Studies on sudden unexpected death among school children and high school students in Osaka Prefecture

The rate for sudden unexpected death among the male school children and high school student was 3.4 per 100,000, and among the female was 2.0 per 100,000. The rate showed the tendency to increase with age among the male, but not in the female. Most of the sudden deaths occurred during day time while they were awake and the death during sleep occurred in 9.2%. The sudden death in the school occurred in 26.5%. Concerning the causes of the death, in 20.5% of the cases it was unknown (even though acute heart failure was the terminal symptoms). In 18.1% basal heart disease was responsible, in 15.7% asthmatic spell and in 10.8% cerebral hemorrhage. It was found that 38.6% of the sudden death cases were as usual in the condition preceding to the onset of the symptom, 18.1% of cases had been complaining of tiredness or overwork and 9.6% had been with symptoms of respiratory infection. The sudden death of handicapped children was occupying 25.3% of the deaths encountered in the present study.