  Yuri Ito

Dr. Tomoki Nakaya is a Professor of Environmental Geography in the Department of Frontier Science for Advanced Environment at Tohoku University, Japan. Dr. Nakaya has authored about 100 articles in peer-reviewed journals, over 40 book chapters, and co-edited 3 volumes. His research interests include statistical modelling and GIS in human geography, spatial epidemiology, and health GIS. 

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