Explaining the Geography of Infant Health

2011 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Andrew Curtis ◽  
Michael Leitner
Keyword(s):  
Mortality Rate ◽  
Infant Mortality ◽  
Racial Inequality ◽  
Baton Rouge ◽  
Infant Health ◽  
The United States ◽  
Infant Mortality Rate ◽  
Developed Country ◽  
East Baton Rouge Parish ◽  
Louisiana State University

During a seminar presentation to the Geography and Anthropology Faculty at Louisiana State University, a series of summary statistics were presented concerning the racial inequality in infant health outcomes in Baton Rouge. The numbers were quite startling, spurring one colleague to question the accuracy of the findings, as, in their words, “that would put us at developing world levels.” This sentiment was echoed by a National Science Foundation reviewer (I suspect from the United Kingdom) who read one of our proposals and expressed disbelief. The United States is a modern developed country, and yet in geographical pockets the infant mortality rate is alarmingly high. For some neighborhoods, between 1996 and 1998, in East Baton Rouge Parish the infant mortality rate was consistently above 40/1,000, reaching its highest rate in 1998 of 70/1,000. This means if 1,000 babies were born in this 0.25-mile neighborhood, 70 would die in the first year of life. Obviously, there is a problem. This book will investigate a host of ways to consider, and hopefully move towards solving, problems such as these using a Geographic Information System (GIS). In this chapter we will provide an introduction to the main themes of the book, namely negative pregnancy outcomes and the role geography and geographic techniques can play in their improvement.

Annual Summary of Vital Statistics—1991

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1992 ◽  
Vol 90 (6) ◽  
pp. 835-845
Author(s):  
Myron E. Wegman
Keyword(s):  
Mortality Rate ◽  
Infant Mortality ◽  
Divorce Rate ◽  
The United States ◽  
Mortality Rates ◽  
Vital Statistics ◽  
Natural Increase ◽  
Infant Mortality Rate ◽  
Marriage Rates ◽  
Final Data

Between 1990 and 1991, provisional data show that the infant mortality rate decreased again, from 9.1 to 8.9, a decline of 2% in contrast to the 7% decline from 1989 to 1990. Birth, death, and marriage rates were also lower, but the divorce rate stayed at about the same level as in 1990. Natural increase in the population, excess of births over deaths, was less than 2 million, 4% less than the increase in 1990. Detailed analysis of changes and of the influence of factors like age and race requires final data; at the time of preparation of this report final birth and death data were available only through 1989. For a variety of reasons, including staff shortages and delays in receipt of state data by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), final data for 1990, which would usually have been available in late August 1992, are not expected before early 1993. Unlike recent years, the decline in the infant mortality rate was only in the neonatal component, which decreased 3.6%. Postneonatal mortality increased, for the first time in many years, by 1.6%, suggesting that the decline in the total is related more to therapeutic advances in neonatology than to improved prevention. Internationally, newly independent Latvia was added to the list of countries with rates less than 15, but Costa Rica was deleted. With the reunification of Germany the list shrank to 28 and, by default, the United States moved up from 21st to 20th. Some 12.5 million births, less than 9% of the world total, took place in countries with under-5 mortality rates of less than 20 per 1000. At the other end of the scale, 42% of the world's births occurred in countries with under-5 mortality rates of more than 140 per 1000. The median under-5 mortality rate for those countries in 1990 was 189 per 1000, meaning that almost 20% of the infants born alive in these countries died before their fifth birthday.

scholarly journals Smoke-free legislation and neonatal and infant mortality in Brazil: longitudinal quasi-experimental study

2019 ◽  
pp. tobaccocontrol-2019-054923 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Hone ◽  
Andre Salem Szklo ◽  
Filippos T Filippidis ◽  
Anthony A Laverty ◽  
Isabela Sattamini ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Study ◽  
Mortality Rate ◽  
Infant Mortality ◽  
Neonatal Mortality ◽  
Fixed Effects ◽  
Infant Health ◽  
Infant Mortality Rate ◽  
Infant Deaths ◽  
Quasi Experimental ◽  
Fixed Effects Regression

ObjectiveTo examine the associations of partial and comprehensive smoke-free legislation with neonatal and infant mortality in Brazil using a quasi-experimental study design.DesignMonthly longitudinal (panel) ecological study from January 2000 to December 2016.SettingAll Brazilian municipalities (n=5565).ParticipantsInfant populations.InterventionSmoke-free legislation in effect in each municipality and month. Legislation was encoded as basic (allowing smoking areas), partial (segregated smoking rooms) or comprehensive (no smoking in public buildings). Associations were quantified by immediate step and longer term slope/trend changes in outcomes.Statistical analysesMunicipal-level linear fixed-effects regression models.Main outcomes measuresInfant and neonatal mortality.ResultsImplementation of partial smoke-free legislation was associated with a −3.3 % (95% CI −6.2% to −0.4%) step reduction in the municipal infant mortality rate, but no step change in neonatal mortality. Comprehensive smoke-free legislation implementation was associated with −5.2 % (95% CI −8.3% to −2.1%) and −3.4 % (95% CI −6.7% to −0.1%) step reductions in infant and neonatal mortality, respectively, and a −0.36 (95% CI −0.66 to−0.06) annual decline in the infant mortality rate. We estimated that had all smoke-free legislation introduced since 2004 been comprehensive, an additional 10 091 infant deaths (95% CI 1196 to 21 761) could have been averted.ConclusionsStrengthening smoke-free legislation in Brazil is associated with improvements in infant health outcomes—particularly under comprehensive legislation. Governments should accelerate implementation of comprehensive smoke-free legislation to protect infant health and achieve the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goal three.

INFANT MORTALITY RATES FOR THE TOWN OF SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS, IN 1782 AND 1783

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1966 ◽  
Vol 38 (5) ◽  
pp. 800-800
Author(s):  
T. E. C.
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Mortality Rate ◽  
Infant Mortality ◽  
New England ◽  
The United States ◽  
Infant Mortality Rate ◽  
First Year ◽  
True Index ◽  
First Year Of Life ◽  
The Town

The infant mortality rate for a single New England town for the years 1782 and 1783 cannot be used as a true index of this statistic for the 13 states which made up the United States during the 1780's. As we lack data concerning infant mortality for the country as a whole during this period, information about the mortality of infants in the town of Salem, Massachusetts, where all births were recorded, should be of interest to pediatricians. Doctor Edward A. Holyoke of Salem in a letter to Mr. Caleb Garnett, the Recording Secretary of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, gave these figures for the town of Salem: In 1782 there were 311 live-born infants and of these 36 died before they reached their first birthday, for an infant mortality rate of 115. In 1783 of 374 live-born infants, 38 died during their first year of life, for an infant mortality of 102. When one recalls that the rate for 1915 in the United States was 100, the infants, at least in Salem, did not fare too badly.

PUBLIC HEALTH, NURSING, MEDICAL SOCIAL WORK

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1958 ◽  
Vol 22 (6) ◽  
pp. 1189-1192
Keyword(s):  
Mortality Rate ◽  
Infant Mortality ◽  
The United States ◽  
Vital Statistics ◽  
Infant Mortality Rate ◽  
Final Report ◽  
Infant Deaths ◽  
National Office ◽  
Health Nursing ◽  
First Time

FOR THE first time in many years, it is necessary to report that the infant mortality rate has increased over the preceding year. From 1936 through 1956 the infant mortality rate had declined steadily each year, decreasing 54% during this period from the figure of 57.1 per 1,000 live births for 1936 to 26.1 in 1956. These and other basic data on vital statistics in the United States are reported each year in preliminary form by the National Office of Vital Statistics in its regular publication Monthly Vital Statistics Report. The data in this column are taken from this year's summary, published in Volume 6, No. 13, of Monthly Vital Statistics Report on April 9, 1958, from which Figure 1 and Table I (abridged) are reproduced. It is to be noted that although this report is based on estimates they are nevertheless considered quite reliable. Previous experience has shown that the final report is not significantly different from the estimates and for all practical purposes the latter present the correct situation. In 1956, for example, the final report indicated that the actual number of infant deaths was approximately one-tenth of 1% below the estimate. NATURE AND SOURCE OF DATA Birth and death figures in the Monthly Vital Statistics Report summarize information from monthly reports of the numbers of birth and death certificates received in registration offices between two dates a month apart, regardless of when the events occurred. Final figures, by contrast, are obtained from copies of certificates received in the National Office of Vital Statistics for events actually occurring in the reporting year.

INFANT DEATH RATE DROPS WHILE RACE GAP WORSENS

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 94 (2) ◽  
pp. 173-173
Author(s):  
J. F. L.
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Mortality Rate ◽  
Infant Mortality ◽  
Disease Control ◽  
Low Birthweight ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
The United States ◽  
Infant Mortality Rate ◽  
Control And Prevention ◽  
Centers For Disease Control

ATLANTA—The U.S. infant mortality rate dropped to a record low, but black babies died at more than twice the rate of whites, and the gap is growing, health officials reported Thursday. For every 1,000 births in 1990, 9.2 babies died before age 1, down from 9.8 in 1989, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. It credited most of the drop to a new way of treating the underdeveloped lungs that kill thousands of premature and underweight babies. The rate in 1990, the most recent year for which data are available, propelled the United States up two notches—to 20th place—in UNICEF's ranking of infant mortality in 23 developed countries. Japan has the world's best rate, 5 per 1,000. Despite the new lung treatment, 38,351 babies died in 1990, down from 39,655 in 1989. The District of Columbia had by far the deadliest rate, 20.7. Vermont had the lowest rate, 5.4. The mortality rate for black infants was 18, compared with 7.6 for whites, and the disparity is growing, the CDC said. Low birthweight was the leading killer of black babies, while birth defects claimed more white babies. Vt. is best Infant mortality rates in 1990, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Numbers are per 1,000 live births: • Connecticut, 7.9 • Maine, 6.2 • Massachusetts, 7.0 • New Hampshire, 7.1 • New York, 9.6 • Rhode Island, 8.1 • Vermont, 5.4, the nation's lowest rate • United States, 9.2

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