Reduced infant mortality: a societal indicator, an emotional imperative, or a health objective?
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
SEARCH · PubMed Health
Explore indexed PubMed citations for clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health research. Read source abstracts and follow each citation to its original PubMed record.
Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Mortality differentials reflect in part the social and economic conditions of groups in society. In this paper, the relationship between ethnic origin and mortality is investigated from the point of view of convergence and minority group status hypotheses. Multivariate methods are used to study differences among the French, the British and Native Indian (includes Metis and Eskimos) populations of Canada over three census periods from 1951 to 1971. A significant downward trend in the death rates of all three subpopulations is noted, but substantial differences persist, as the pace of mortality decline over time varies across the three ethnic groups. In the twenty-year interval between 1951 and 1971, Native Indians have experienced spectacular reductions in their overall death rates, but in comparative terms, their mortality levels still exceed those of the French (who show intermediate levels) and the British ethnic groups. The multivariate analysis provides strong support for the minority status effect, which is taken to suggest that the roots of inequalities in survival probabilities are partly a result of social and economic disparities. The convergence thesis received some support: over time the general pattern is one of declining mortality with some narrowing of the differences. An examination of four broad causes of death (neoplasms, cardiovascular, accidents-violence, and "other") suggests that Native Indians are characteristic of populations undergoing epidemiologic and demographic transitions. Their elevated risk of accidents-violence reflects social disruption in the process of modernization. Causes of death of the French and British populations are characterized by higher risks of cancer and cardiovascular diseases, typical of advanced societies.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Estimates of child mortality are mainly based on reports by mothers on the survival status of their children. Infant mortality estimates from such data do not seem to have declined in recent years. The Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics sample registration infant mortality estimates appear to be suspiciously low.
Neonatal mortality and causes of death at King Fahd Hospital of the University in Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia from June 1981 to May 1986 were analysed. The overall neonatal mortality rate declined from 15.6 to 8.1/1000 live births (LB), and after excluding lethal malformations mortality fell from 14.0 to 5.6/1000 LB. The reduction in mortality was most marked in infants weighing 1500 g or less, among whom mortality fell from 92.3 to 33% (P less than 0.001) during the 5-year period. Further, when annual variation in the very low birthweight rate was eliminated, a reduction in the mortality risk ratio from 1.47 to 0.81 was demonstrated. These significant reductions in mortality appear to be related to the establishment of neonatal intensive care. Major identified causes of death amenable to modern perinatal care were hyaline membrane disease, birth asphyxia, meconium aspiration and septicaemia.
Secular trends of mortality from 21 infectious diseases in the Netherlands were studied by inspection of age/sex-standardized mortality curves and by log-linear regression analysis. An attempt was made to obtain quantitative estimates for changes coinciding with the introduction of antibiotics. Two possible types of effect were considered: a sharp reduction of mortality at the moment of the introduction of antibiotics, and a longer lasting (acceleration of) mortality decline after the introduction. Changes resembling the first type of effect were possibly present for many infectious diseases, but were difficult to measure exactly, due to late effects on mortality of World War II. Changes resembling the second type of effect were present in 16 infectious diseases and were sometimes quite large. For example, estimated differences in per cent per annum mortality change were 10% or larger for puerperal fever, scarlet fever, rheumatic fever, erysipelas, otitis media, tuberculosis, and bacillary dysentery. No acceleration of mortality decline after the introduction of antibiotics was present in mortality from 'all other diseases'. Although the exact contribution of antibiotics to the observed changes cannot be inferred from this time trend analysis, the quantitative estimates of the changes show that even a partial contribution would represent a substantial effect of antibiotics on mortality from infectious diseases in the Netherlands.
Taiwan has made remarkable economic progress in the last 30 years. The life expectancy of its population improved steadily during this period. A male child born in 1983 could look forward to 70.4 years of life and a female child to 75.3 years, gains of 17.5 years and 19.0 years, respectively, since 1950. The potential gains in life expectancy of the Taiwan population are also examined if the five leading causes of death are reduced or eliminated. In addition, this paper discusses the concept of potential productive years of life lost (PYLL), examines the leading causes of premature death and shows how this measure can be used to target prevention programs and health care planning.
Standardized mortality ratios (SMRs), standardized by age, sex, continent of birth, and religion are presented by cause and region for the period 1983-86. Regional SMRs ranged from 90.6 in Jerusalem to 107.6 in Ramla. These differences may be due to direct and indirect occupational, environmental and socioeconomic effects as well as to possible health service differences. SMRs can be used to indicate regions where further in-depth epidemiological investigations are called for in order to ascertain the reasons for elevated disease specific SMRs. In addition, SMRs could be used as a global measure of all effects in order to adjust any regional budgetary allocation formula, based on capitation.
Unexpected results suggesting decreased survival when compared with standard titre vaccine administered at 9 months of age have been found in some field studies evaluating the performance of high titre measles vaccine. Analytical difficulties have arisen because the studies were not specifically designed to measure survival. Nonetheless, careful analysis of the results from all of the high titre vaccine trials showed decreased survival of high titre vaccine recipients, in areas with high background mortality rates, compared with recipients of standard measles vaccines at 9 months. No systematic biases could be found in the studies to explain these differences. Statistical analysis of these data suggested that the findings were unlikely to be attributable to chance alone. The panel recommended that high titre measles vaccine derived from the original Edmonston measles vaccine isolate should no longer be recommended for use in immunization programmes. Further post-licensure field studies of new measles vaccines should take into account the results of these studies. Additional detailed epidemiological studies in populations that have received high titre vaccines and their controls were encouraged.
A study of 233 neonatal deaths out of 30910 livebirths over an 8 year period in the Toa Payoh Hospital is done. The Hospital has since ceased providing obstetric and neonatal intensive services from April 1990 due to restructuring of hospital care. The Neonatal Mortality Rates (NNMR) from 1982-1989 ranged from 6.52 to 9.55 and there was no significant fall in trend (p = 0.13). One hundred and thirteen (48.5%) neonates who died were below 1500gm (VLBW). Various causes of neonatal deaths were examined and there was a decline in respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) death rates (p less than 0.0002). Deaths due to asphyxia (p greater than 0.05) and infections (p greater than 0.05) have not declined significantly over the same period. It is also observed that less VLBW babies died over this 8 year period and the VLBW mortality rates (p less than 0.02) have declined. However, the congenital malformation mortality has also not declined significantly (p = 0.92) though early study (1972-1981) showed an increasing trend of malformation deaths among total neonatal deaths (p less than 0.02). Improvement in VLBW and RDS management has not contributed to a significant decline in NNMR. It is observed that more VLBW babies were born during this 8 year period (p = 0.01) especially so in the less than 1000 gm group (p = 0.0005) and the survival of VLBW babies has improved (45.5% to 75.8% alive) as a result of advances in neonatal intensive care. The reasons for increase in incidence of VLBW births in the past few years are not known.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Fertility, health, and family planning are not independent factors, but rather involve a series of biological and social mechanisms in close interaction with one another. The impact that a high fertility rate has on health is reflected mainly in a rise in the rates of maternal and child mortality. Similarly, fertility has a greater negative effect upon the health of groups characterized by high reproductive risk, high parity, short intergenesic intervals, and unwanted pregnancies. On the other hand, family planning -and specifically the use of contraceptive methods-helps to achieve a lowering of the fertility rate and also has a positive effect on maternal-child health. This situation can be observed in the case of Mexico, where fertility rates and tendencies, as well as maternal and child mortality, have been reduced during the past decade.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
A review of mortality data from refugee camps in Thailand (1979-80), Somalia (1980-85), and Sudan (1984-85) indicates that crude mortality rates (CMRs) were up to 40 times higher than those for the non-refugee populations in the host countries. In eastern Sudan, approximately 5% of the population of eight camps died in the first 3 months of the emergency and daily CMRs as high as 14 per 10 000 were reported. These rates dropped to values comparable with those of the host country within 6 weeks in the Thai camps; however, in Somalia and Sudan this process took 12 months. Mortality rates among under-5-year olds in the early phases, which were as high as 32.6 per 10 000 per day, are six times greater than those in the world's least developed countries during non-emergency times. Among severely undernourished children in one camp in Sudan, the death rate reached 114 per 10 000 per day. Acute respiratory infections, diarrhoeal diseases, malaria, measles, and undernutrition were the causes of most reported deaths, the majority of which could have been prevented by adequate food rations, clean water, measles immunization, and an oral rehydration programme.
A development monitoring service at the local level was established in 1978/79 in several communities in Kerala State (India) to collect socioeconomic and health-related data. These were collected from key community members and by household surveys using paid local staff as interviewers. Selected results for five years from three geographically distinct areas are presented, for three categories of data: health service infrastructure, infant mortality and overall morbidity, and weight and height of children under 10 years old. The three areas were a fishing village (A), a relatively remote highland community (B) and an agricultural area close to the state capital (C). During the five-year period there were rather modest improvements in the delivery of health and other services. Infant mortality rates fluctuated between 14 and 91 per 1,000 live births, reflecting the fact that the sample size (10,000 to around 25,000 for each area) was inadequate for calculating that rate. Morbidity rates also fluctuated markedly, without showing any definite trend. However, morbidity was defined as illness resulting in the inability to carry out normal activities, thus excluding cases of worm infestation and much diarrhoea, for example. A detailed analysis of reported symptoms for one year showed that respiratory tract diseases accounted for about half the cases of illness reported. The percentage of children with abnormally low weight- or height-for-age fell markedly in one area over three successive years (height-for-age from 41.6% to 33.2%, weight-for-age from 58.5% to 44.7%), but were significantly greater in another area with a higher average income, indicating that economic factors alone were not responsible for the improvement.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)