Death infant mortality rates

Non-Hispanic Black and American Indians experience the highest infant mortality rates. In 2002, infant death ranged from a low of 3.0 per 1000 live births to Chinese mothers to a high of 13.8 for Black mothers. For the years 1995-2002, infant mortality rates for Black mothers ranged from 13.3 to 14.6 per 1000 and those for American Indians ranged from 8.3 to 10.0 per 1000. In contrast, rates for Whites over those same years were 5.7-6.3 per 1000. 

Other well-known factors also contribute to elevated risk of infant death. United States infant mortality rates increased significantly between 2001 and... 

IV. Risk and post-crash injury outcome Different studies have shown that fatality rates are correlated with the level of medical facilities available in the country expressed in terms of population per physician and population per hospital bed, see (Jacobs Fouracre, 1977) and (Mekky, 1985). A review of a European study, in (WHO, 2004), showed that about half of deaths from road accidents occurred at the spot of the accident or on the way to the hospital. Noland (2003) concludes that medical care has led to reductions in traffic-related fatalities in developed countries over time (1970-1996). The variables used are infant mortality rates, physicians per capita, and average acute care days in hospital. 

Thirty percent of the towns in the full sample used lead water lines exclusively or in tandem with some other type of material the remaining 70 percent used no lead pipes whatsoever. Infant mortality rates in this sample of towns was high (349 deaths per 100,000 persons), but not unusually high for the urban Northeast. The death rate from typhoid fever, an indicator of the overall quality of municipal sanitation, averaged 20 deaths per 100,000 persons in this sample for the nation as a whole, the death rate from typhoid was 36 deaths per 100,000 persons." The index of water hardness varies from about 1 to 6, with a mean value... 

Figures A.l and A.2 plot the data associated with these regressions and the estimated trend lines. The y and x axes are scaled identically in both figures. Clearly, the relatively strong correlation between the hardness of local water supplies and infant mortality rates in cities with lead water lines is not driven by one or two observations. And in terms of magnitude, variation in hardness explains a large change in infant mortality rates—from a high of around 800 deaths per one hundred thousand persons for towns with soft water supplies to a low of 250 deaths per one hundred thousand for towns with hard water supplies.

Descriptive statistics for these data are reported in table A.7. There are two subsamples reported, lead towns and no lead towns. A town is classified as having had lead in its water if it used lead service pipes and was located in a county with soft (corrosive) water supplies if the town did not use lead pipes, or was located in a county with hard (non-corrosive) water supplies, it was classified as having no lead in its water. Lead towns had an average infant mortality rate that was 20 percent higher than towns with no lead. Table A.8 reports regression results using age-specific death rates. 

Table A.9 reports a series of regressions that help resolve these issues. In the first regression, the infant mortality rate in England is recalculated using the same normalization procedure as was used for Massachusetts Infant mortality is now measured as infant deaths per one hundred thousand persons. Reestimating the statistical models for England with this new measure of infant mortality yields results that are larger than those reported above. The coefficient on lead now implies that water-related lead exposure increased infant mortality by 10.9 percent. By contrast, the same regression equation estimated with a birth-normalized infant mortality rate implied an increase of 7.8 percent (see table A.9, regressions [1] and [2]).

The results were that income inequality was strongly associated with lack of social trust, and that states with high levels of social mistrust had higher age-adjusted rates of total mortality (level of social trust explained 18% of variance in total mortality, under their regression). Lower levels of social trust were associated with higher rates of most major causes of death, including coronary heart disease, malignant neoplasms, cerebrovascular disease, unintentional injury, and infant mortality. 

Rotavirus. Rotavirus causes infant diarrhea, a disease which has major socio-economic impact. In developing countries it is the major cause of death in infants worldwide, causing up to 870,000 deaths per year. In the United States, diarrhea is still a primary cause of physician visits and hospitalization, although the mortality rate is relatively low. Studies have estimated a substantial cost benefit for a vaccination program in the United States (67—69). Two membrane proteins (VP4 and VP7) of the vims have been identified as protective epitopes and most vaccine development programs are based on these two proteins as antigens. Both live attenuated vaccines and subunit vaccines are being developed (68). 

It is estimated that about 2000 years ago, the average life expectancy (birth to death) of a Roman citizen was 22 years (W6). From then to 1900 it increased to 47 years in the United States and over the subsequent nine decades (1992) increased to 75.8 years (G16) (Fig. 1). This remarkable increase in life expectancy since 1900 is due primarily to the prominent decline in neonatal, infant, and maternal mortality rates, along with the control of various infectious diseases. More recently, there has been a significant, albeit much less, reduction in early deaths due to coronary heart disease and stroke (i.e., due to atherosclerosis), as well as to improved management and treatment of diabetes mellitus, cancer, and various other chronic disorders. Nevertheless, the maximum theoretical life span has possibly increased slightly over the past many centuries. The oldest-ever documented person in the world, Jeanne Calment of France, died on August 4, 1997, at the age of 122 years, 5 months, and 14 days (W10). It has recently been suggested that the maximum life span could be extended to 130 years or more (M6). 

Once one knows the problem and has devised a solution, then the real job begins. National Center for Health Statistics data show a decline in total US infant mortality from 1982 to 1992, but marked geographic and racial differences remain. The 1992 overall US rate of infant death was 8.5 per 1000 live births (California, 6.9 Texas, 7.7 New York, 8.5 New Jersey, 8.5 Pennsylvania, 8.6 Ohio, 8.7 Florida, 9.1 Illinois, 10.0 Georgia, 10.4 Michigan, 10.5) - a decline attributed not to reductions in the numbers of birth defects or premature births but to improved neonatal intensive care units and the introduction of synthetic pulmonary surfactants and consequent reductions in death from acute neonatal respiratory distress syndrome. Still, the years of potential life lost due to birth defects ranks fifth, just behind that of homicide and suicide (1, unintentional injury 2, cancer 3, cardiovascular disease) prematurity/low birth weight ranks sixth and sudden infant death syndrome seventh. Ethnic discrepancy remains pronounced rates of White (5.8 per 1000 live births) and Cuban Hispanic (3.7 per 1000 live births) infant death are similar, but the 2002 rate for Blacks (13.9 per 1000 live births) increased compared to the previous year. 

Gin-nan" food poisoning, a toxic syndrome associated with ingestion of 50 or more ginkgo seeds, can result in loss of consciousness, tonic/clonic seizures, and/or death (Anonymous, 1998). Seventy cases were reported between 1930 and 1960, with a 27% mortality rate. Infants were at greatest risk. 

A few statistics are useful to show the effects of pharmaceutical preparations in other areas of medicine. Nowhere has the effect been so dramatic in terms of lives saved than in the field of infectious diseases. Vaccines have played an important part in the decline in infant mortality. Deaths from diptheria showed little decline between 1931 and 1941 but in the succeeding 10 years, following the introduction of immunization, a precipitous fall was noted for all age groups. In the 1 to 4 age group the death rate fell from 500 per million to only 2. No deaths from diptheria were recorded in the UK in 1981. Similarly... 

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