Background
: The aim of this study is to clarify the possibility of using the analysis of the avoidable mortality as a tool to check the quality of medical care.

Methods : The Causes of 2,202 deaths in the period of 1984~1994 were classified into avoidable causes and unavoidable causes, and then avoidable causes of death were grouped into the perventable causes, the treatable causes, and the treatable and preventable causes according to Rutstein's classification

Results : The avoidable causes among total mortality rate has been declined significantly in 11 years and the treatable causes of death declined more than the avoidable causes. The mortality rate increased in the avoidable causes of death, such as neoplasm in liver and other diseases of liver in men, hypertensive disease with vascular complications of heart and brain in women.

Conclusion : This study revealed that the mortality of neoplasms and chronic degenerative disease were not decreased in spite of developments of modern medical care. The avoidable mortality pattern of this study may reflect unbalanced development of medical care. This study have limited significance because the population observed in this study belong to partial population in health care system.