It is a recent trend that the birth and mortality rates have been decreased and average life span prolonged in proportion to the socioeconomic and scientific advances.
More and more people live to a ripe old age, consequently elderly patients are steadily increasing.
This tendency is more remarkable in the rural areas where there is much drift of population comprizing the young and the matured.
This study purported to make a comparative investigation of the diseases among geriatric population in rural and urban areas.
Based uppon ICD-9 (International Classification of Diseases), the author made a comparative study of all senior citizens beyond the age of 65 who were hospitalized to the Korea University hospitals at Kuro, an industrial city, and at Yoju, a rural town, from July 1986 to June 1989. The trends of population at the two places for the four years were investigated at the same time.
As a result, the following differences were noticed between two areas.
First, the increase rate of old population 65 years of age and over in the percentage of total population in the rural area far surpassed that in the urban industrial area, and so did the number of aged inpatients in the rural area accordingly.
Second, although there was little difference in the average number of geriatric diseases per inpatient, that of the industrial city being 2.4 and that of the rural town 2.1, the characteristic of each elderly patient were in general multiple nature.
Third, the industrial area abounded mostly with cardiovascular system disease, malignancy, GI tract diseases, endocrine system diseases. In particular, hypertension, D.M., lung cancer and etc. were more predominant in the industrial city. On the other hand, while the rural area also tended to give rise to cardiovascular diseases, GI tract idseases, respiratory system diseases, and infection, the rural town outnumbered the industrial city in the cases of COPD, spondylosis and arthropathy, tuberculosis, heart failure, drug intoxication, etc. (P<0.05).
Fourth, granting that there are these differences between the two areas, what was commonly shared by them was the marked tendency of more and more people reaching a great age, with the inevitable result of increasing geriatric inpatients. Besides, despite some differences in the order of predominant diseases, geriatric diseases of both areas were similar on the whole in that they were mostly characterized by slow and chronic processes.

The suicide with using drugs is becoming a serious social problem. There have been many general studies of suicides, but the studies the suicide with using drugs in the rural areas have not been done well, Especially, in the rural areas agricultural chemicals which can be taken easily are the main ways to attempt suicide. So, the authors studied this phenomenon and analyzed it.
We analyzed the 118 people who attempted suicide with drugs. These are some of the patients who visited Yeo Ju Hospital emergency room from March, 1987 to February, 1989. The results were as follows:
1) Considering the people who attempted suicide by drugs, the ratio of male to female was 1 to 1(male : 59, female : 59), the age distribution rate of both sex between 30 and 39 years old was 24.6%, and that of between 20 and 29 years old was 23.7%, and the age distribution of men was even while the rate of women between 20 and 29 years old was 30.5%, and between 30 and 39 years old was 30.5%.
2) Seasonally, 30.5% of suicides ware attempted in spring, 26.3% in summer, 22.9% in autumn, and 20.3% in winter.
3) 66.1% of men and 54.2% of women used agricultural chemicals, and they also used rodenticide, tranquilizer, hypnotic, glacial acetic acid, etc.
4) For men, 50% of suicides were motivated by home disords, among which 92.3% were the discords between the family except wives, and other motives of suicides were pessimism of himself, failure of business, conflicts with coworkers, etc. For women, 61.9% of the motives of herself, violences of husbands were one of those motives.
5) 61.8% of the who attempted suicides were farmers and some of them were office workers, merchants, students, etc. And 47.4% of them were Buddists, 15.4% Christians, and 3.8% Catholics, and the rest of them have not any religion.
6) 32.5% of them graduated from high school, and 27.3% middle school.
7) 50% of them attempted suicide between 18 and 24 O'clock, and 89.2% of them attempted suicide at their homes.
8) All of those who answered to a questionary did not leave testament, and 82.3% of them did not give any hint to commit suicide.
9) In the process of management, 62.1% of them were hospitalized, among which 60% left the hospital voluntarily, 37% left the hospital after being healthy, 3% died, 27.9% left voluntarily at the emergency room and 6.3% moved to the other hospital.