Citation

Hatake K, Kudo R, Yuui K, Morimoto M, Kasuda S. Journal of Nara Medical Association 2021; 72(1-3): 1-11.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The situation where people living in single-person households are discovered dead at home is called kodoku-shi in Japan. However, the actual status of kodoku-shi has not been investigated fully. The object of this study was to investigate the actual status of kodoku-shi in Nara prefecture. The data were obtained from autopsy records kept at the Department of Legal Medicine, Nara Medical University during the period between January 2008 and December 2017. We investigated 552 autopsy cases judged to be kodoku-shi. In the last decade, the number of cases of kodoku-shi has nearly doubled, with about twice as many men as women. It peaked at 60-69 years old, followed by 70-79 years old and 80-89 years old. The rate of discovery tended to be slightly higher in the summer months. The triggers for discovery were visits by children, brothers / sisters, acquaintances, etc.; checking on safety due to recent disappearance / lack of communication; and awareness of offensive odors and numerous flies. The time to discovery was most often 7 days to 1 month, followed by 1 to 3 days. About half of the causes of death were natural death, followed by death by fire and suicide. Head injuries were common in traumatic death. Hanging and death by poisoning were common in cases of suicide. Women aged 80-90 were more likely to die of hypothermia. The cause of death was unknown in 16.7% of cases, and these involved highly decomposed cadavers. Most of the corpses in cases of kodoku-shi were taken over by brothers and sisters and children, but 13.9% of them were taken over by a government office. Analyzing kodoku-shi through postmortem examination contributes to the formulation of preventive measures and, above all, early discovery of the corpse is important. © 2021 Nara Medical Association. All rights reserved.

Language: ja

Keywords

adult; aged; Article; autopsy; cadaver; cause of death; death; family; female; forensic autopsy; forensic medicine; government; head injury; home; human; hypothermia; Japan; Kodoku-shi; male; Nara prefecture; postmortem interval; suicide; university hospital; very elderly