Life Span Study Report 1
Technical Report No. 5-61
JNIH–ABCC Life Span Study. Report 1. Description of study; mortality in the medical subsample, October 1950-June 1958
Beebe GW, Ishida M, Jablon S
Editor’s note:
The following journal articles, based on this ABCC technical report, were published in the scientific literature:
Beebe GW, Ishida M, Jablon S: Studies of the mortality of A-bomb survivors. 1. Plan of study and mortality in the medical subsample (Selection 1), 1950-1958. Radiat Res 16:253-80, 1962
Beebe GW, Ishida M, Jablon S: Life Span Study Report Number 1. Description of study mortality in the medical subsample, October 1950-June 1958. Hiroshima Igaku [J Hiroshima Med Assoc] 15:1397-422, 1962 (in Japanese)
Summary
The Life Span Study is designed to evaluate the late mortality effects of the radiation and other trauma received by the survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki A-19bombs. The sample consists of about 100,000 persons, including those exposed near to ground zero, persons exposed at such distances from ground zero as to guarantee that little radiation was received; and nonexposed immigrants to the cities. The exposed survivors have been selected from supplementary schedules for the 1950 Japanese National Census, while the nonexposed comparison group was selected from ABCC sample censuses, from local listings based on the 1950 Census (Nagasaki) and from the Hiroshima 1953 Daytime Census. It is hoped that by using for the sample selection specific listings prepared in the period 1950-1953 the experience since 1950 can be studied.
Follow-up has been pursued vigorously, and only a small fraction of the selected study population is untraced. Mortality information is secured by utilizing the regular Japanese reporting systems under special arrangements concluded for this study by the Ministry of Health and Welfare with which the study is jointly conducted. Primary notice of death is obtained by consulting family registers, while detail, including the attending physician’s statement of cause of death, is obtained from the Vital Statistics Death Schedule, an abstract of the death certificate which, in Japan, serves as the basis for mortality analysis on a national level.
A subsample of 20,000 persons was first prepared, as the basis for the ABCC Adult Health Study and mortality data for this subsample (Selection I) are now available. The emphasis of this first analysis has been methodological but the exposure groups have been compared as to death rates from all causes; from certain major causes; and from groups of causes.
The nonexposed group seems unsatisfactory as a control, at least for the period in question, since it is characterized by abnormally low mortality in relation to both the exposed survivors and the Japanese population generally. Deaths from tuberculosis and from cancer are notably deficient in the nonexposed group. There is some suggestion in the data that the nonexposed group is favored because of explicit or implicit previous medical screening (medical selection by the military, self-selection of migrants) and for cancer, at least, the differential seems much less important during the later years than during the early part of the follow-up period. For the present report, therefore, reliance has been placed on comparison of persons exposed at different distances from the hypocenter for the detection of radiation effects. It may be hoped that the influence of screening will diminish in future years, and that it will be possible to employ the nonexposed group as a valid control.
No evidence of higher general mortality was seen in the more heavily irradiated groups. When mortality from specific causes was studied the well known leukemogenic properties of radiation were clearly reflected, but for no other causes of death were radiation effects seen. An apparent effect in the area of anemia seems, at least in part, to result from diagnostic difficulties in the blood dyscrasias, inasmuch as some leukemias were so classified. It is also possible that for the blood forming organs the effects of radiation go somewhat beyond the production of classical leukemia.
More intensive study of a very much larger body of data is now under way.
Editor’s note:
The following components of this report contain data on communicable disease frequencies, allergies, malignancies, and many other symptoms that may be of interest from a public health standpoint.
List of Tables
- Estimated final composition of sample NIH-ABCC Life Span Study
- Medical subsample by sex, city, and exposure group
- Medical subsample. Observed and expected deaths. Based on Japanese vital statistics 1950-1958 by city and exposure group
- Medical subsample. Number and percentage of deaths 1950-1958 by age, sex, city, and exposure group
- Medical subsample. Number of deaths 1950-1958 by city and exposure group
- Number and percentage of deaths 1950-1958, persons exposed in open or lightly shielded, by sex, age, and distance from hypocenter
- Medical subsample. Number of observed and expected deaths, by cause of death and city of study
- Medical subsample. Number of deaths by selected causes, city, and exposure group
- Leukemia incidence and deaths. Comparison of Life Span Study and leukemia study by city and distance from hypocenter
- Medical subsample. Number of deaths attributed to malignancies of selected specified sites, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, by exposure group
- Medical subsample. Deaths attributed by death notice to other anemias of specified type (ISC 292.4) Hiroshima and Nagasaki
- Early and late entrants. Number and percentage of deaths 1950-1958 by age, sex, and city of study
- Medical subsample by age, sex, city, and exposure group
- Percentage of males in selected occupations by city and exposure group
- Medical subsample by place of origin, city of study, and exposure group
- Length of foreign residence for Hiroshima males percentage, by exposure group
- Hiroshima medical subsample by permanent residence ATB and exposure group
- Medical subsample nonexposed, number and percentage of deaths 1950-1958, by residence ATB, selected age groups, sex, and city
- Medical subsample. Observed and expected deaths 1950-1958 by migratory status, sex, city, and exposure
- Medical subsample. Observed and expected deaths 1950-1958 by ten year age groups, sex, city, and exposure group
- Medical subsample. Number of deaths 1950-1958 by underlying causes, complications, contributory causes, and city
- Medical subsample. Deaths attributed to tuberculosis 1950-1958 by complications, contributory causes, and city
Figure 1.
Percentage of deaths 1950-1958, persons exposed in open or lightly shielded, by sex, age, and distance from hypocenter