E. Mortality

E.1. General Mortality

61:30114 Bah, Sulaiman M. Influence of cause-of-death structure on age patterns of mortality in Mauritius. Social Biology, Vol. 41, No. 3-4, Fall-Winter 1994. 212-28 pp. Port Angeles, Washington. In Eng.
"Over the period 1969-86, Mauritian mortality declined rapidly, accompanied by substantial change in its age pattern of mortality and cause-of-death structure. Using cause-of-death data for this period, this paper studies the influence of cause-of-death structure on age patterns of mortality. Infectious and parasitic diseases had marked influence on age patterns of mortality for young Mauritian males, while circulatory causes of death influenced the age pattern of mortality for older Mauritian males. For females, their...age pattern of mortality remained unique, largely because of the uniform and smooth change in cause-of-death structure."
Correspondence: S. M. Bah, University of Zimbabwe, Department of Sociology, Population Studies Programme, Harare, Zimbabwe. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

61:30115 Congdon, Peter. Micro- and aggregate perspectives on life table heterogeneity: an empirical investigation of area mortality. Social Science Research, Vol. 24, No. 2, Jun 1995. 136-66 pp. Orlando, Florida. In Eng.
The application of micro-level survival models to registered deaths in London, England, for the period 1988-1990 is investigated, and the indices of mortality obtained are compared with indices derived from aggregate life tables. "Allowance for heterogeneity in mortality is made by parametric and non-parametric methods. A particular focus is on how far mortality differentials between different areas are explicable by the birthplace and social class of the deceased and on how far class or birthplace gradients may be understated by neglecting heterogeneity. Life expectancies are compared between heterogeneous and degenerate models, and no uniform effect is found toward a reduction in expectancy, either for micro- or for aggregate models." Additional data are from the OPCS Longitudinal Study for 1971-1985.
Correspondence: P. Congdon, Queen Mary College, Department of Geography, Mile End Road, London E1 4NS, England. Location: Princeton University Library (PR).

61:30116 Curtin, Lester R.; Klein, Richard J. Direct standardization (age-adjusted death rates). NCHS Statistical Notes, No. 6, Revised, Pub. Order No. DHHS (PHS) 95-1237. Mar 1995. 8 pp. U.S. National Center for Health Statistics [NCHS]: Hyattsville, Maryland. In Eng.
Some of the basic concepts concerning the construction of age-adjusted death rates for the United States are examined.
Correspondence: U.S. National Center for Health Statistics, 6525 Belcrest Road, Hyattsville, MD 20782. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

61:30117 Gaizauskiene, Aldona; Gurevicius, Romualdas. Avoidable mortality in Lithuania. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, Vol. 49, No. 3, Jun 1995. 281-4 pp. London, England. In Eng.
"The study aimed to analyse avoidable mortality in Lithuania as an index of the quality of health care and to assess trends in avoidable mortality from 1970-90....All deaths of Lithuanian residents aged between 0 and 64 years between 1970 and 1990 were analysed....Twenty seven per cent of all deaths in this age group were avoidable. Avoidable deaths were grouped into preventable and treatable ones....Time trends showed that general mortality and mortality from avoidable causes of death in this age group were almost stable between 1970 and 1990. Mortality from treatable causes of death fell, while deaths from preventable causes increased. The results in the preventable group were greatly affected by deaths from malignant neoplasms of trachea, bronchus, and lungs. Differences were noted between the sexes in total mortality as well as in avoidable mortality."
Correspondence: A. Gaizauskiene, Lithuanian Health Information Centre, Ministry of Health, Tilto 13, 2001 Vilnius, Lithuania. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

61:30118 Kale, Balkrishna; Besl, John; Palit, Charles; Voss, Paul; Krantz, Frederick; Krebs, Henry. An extension of the vital statistics method to derive survival rates. In: American Statistical Association, 1993 Proceedings of the Social Statistics Section. [1993]. 791-6 pp. American Statistical Association: Alexandria, Virginia. In Eng.
"This paper extends the vital statistics method to derive survival rates. Data for black males in Wisconsin are analyzed using the proposed procedure. The procedure is also useful for analysis below the state level."
Correspondence: B. Kale, Wisconsin Department of Administration, 101 East Wilson Avenue, 6th Floor, Madison, WI 53702. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

61:30119 Kaneko, Ryuichi. New relational models of age pattern of mortality and their application. Institute of Population Problems Working Paper Series, No. 21, Jan 1995. 56 pp. Institute of Population Problems: Tokyo, Japan. In Eng.
New relational models of the age pattern of mortality are developed using a probabilistic formulation of the mortality process. The models are based on "a double logarithmic type transformation of age specific mortality rates as a common framework. They permit us to separate the level-associated variation from the residual inherent in age pattern of mortality so that the former variation is parameterized taking two or three standard mortality schedules....Their two principal applications, parametric representation of empirical model life tables and projection of age pattern of mortality in time series, are demonstrated."
Correspondence: Institute of Population Problems, Ministry of Health and Welfare, 1-2-2 Kasumigaseki, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-45, Japan. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

61:30120 Maharatna, Arup. The demography of the Bengal famine of 1943-44: a detailed study. Indian Economic and Social History Review, Vol. 31, No. 2, Apr-Jun 1994. 169-215 pp. New Delhi, India. In Eng.
The author analyzes the causes and consequences of the Bengal famine of the early 1940s, which, it is concluded, "occurred under a unique set of circumstances largely related to War-induced inflation and very inefficient management of prices and food distribution." Excess deaths over the course of the famine were probably around 2.1 million.
Correspondence: A. Maharatna, University of Burdwan, Burdwan 713 104, West Bengal, India. Location: Princeton University Library (PF).

61:30121 Nault, Francois; Wilkins, Kathryn. Deaths 1993. [Deces 1993.] Health Reports/Rapports sur la Sante, Vol. 7, No. 1, Jul 1995. 51-60, 55-64 pp. Ottawa, Canada. In Eng; Fre.
Recent trends in mortality in Canada are analyzed. A slight decline in life expectancy at birth was recorded for 1993, due primarily to the influenza outbreak in the early spring and to a substantial increase in tobacco-related deaths among women.
Correspondence: F. Nault, Statistics Canada, Health Statistics Division, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0T6, Canada. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

61:30122 Rockett, Ian R. H.; Pollard, John H. Life table analysis of the United States' Year 2000 mortality objectives. International Journal of Epidemiology, Vol. 24, No. 3, Jun 1995. 547-51 pp. Oxford, England. In Eng.
"The U.S. Year 2000 mortality objectives are model standards cast as targeted changes in age-adjusted cause-specific death rates. This research centred on the projected impact of such changes on life expectancy and the mortality toll for each sex....A computer simulation was conducted using single decrement, multiple decrement and cause-elimination life table techniques, together with a decomposition procedure....Male and female life expectancy at birth was projected to increase by 1.71 and 1.51 years, respectively, between the designated 1987 baseline and 2000....Declines in coronary heart disease, stroke and injury death rates would most influence the projected life expectancy changes, irrespective of sex."
Correspondence: I. R. H. Rockett, University of Tennessee, Exercise Science, 1914 Andy Holt Avenue, Knoxville, TX 37996-2700. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

61:30123 Rogers, Richard G. Marriage, sex, and mortality. Journal of Marriage and the Family, Vol. 57, No. 2, May 1995. 515-26 pp. Minneapolis, Minnesota. In Eng.
"This study endeavors to illuminate the relations between marital status and length of life among 36,142 [U.S.] individuals between the ages of 25 and 64 from two combined national data sets. Case-control methodology is used to compare individuals who died in 1986 with those who survived the year. Specific causes of death are also examined. Results from logistic regression analysis indicate that marital status differentially affects mortality, but not in a social vacuum. Instead, marital status and income both influence mortality. In addition, sex is found to interact with marital status and with both overall mortality and cause-specific mortality. The findings reveal variations by sex and by marital status for social pathologies such as homicide and cirrhosis of the liver."
Correspondence: R. G. Rogers, University of Colorado, Department of Sociology, Campus Box 484, Boulder, CO 80309-0484. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

61:30124 Sardon, Jean-Paul. A period measure of mortality: the example of France. Population: English Selection, Vol. 6, 1994. 131-50 pp. Paris, France. In Eng.
"Although mortality is unique among demographic phenomena in that death is not only non-renewable but also inescapable, it can be analysed using the same principles and tools as the others. We shall study it by analogy with first marriage, which is also non-renewable, but not inescapable....In the present example, using the French cohort tables constructed by Mesle and Vallin, we have taken the life-table deaths (to which, under certain assumptions, correspond incidence rates). We reclassified them by year of occurrence or, more accurately, by pairs of years, since these were deaths occurring in cohorts between successive birthdays, thus observed over two calendar years. From these reclassified data, we summed the deaths in each calendar year and calculated the mean age at dying, in the same way as for first marriages."
For the French version of this article, see 59:30097.
Correspondence: J.-P. Sardon, Institut National d'Etudes Demographiques, 27 rue du Commandeur, 75675 Paris Cedex 14, France. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

61:30125 Sardon, Jean-Paul. Probabilities, frequencies and events. Population: English Selection, Vol. 6, 1994. 151-7 pp. Paris, France. In Eng.
The author examines and compares three methods for estimating mortality.
For the French version of this article, see 59:30098.
Correspondence: J.-P. Sardon, Institut National d'Etudes Demographiques, 27 rue du Commandeur, 75675 Paris Cedex 14, France. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

61:30126 Schaefer, Catherine; Quesenberry, Charles P.; Wi, Soora. Mortality following conjugal bereavement and the effects of a shared environment. American Journal of Epidemiology, Vol. 141, No. 12, Jun 15, 1995. 1,142-52 pp. Baltimore, Maryland. In Eng.
"The effect of bereavement on mortality among surviving spouses was examined in a cohort of 12,522 spouse pairs belonging to a prepaid health care plan in northern California. Both spouses were examined and completed a questionnaire between 1964 and 1973, and they were followed for mortality through 1987....Mortality following bereavement was significantly elevated in both men and women after adjusting for age, education, and other predictors of mortality in proportional hazards analyses."
Correspondence: C. Schaefer, Kaiser Permanente Division of Research, 3505 Broadway, Oakland, CA 94611. Location: Princeton University Library (SZ).

61:30127 Schwartz, Joseph E.; Friedman, Howard S.; Tucker, Joan S.; Tomlinson-Keasey, Carol; Wingard, Deborah L.; Criqui, Michael H. Sociodemographic and psychosocial factors in childhood as predictors of adult mortality. American Journal of Public Health, Vol. 85, No. 9, Sep 1995. 1,237-45 pp. Washington, D.C. In Eng.
The impact of sociodemographic and psychosocial factors in childhood on subsequent adult mortality are examined using data from the Terman Life Cycle Study, which involved 1,285 children with high IQs born in California around 1910 and followed-up to 1991. The results show that a small number of such factors, such as divorce and child personality, significantly predict subsequent mortality.
Correspondence: J. E. Schwartz, State University of New York, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, Stony Brook, NY 11794-8790. Location: Princeton University Library (SZ).

61:30128 Sorlie, Paul D.; Backlund, Eric; Keller, Jacob B. U.S. mortality by economic, demographic, and social characteristics: the National Longitudinal Mortality Study. American Journal of Public Health, Vol. 85, No. 7, Jul 1995. 949-56 pp. Washington, D.C. In Eng.
"A large U.S. sample was used to estimate the effects of race, employment status, income, education, occupation, marital status, and household size on mortality. Approximately 530,000 persons 25 years of age or more were identified from selected Current Population Surveys between 1979 and 1985. These individuals were followed for mortality through use of the National Death Index for the years 1979 through 1989." The authors concluded "employment status, income, education, occupation, race, and marital status have substantial net associations with mortality."
A related editorial by David Blane is included in this issue (pp. 903-5).
Correspondence: P. D. Sorlie, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, Epidemiology and Biometry Program, Rockledge Building, Room 8178, MSC 7934, Bethesda, MD 20892. Location: Princeton University Library (SZ).

61:30129 Wadhera, Surinder; Strachan, Jill. Selected mortality statistics, Canada, 1921-1990. [Statistiques choisies sur la mortalite, Canada, 1921-1990.] Pub. Order No. 82-548. ISBN 0-660-54875-5. Mar 1994. 105 pp. Statistics Canada, Canadian Centre for Health Information: Ottawa, Canada. In Eng; Fre.
Data on mortality for the period 1921-1990 are presented for Canada, its 10 provinces, and the two territories. "Major topics included...relate to: the numbers and rates of deaths, age-specific and age-standardized death rates, mean and median age of decedents, deaths by age, sex, and marital status, natural increase of the population and rates, and life expectancy."
Correspondence: Statistics Canada, Canadian Centre for Health Information, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0T6, Canada. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

61:30130 Wilkinson, Richard G. The epidemiological transition: from material scarcity to social disadvantage? Daedalus, Vol. 123, No. 4, Fall 1994. 61-77 pp. Cambridge, Massachusetts. In Eng.
"Mortality rates in the developed world are no longer related to per capita economic growth, but are related instead to the scale of income inequality in each society. This represents a transition from the primacy of material constraints to social constraints as the limiting condition on the quality of human life....If increases in the quality of life now depend primarily on improving the social fabric of society rather than on general rises in prosperity, then we must ask whether further undifferentiated economic growth is worth the environmental risks."
Correspondence: R. G. Wilkinson, University of Sussex, Trafford Centre for Medical Research, Brighton, Sussex BN1 9RY, England. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

E.2. Prenatal and Perinatal Mortality

61:30131 Dapaquier, Jacques. Toward a history of prematurity. [Pour une histoire de la prematurite.] Annales de Demographie Historique, 1994. 187-202 pp. Paris, France. In Fre. with sum. in Eng.
"The infant's mortality calendar regarding populations in the past, testifies of an unusual concentration in the few days following births. A similar phenomenon can be observed nowadays [particularly with regard to the] premature baby....The author puts forward the hypothesis that the very high neonatal mortality as well as the rate of stillbirths observed until the end of the XIXth century were first and foremost a consequence of early delivery caused by heavy domestic work. Various clues, among which [is] the seasonal curve of neomortality, seem to confirm this hypothesis."
Correspondence: J. Dupaquier, 197 rue St. Jacques, 60240 Delincourt, France. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

61:30132 Mostafa, Golam; Foster, Andrew; Fauveau, Vincent. The influence of socio-biological factors on perinatal mortality in a rural area of Bangladesh. Asia-Pacific Population Journal, Vol. 10, No. 1, Mar 1995. 63-72 pp. Bangkok, Thailand. In Eng.
"The present study considers data on all pregnancies that ended in a stillbirth or live birth in a rural area of Bangladesh during the years 1982 to 1984. It considers the relationships of both biological and socio-economic factors to perinatal mortality....[Results show a] lack of association with any measure of socio-economic status....Our study has confirmed that survival of the perinatal period is separately related to both maternal age and primiparity. Once maternal age is taken into account, high parity shows no evidence of decreasing survival chances."
Correspondence: G. Mostafa, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh, G.P.O. Box 128, Dhaka 1000, Bangladesh. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

61:30133 Prakasam, C. P. Mother's reproduction and pregnancy loss in a rural set-up. Demography India, Vol. 22, No. 2, Jul-Dec 1993. 155-68 pp. Delhi, India. In Eng.
"In this paper, an attempt is made to study the influence of pregnancy outcome by age of the mother, sex, birth order, birth interval and previous pregnancy loss and the chances of delivering first and second child on the basis of outcome by survival analysis....This study is based on the data collected from a [1991] survey carried out...in rural Andhra Pradesh, [India. The findings indicate that]...survival status of the previous child has a bearing on subsequent pregnancy outcome."
Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

E.3. Infant and Childhood Mortality

61:30134 Anderson, Barbara A.; Silver, Brian D. The geodemography of infant mortality in the Soviet Union, 1950-1990. Population Studies Center Research Report, No. 94-316, Aug 1994. 24, [12] pp. University of Michigan, Population Studies Center: Ann Arbor, Michigan. In Eng.
"Our analysis focuses on the geographic distribution of infant mortality [in the Soviet Union from 1950 to 1990] and the relative contributions of regions to the all-Union rates....Over time, the high and rising infant mortality in the traditionally Moslem republics had an increasing effect on infant mortality in the Soviet Union as a whole. However, atypical patterns of infant mortality by region and by urban-rural areas provide strong evidence of serious underreporting of infant deaths, especially in rural areas, in the Moslem republics, and in earlier years."
Correspondence: University of Michigan, Population Studies Center, 1225 South University Avenue, Ann Arbor, MI 48109. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

61:30135 Andes, Nancy; Davis, Jack E. Linking public health data using geographic information system techniques: Alaskan community characteristics and infant mortality. Statistics in Medicine, Vol. 14, No. 5-7, Mar 15-Apr 15, 1995. 481-90 pp. Chichester, England. In Eng.
"This article identifies geographical contexts important in differentiating infant mortality in Alaska and uses spatial processing models to link and analyse multi-source data. Information characterizing geographical locations [is] collected from Alaska's vital statistics for the years 1982-91 and the 1990 Census. Geographic information system (GIS) techniques are applied to identify spatially homogeneous regions, assess spatial compatibility across databases, and allocate geographical units across boundaries."
Correspondence: N. Andes, University of Alaska, Department of Sociology, 3211 Providence Drive, Anchorage, AK 99508. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

61:30136 Bardet, Jean-Pierre; Martin-Dufour, Corinne; Renard, Jacques. Mortality among foundlings: a two-act drama. [La mort des enfants trouves, un drame en deux actes.] Annales de Demographie Historique, 1994. 135-50 pp. Paris, France. In Fre. with sum. in Eng.
The practice of placing abandoned children with rural wet-nurses, which was common in France up to the mid-eighteenth century, is reconsidered. In particular, the authors question the commonly held assumption that the care provided by wet-nurses was primarily responsible for the high level of mortality among such children.
Correspondence: J.-P. Bardet, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, URA 100, Centre Roland Mousnier, 1 rue Victor Cousin, 75230 Paris Cedex 05, France. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

61:30137 Bengtsson, Tommy; Lundh, Christer. Infant and child mortality in the Scandinavian countries before 1900. [La mortalite infantile et post-infantile dans les pays nordiques avant 1900.] Annales de Demographie Historique, 1994. 23-43 pp. Paris, France. In Fre. with sum. in Eng.
"The mortality decline in the Nordic countries started at the end of the 18th century with a decrease in infant and child mortality. It was not until the middle of the 19th century that adult mortality started to fall. Recent research shows that improvements in nutrient supply, medical care, sanitation and nursing did not take place until the beginning of the 19th century, i.e. considerably later than the start of the decline in infant and child mortality. One possible explanation to the initial decline is that a change in virulence of pathogens did occur at the end of the 18th century, i.e. that the decline was caused by factors beyond human control. There is a general agreement that the decline that followed during the 19th century had multi-factoral causes. The importance of different factors is, however, still debated."
Correspondence: T. Bengtsson, University of Lund, Department of Economic History, P.O. Box 7083, 220 07 Lund, Sweden. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

61:30138 Bernabeu-Mestre, Josep. Problems of infant health and causes of death in Spain (1900-1935). [Problemes de sante et causes de deces infantiles en Espagne (1900-1935).] Annales de Demographie Historique, 1994. 61-77 pp. Paris, France. In Fre. with sum. in Eng.
The relationship between health levels and causes of infant mortality in Spain from 1900 to 1935 is analyzed. The author first analyzes trends in causes of infant death over time. Second, he attempts "to explain some of the main trends in infant mortality through the analysis of certain disease frameworks, including both primary or etiological elements and together with [their] socioeconomic and cultural context. In the opinion of Spanish hygienists and paediatricians of the period, these disease frameworks (feeding practices, popular attitudes to children's health, as in the case of teething, etc.) were responsible for the high levels of infant morbidity and mortality."
Correspondence: J. Bernabeu-Mestre, Departement du Salut Publica, Historia de la Ciencia, Campus de Sant Joan, Ap. de Correus 374, 03080 Alicante, Spain. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

61:30139 Bideau, Alain; Brunet, Guy; Floquet, Michel. Mortality differentials among indigenous children and fostered children. The case of Druillat (Ain) in the eighteenth century. [Mortalite differentielle des enfants indigenes et des enfants en nourrice. L'exemple de Druillat (Ain) au XVIIIe siecle.] Annales de Demographie Historique, 1994. 151-68 pp. Paris, France. In Fre. with sum. in Eng.
Infant mortality differentials are analyzed for the French parish of Druillat, in which many abandoned children from the nearby city of Lyons found foster homes. The age at which infants were put into foster care and the standard of living of fostering families are identified as critical factors affecting infant mortality.
Correspondence: A. Bideau, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, URA 223, Centre Pierre Leon, Maison Rhone-Alpes des Sciences de l'Homme, Lyons, France. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

61:30140 Breschi, Marco; Livi-Bacci, Massimo. The month of birth as a factor in infant survival. [Le mois de naissance comme facteur de survie des enfants.] Annales de Demographie Historique, 1994. 169-85 pp. Paris, France. In Fre. with sum. in Eng.
The extent to which the season of birth may have affected a child's chances of survival are analyzed using late nineteenth-century data for Italy, Russia, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Switzerland. The authors note the effects of both climate differences over the course of the year as well as cultural factors affecting childrearing, such as age at weaning.
Correspondence: M. Breschi, Universita degli Studi di Firenze, Dipartimento Statistico, Viale Morgagni 59, 50134 Florence, Italy. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

61:30141 Curtis, Sian L. Assessment of the quality of data used for direct estimation of infant and child mortality in DHS-II surveys. DHS Occasional Paper, No. 3, Mar 1995. ix, 73 pp. Macro International, Demographic and Health Surveys [DHS]: Calverton, Maryland. In Eng.
"This report is an assessment of the quality of the data used for direct estimation of infant and child mortality rates collected in surveys conducted under the second phase of the Demographic and Health Surveys program (DHS-II)....Of the 26 surveys included in this report, 12 are from sub-Saharan Africa, 8 are from Asia/the Near East/North Africa, and 6 are from Latin America and the Caribbean....This study has three main objectives. The first objective is to identify errors that are repeated in a number of surveys which may indicate problems that need to be addressed in future surveys or changes that need to be made in DHS procedures. The second objective is to compare the quality of the infant and child mortality data obtained in the DHS-II with that obtained in DHS-I....The third objective is to provide users of DHS-II data with a comprehensive and comparable evaluation of the quality of data used for the analysis of infant and child mortality for all DHS-II surveys."
Correspondence: Macro International, Demographic and Health Surveys, 11785 Beltsville Drive, Calverton, MD 20705-3119. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

61:30142 Defo, Barthelemy K. Determinants of infant and early childhood mortality in Cameroon: the role of socioeconomic factors, housing characteristics, and immunization status. Social Biology, Vol. 41, No. 3-4, Fall-Winter 1994. 181-211 pp. Port Angeles, Washington. In Eng.
"This study examines factors impinging on the survival of children in Cameroon using longitudinal data collected by the United Nations Demographic Training and Research Institute of Yaounde, Cameroon. It deals especially with the role of socioeconomic factors (mother's education, employment, marital status, ethnicity, and household income), housing characteristics (construction materials, power source, source of water supply, extent of crowding), and immunization status on infant and child mortality....Overall, overcrowding has robust deleterious effects on infant and child survival. As regards the effects of socioeconomic variables, the robustness of the effects of household income and ethnic differentials are unchanged, even after controlling for unmeasured heterogeneity; the deleterious effects of marital status are also apparent, but these effects are largely explained by unmeasured covariates. The data also suggest that the protective effects of full immunization status are robust and not contaminated by confounding factors, at least in the first 16 months of life."
Correspondence: B. K. Defo, University of Wisconsin, Center for Demography and Ecology, 4412 Social Science Building, 1180 Observatory Drive, Madison, WI 53706-1393. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

61:30143 Del Panta, Lorenzo. Infant and child mortality in Italy from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries: long-term trends and regional differences. [Mortalite infantile et post-infantile en Italie du XVIIIe au XXe siecle: tendances a long terme et differences regionales.] Annales de Demographie Historique, 1994. 45-60 pp. Paris, France. In Fre. with sum. in Eng.
"Using a still fragmentary and heterogeneous documentary data [base], this article has attempted to outline the evolution of the mortality of children [in Italy] as from the eighteenth century, stressing the permanence of territorial particularities in the long run. Before the beginning of the irreversible decline (as from the second half of the nineteenth century), the determining factors of the territorial differences seem to depend more on socio-cultural factors and on the surrounding atmosphere than on the standards of living of the populations."
Correspondence: L. Del Panta, Universita degli Studi di Bologna, Dipartimento di Scienze Statistiche P. Fortunati, Via delle Belle Arti 41, 40126 Bologna, Italy. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

61:30144 Eberstadt, Nicholas. Why babies die in D.C. Public Interest, No. 115, Spring 1994. 3-16 pp. Washington, D.C. In Eng.
Reasons why the District of Columbia has the highest levels of infant mortality in the United States are examined. The author suggests that socioeconomic factors such as material deprivation, unemployment, and economic insecurity are not the primary causes of this situation. He suggests that dysfunctional or even pathological behavior by parents and adults who are neither poor nor poorly educated is the primary cause.
Correspondence: N. Eberstadt, American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, 1150 17th Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20036. Location: Princeton University Library (SPIA).

61:30145 El-Khorazaty, M. Nabil. Indirect mortality estimates for children under five in six Arab countries. Population Bulletin of ESCWA, No. 41-42, 1993-1994. 53-105 pp. Amman, Jordan. In Eng.
"Data from various censuses and surveys covering the last two decades for six Arab countries (Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, the Syrian Arab Republic, and the United Arab Emirates) are analysed using the Brass-Trussell methodology and the Coale-Demeny West model life tables. Overlapping levels and trends with respect to various infant and childhood mortality measurements since the mid-1950s are determined. The measurements show that these countries are not homogeneous with respect to mortality, as they reflect disparities in both health programmes, standards of living and quality of life."
Correspondence: M. N. El-Khorazaty, Cairo University, Department of Statistics, Cairo, Egypt. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

61:30146 Gao, Ersheng; Gu, Jiang; Dang, Hui; Yan, Ying. A comparative case study on the factors affecting infant mortality in Shanghai. Chinese Journal of Population Science, Vol. 7, No. 1, 1995. 67-78 pp. New York, New York. In Eng.
"This study is focused on the factors affecting infant mortality through proportioning case comparison....The data...came from [a] survey on factors affecting infant mortality in the City of Shanghai and annual mortality reports of Shanghai Sanitation and Antiepidemic Station."
Correspondence: E. Gao, Shanghai Institute of Family Planning, Shanghai 200032, China. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

61:30147 Kabir, M.; Chowdhury, Rafiquel I.; Amin, Ruhul. Infant and child mortality levels and trends in Bangladesh. Journal of Biosocial Science, Vol. 27, No. 2, Apr 1995. 179-92 pp. Cambridge, England. In Eng.
"Infant and child mortality levels and trends in Bangladesh are examined using data from the 1989 Bangladesh Fertility Survey. Both infant and child mortality declined from the mid 1970s but infant mortality declined more quickly. The level of infant mortality in 1989 was around 100 per 1,000 live births while child mortality...was 200 per 1,000 live births. Life table analysis confirms the change in infant and child mortality. The decline in infant mortality is attributed to the introduction of improved public health measures and access to maternal and child health services."
Correspondence: M. Kabir, Jahangirnagar University, Department of Statistics, Savar, Dhaka 1342, Bangladesh. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

61:30148 Korenman, Sanders. Why babies die in D.C., Part II. Public Interest, No. 117, Fall 1994. 112-9 pp. Washington, D.C. In Eng.
The author comments on a recent article by Nicholas Eberstadt concerning the causes of the high rate of low birth-weight infants and infant mortality among African-Americans in Washington, D.C. A reply by Eberstadt is included (pp. 115-9).
For the article by Eberstadt, published in 1994, see elsewhere in this issue.
Correspondence: S. Korenman, University of Minnesota, Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, Minneapolis, MN 55455. Location: Princeton University Library (SPIA).

61:30149 Masuy-Stroobant, Godelieve; Gourbin, Catherine. Infant health and mortality indicators: their accuracy for monitoring the socio-economic development in the Europe of 1994. European Journal of Population/Revue Europeenne de Demographie, Vol. 11, No. 1, 1995. 63-84 pp. Amsterdam, Netherlands. In Eng. with sum. in Fre.
"The ability of infant mortality and health indicators to monitor health conditions in early infancy, and their broader use as indicators of the general level of socio-economic development [in Europe] are discussed from three points of view. These are: (i) the increasing impact of differences in legal definitions of live and stillbirths on the comparability of the infant mortality figures produced by vital statistics; (ii) the validity of mortality measures to monitor health; (iii) the comparability of social inequalities in infant health and mortality over time and across countries."
Correspondence: G. Masuy-Stroobant, Universite Catholique de Louvain, Institut de Demographie, 1 place Montesquieu, B.P. 17, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

61:30150 Mitra, Amal K.; Rabbani, Fauziah. The importance of breastfeeding in minimizing mortality and morbidity from diarrhoeal diseases: the Bangladesh perspective. Journal of Diarrhoeal Diseases Research, Vol. 13, No. 1, Mar 1995. 1-7 pp. Dhaka, Bangladesh. In Eng.
"This paper discusses some of the scientific data concerning the role of breastfeeding in preventing or minimizing the effects of diarrhoea [in Bangladesh], and proposes actions to be taken by child survival programmes that will help enhance programme effectiveness in reducing diarrhoea and its negative effects on child health."
Correspondence: A. K. Mitra, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh, Community Health Division, G.P.O. Box 128, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

61:30151 Nath, Dilip C.; Land, Kenneth C.; Singh, Kaushalendra K. Birth spacing, breastfeeding, and early child mortality in a traditional Indian society: a hazards model analysis. Social Biology, Vol. 41, No. 3-4, Fall-Winter 1994. 168-80 pp. Port Angeles, Washington. In Eng.
"In this paper, we investigate the impact of breastfeeding and the length of the preceding birth interval on early child mortality (defined as a death in the first two years of life) using data from a traditional society of India....The present study has a methodological focus in the sense that breastfeeding information from retrospective survey data is treated as a time-dependent covariate both as a status variate as well as a duration--with empirical findings compared across the two specifications. The effects of postpartum amenorrhoea and various other demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of mother and child are also studied. The results suggest that breastfeeding duration has a strong impact in reducing the relative risk of early child mortality; but it does not explain the effect of the length of the preceding birth interval on early child mortality."
Correspondence: D. C. Nath, Duke University, Department of Sociology, Box 90088, Durham, NC 27708-0088. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

61:30152 Neupert, Ricardo F. Early-age mortality, socio-economic development and the health system in Mongolia. Health Transition Review, Vol. 5, No. 1, Apr 1995. 35-57 pp. Canberra, Australia. In Eng.
"This paper is concerned with early-age mortality in Mongolia in relation to its health system and socio-economic development....[The] paper has three objectives: first, to show that infant and child mortality in Mongolia are high considering its economic and social progress records as well as its extensive health care services; second, to provide an explanation for the unexpected level of mortality; and third, to discuss some policy implications....The evidence...suggests that the problem in Mongolia is associated with limitations regarding preventive and promotional health programs and absence of community participation in the development of the health system which, in turn, have made it difficult for the population to adopt modern health prevention practices and accept modern therapeutic patterns."
Correspondence: R. F. Neupert, Australian National University, Research School of Social Sciences, Demography Program, G.P.O. Box 4, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

61:30153 Omar, Maymuna M.; Hogberg, Ulf; Bergstrom, Brita. Fertility, infertility and child survival of Somali women. Scandinavian Journal of Social Medicine, Vol. 22, No. 3, Sep 1994. 194-200 pp. Stockholm, Sweden. In Eng.
"The specific aim of this paper was to describe the reproductive patterns of rural Somali women in terms of marriage, fertility, infertility and to describe and discuss the question of child survival." Data were collected by structured questionnaire from 766 rural women. "The mean number of live births was 5.2, and the mean number of surviving children was 3.7....Major causes of death were neonatal tetanus, diarrhoea and respiratory diseases. Child survival and reproductive outcome ratios were found to be negatively related to the increasing age of the mother and parity. Divorce and widowhood were also found to be associated with low child survival."
Correspondence: U. Hogberg, Umea University, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, 901 87 Umea, Sweden. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

61:30154 Perrenoud, Alfred. Infant mortality in Francophone Europe: current status. [La mortalite des enfants en Europe francophone: etat de la question.] Annales de Demographie Historique, 1994. 79-96 pp. Paris, France. In Fre. with sum. in Eng.
The author reviews the literature concerning the historical decline in infant mortality in the French-speaking regions of Europe from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries. He suggests that the significant and universal improvements in infant mortality that occurred at different times indicate that socioeconomic factors were not of major importance, but that some change in the pathological balance may have occurred throughout the region, maybe in association with a change in climate.
Correspondence: A. Perrenoud, Universite de Geneve, Faculte des Sciences Economiques et Sociales, Departement d'Histoire Economique, 102 Boulevard Carl-Vogt, 1211 Geneva 4, Switzerland. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

61:30155 Rollet, Catherine. The mortality of children in the past: beyond the obvious. [La mortalite des enfants dans le passe: au-dela des apparences.] Annales de Demographie Historique, 1994. 7-22 pp. Paris, France. In Fre. with sum. in Eng.
This article attempts to synthesize a selection of papers published in the same issue concerning child mortality in the past. "It starts with the evocation of some key issues about sources and methods: the study of mortality before 5 years appears more difficult than expected. The trend of the decrease, more and more clear, though unlinear, suggests that climate, beyond environmental and socioeconomic factors, may have been an underestimated factor....The analysis of causes refers to the concept of synergy, several factors acting simultaneously to reinforce the previous trends, either of decrease or increase of death risks." The primary geographical focus is on Europe.
Correspondence: C. Rollet, Universite de Versailles/St. Quentin-en-Yvelines, 3 rue de la Division Leclerc, 78280 Guyancourt, France. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

61:30156 Ross, David A.; Kirkwood, Betty R.; Binka, Fred N.; Arthur, Paul; Dollimore, Nicola; Morris, Saul S.; Shier, Rosaleen P.; Gyapong, John O.; Smith, Peter G. Child morbidity and mortality following vitamin A supplementation in Ghana: time since dosing, number of doses, and time of year. American Journal of Public Health, Vol. 85, No. 9, Sep 1995. 1,246-51 pp. Washington, D.C. In Eng.
The impact of vitamin A supplementation on child morbidity and mortality is analyzed. While it was clear that vitamin A supplementation significantly reduced the overall incidence of severe illness and mortality, "there was no evidence that an interval between doses of less than 4 months would have had a greater impact on severe morbidity or mortality, and the effectiveness of supplementation did not vary by time of year."
Correspondence: D. A. Ross, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Department of Epidemiology and Population Sciences, Keppel Street, London WC1E 7HT, England. Location: Princeton University Library (SZ).

61:30157 Rychtarikova, Jitka. Infant mortality trends in countries of Central and Eastern Europe. [Trendy kojenecke umrtnosti v zemich stredni a vychodni Evropy.] Demografie, Vol. 37, No. 2, 1995. 113-25 pp. Prague, Czech Republic. In Cze. with sum. in Eng; Rus.
"After...World War II, infant mortality in countries of Central and Eastern Europe...started to diminish. This favourable trend lasted up to the beginning of the sixties. Later on the unfavourable evolution of infant mortality was connected with the failure in reduction of endogenous mortality, i.e. the mortality soon after the delivery. Nowadays [in some countries, such as the Czech Republic,]...the decrease continues and in [other] countries (Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia) the infant mortality rate has temporarily increased due to adoption of the international definition of live and still births, while in [the] majority of countries of the previous Soviet Union and former Yugoslavia...infant mortality...has increased."
Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

61:30158 Saha, Anuj K. Use of indirect methods for estimating childhood mortality for West Bengal prior to 1981. Demography India, Vol. 22, No. 2, Jul-Dec 1993. 211-23 pp. Delhi, India. In Eng.
The author investigates methods of estimating infant and childhood mortality in West Bengal, India, using data from the 1981 census and the Sample Registration System.
Correspondence: A. K. Saha, Indian Statistical Institute, Population Studies Unit, 203 Barrackpore Trunk Road, Calcutta 700 035, India. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

61:30159 Sandiford, P.; Cassel, J.; Montenegro, M.; Sanchez, G. The impact of women's literacy on child health and its interaction with access to health services. Population Studies, Vol. 49, No. 1, Mar 1995. 5-17 pp. London, England. In Eng.
"In Nicaragua during the 1980s, thousands of adults became literate through a mass education campaign. This provided a rare opportunity to measure the impact of women's literacy on child health...and to assess whether access to health services increases or decreases the advantage conferred by education. Results from this retrospective cohort study of 4,434 women show that among the children of women who became literate exclusively by adult education, mortality and risk of malnutrition are significantly lower than among those women who remained illiterate. Furthermore, when the infant mortality rates are given approximate time locations, a sharp reduction is found following the adult education campaign for the adult-education group, but not for the illiterate or formal-schooling groups. The survival advantage conferred by education was significantly greater among those with poor access to health services."
Correspondence: P. Sandiford, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Pembroke Place, Liverpool L3 5QA, England. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

61:30160 Scott, Susan; Duncan, S. R.; Duncan, C. J. Infant mortality and famine: a study in historical epidemiology in northern England. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, Vol. 49, No. 3, Jun 1995. 245-52 pp. London, England. In Eng.
The authors "examine whether periodic variations in annual infant mortality were associated with malnutrition and the poor quality of the food supply available to the community. [The analysis is a] retrospective study of historical epidemiology of infant mortality by time series analysis and family reconstitution of parish registers of burials and baptisms [in] Penrith, Cumbria, England, 1557-1812....Infant mortality is particularly sensitive to famine and also to the quality of the food supply available to pregnant and nursing mothers. The lags between neonatal and post-neonatal mortalities and wheat prices, together with the analysis of the famine of 1623, support the hypothesis that neonatal mortality was related to malnutrition in pregnancy whereas post-neonatal mortality was primarily directly dependent on exogenous causes in the first year of life."
Correspondence: C. J. Duncan, University of Liverpool, Department of Environmental and Evolutionary Biology, P.O. Box 147, Liverpool L69 3BX, England. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

61:30161 Sepkowitz, Samuel. International rankings of infant mortality and the United States' vital statistics natality data collecting system--failure and success. International Journal of Epidemiology, Vol. 24, No. 3, Jun 1995. 583-8 pp. Oxford, England. In Eng.
"International rankings of infant mortality rates have been consistently lower for the U.S. than other industrialized countries, and this ranking has been falling. This study examines the influence of birth registrations among very low birthweight infants on these international rankings....Birth rates of infants weighing <1,500 g...reported by Japan, Sweden, the Netherlands, France, the U.K. and Canada were compared to the rates of infants of this weight born in the U.S. and these rates were correlated with the infant mortality rates reported by these countries. Also, deaths in the first 24 hours after birth were correlated with the reported mortality rates....Countries with the lowest infant mortality rates tended to have the lowest incidence of births <500 g...and of births 500-999 g....Differences in birth registration practices for infants weighing <1,500 g are primarily responsible for the poor, deteriorating performance by the U.S. in the international rankings of neonatal mortality rates."
Correspondence: S. Sepkowitz, 5300 North Meridian, Oklahoma City, OK 73112. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

61:30162 Singh, Gopal K.; Yu, Stella M. Infant mortality in the United States: trends, differentials, and projections, 1950 through 2010. American Journal of Public Health, Vol. 85, No. 7, Jul 1995. 957-64 pp. Washington, D.C. In Eng.
"This study examined long-term trends and differences in infant mortality in the United States from 1950 through 1991 according to race and ethnicity, education, family income, and cause of death. Forecasts are made through the year 2010....Dramatic declines in the U.S. infant mortality rate have occurred in the past 4 decades....Despite the overall reductions, however, substantial racial/ethnic, educational, and income differences in infant mortality still exist."
Related editorials by David Blane and Frank W. Oeschli are included in this issue (pp. 903-5 and 905-6, respectively).
Correspondence: G. P. Singh, U.S. National Center for Health Statistics, Division of Vital Statistics, 6525 Belcrest Road, Room 840, Hyattsville, MD 20782. Location: Princeton University Library (SZ).

61:30163 Stockwell, Edward G.; Goza, Franklin W.; Roach, Jack L. The relationship between socioeconomic status and infant mortality in a metropolitan aggregate, 1989-1991. Sociological Forum, Vol. 10, No. 2, Jun 1995. 297-308 pp. New York, New York. In Eng.
"This paper presents the results of an ecological analysis of the relationship between infant mortality and economic status in a metropolitan aggregate comprised of seven of the larger cities in Ohio during the three years centering on the 1990 [U.S.] census. Using a summary income score derived for the census tract of mother's usual residence, the census tracts in the seven metropolitan centers were divided into broad income groupings and three-year average infant mortality rates were computed for each area, by age, sex, race, and selected causes of death. The most important conclusion to be drawn from the data is that in spite of some remarkable declines in overall levels of infant mortality during the past few decades, there continues to be a very clear and pronounced inverse association between income status and infant mortality."
Correspondence: E. G. Stockwell, Bowling Green State University, Department of Sociology, Bowling Green, OH 43403-0231. Location: Princeton University Library (PR).

61:30164 Tapia Granados, Jose A. Infant mortality rates: a bilingual revision of the terminology. [Tasas de mortalidad en la infancia: una revision terminologica bilingue.] Boletin de la Oficina Sanitaria Panamericana, Vol. 118, No. 1, Jan 1995. 51-5 pp. Washington, D.C. In Spa.
The author proposes changes in the terms commonly used in English and Spanish concerning infant and child mortality.
Correspondence: J. A. Tapia Granados, Pan American Health Organization, Program of Publications, HBI, 525 23rd Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20037. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

61:30165 Viazzo, Pier P. Alpine models of infant mortality. [Les modeles alpins de mortalite infantile.] Annales de Demographie Historique, 1994. 97-117 pp. Paris, France. In Fre. with sum. in Eng.
"The evidence presented in this article shows that from the mid-18th century up to the early 20th century babies and young children tended to have a more favourable mortality experience in the upland regions of the Alpine crescent than in the adjacent hilly and flat areas. Although several explanations have been advanced, most scholars are inclined to believe that the lower levels of infant mortality displayed by the Alpine area were primarily accounted for by climatic and other environmental factors, which made infants less vulnerable to bronchial and pulmonary disease and lessened the risk of gastro-intestinal disorders. The available evidence also shows, however, that broad differences can be detected across major regional subdivisions, infant mortality rates being markedly higher in the Austrian Alps than in the rest of the Alpine area. Such differences appear to be mainly related to regional variations in infant feeding habits." The countries concerned are Austria, France, Italy, and Switzerland.
Correspondence: P. P. Viazzo, Istituto degli Innocenti di Firenze Piazza, SS. Annunziata 12, 50122 Florence, Italy. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

61:30166 Woods, Robert. Infant mortality in Great Britain: a review of historical knowledge. [La mortalite infantile en Grande Bretagne: un bilan des connaissances historiques.] Annales de Demographie Historique, 1994. 119-34 pp. Paris, France. In Fre. with sum. in Eng.
"This paper provides a concise review of what is known about long-term trends in infant mortality rates in Britain since the middle of the sixteenth century. It considers, first, various estimates of infant mortality based on E. A. Wrigley and R. S. Schofield's estimates of life expectancy at birth for England, 1541-1871....Secondly, it explores the variations between infant mortality rates that were likely in different forms of environment, especially the urban and the rural. Thirdly, the paper suggests that the conditions affecting an individual's mortality in infancy may also have had a bearing on that same individual's life chance in adulthood....Fourthly, the paper attempts to provide some estimates of the social class variations in infant mortality in England and Wales in comparison with those in the U.S.A. at the end of the nineteenth and early years of the twentieth century. Lastly, some of these regularities are considered from an epidemiological perspective by examining cause of death patterns among children."
Correspondence: R. Woods, University of Liverpool, Department of Geography, P.O. Box 147, Liverpool L69 3BX, England. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

E.4. Mortality at Other Ages

61:30167 Bourgoin, Nicolas; Nizard, Alfred. The survival of the aged. [La survie des personnes agees.] Population et Societes, No. 302, Jun 1995. [4] pp. Institut National d'Etudes Demographiques [INED]: Paris, France. In Fre.
Recent trends in life expectancy at age 60 in France are analyzed using official data. Differences between the sexes are noted and causes discussed. Increases in life expectancy after age 60 in recent years for both sexes are observed.
Correspondence: Institut National d'Etudes Demographiques, 27 rue du Commandeur, 75675 Paris Cedex 14, France. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

61:30168 Friedlander, Dov; Schellekens, Jona; Cohen, Refaela S. Old-age mortality in Israel: analysis of variation and change. Health Transition Review, Vol. 5, No. 1, Apr 1995. 59-83 pp. Canberra, Australia. In Eng.
"This study analyses differentials in life expectancy and cause-specific death rates among the elderly Jewish population in Israel in the early 1970s and early 1980s. We find substantial inequality in old-age mortality levels across subpopulations in geographic units and show that this inequality increased between the two periods. Much of the variation in old-age mortality is explained by differences in economic and social status, ethnicity and religiosity. The importance of religiosity is of particular interest in the context of Israeli society."
Correspondence: D. Friedlander, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Department of Demography, Mount Scopus, Jerusalem 91905, Israel. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

61:30169 Gold, Julian; Li, Yueming; Kaldor, John M. Premature mortality in Australia 1983-1992, the first decade of the AIDS epidemic. Medical Journal of Australia, Vol. 161, No. 11-12, Dec 1994. 652-6 pp. Sydney, Australia. In Eng.
The authors attempt "to determine the trends in premature mortality due to selected causes in Australia and in selected States for the whole population and for adults aged 25 to 44 years [using] data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics and the National AIDS Registry for the 10 years from 1983 to 1992....Apparent advances in medical care have reduced premature deaths from acute myocardial infarction and stroke and public health measures are likely to have reduced traffic accident deaths; but at the same time there have been serious increases in HIV, suicide and breast cancer among young adults."
Correspondence: J. Gold, Prince of Wales Hospital, Albion Street Centre, 150-154 Albion Street, Surry Hills, NSW 2010, Australia. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

61:30170 Gregson, Simon; Garnett, Geoff P.; Shakespeare, Ruth; Foster, Geoff; Anderson, Roy M. Determinants of the demographic impact of HIV-1 in Sub-Saharan Africa: the effect of a shorter mean adult incubation period on trends in orphanhood. Health Transition Review, Vol. 4, Suppl., 1994. 65-92 pp. Canberra, Australia. In Eng.
"Recent evidence suggests that the adult HIV-1 incubation period may be shorter in some Sub-Saharan African populations than in Western populations. In this article we use mathematical-model-based simulations to show that, other things being equal, a shorter incubation period can result in smaller but more pronounced HIV-1 epidemics and faster, more acute, changes in demographic features, such as adult mortality, orphanhood and population structure. Empirical studies of orphanhood reveal similar patterns to those found in the simulations, but suggest that migration patterns and structural factors can give rise to greater concentrations of orphans in areas of relatively low HIV-1 prevalence."
Correspondence: S. Gregson, University of Oxford, Centre for Epidemiology of Infectious Disease, South Parks Road, Oxford 0X1 3PS, England. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

61:30171 Rosero-Bixby, Luis. Adult mortality decline in Costa Rica. [La disminucion de la mortalidad de adultos en Costa Rica.] Notas de Poblacion, Vol. 22, No. 60, Dec 1994. 103-39 pp. Santiago, Chile. In Spa. with sum. in Eng.
"This paper examines the adult-mortality transition in Costa Rica and its determinants. The risk of dying declined by 80% for young adults and by 40% for old adults from 1920 to 1990. The fastest decline took place in the 1950s for young-adult ages and in the late 1980s for old-adult ages....By 1990, about 40% of Costa Rican deaths are caused by accidents and violence at young-adult ages and by cardiovascular diseases at old ages. Infectious and nutritional-related conditions (especially respiratory tuberculosis and malaria) account for three-fourths of the adult-mortality decline between 1951 and 1971, but only for 30% since that year on."
Correspondence: L. Rosero-Bixby, Universidad de Costa Rica, Ciudad Universitaria Rodrigo Facio, San Pedro de Montes de Oca, San Jose, Costa Rica. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

61:30172 Smith, Trevor. The changing pattern of mortality in young adults aged 15 to 34 in Scotland between 1972 and 1992. Scottish Medical Journal, Vol. 39, No. 5, 1994. 144-7 pp. Edinburgh, Scotland. In Eng.
"In this paper we compare the overall pattern of deaths in young adults aged 15-34 in Scotland in 1992 with the situation which existed in 1972 to determine how the picture has changed over the past two decades....The data was obtained from tables published annually by the office of the Registrar General for Scotland based on the main causes of death registered on death certificates."
Correspondence: T. Smith, Tayside Health Board, Medical Research Ethics, East Day Home, Kings Cross Hospital, Clepinton Road, Dundee DD3 8EA, Scotland. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

61:30173 Taucher, Erica; Albala, Cecilia; Icaza, Gloria. Adult mortality from chronic diseases in Chile, 1968-1990. [La mortalidad de adultos por enfermedades cronicas en Chile, 1968-1990.] Notas de Poblacion, Vol. 22, No. 60, Dec 1994. 141-70 pp. Santiago, Chile. In Spa. with sum. in Eng.
"The paper starts with a brief analysis of the sources and the quality of the data and the mortality indices [for trends in adult mortality from chronic diseases in Chile]....A comparison is made of mortality among the 13 regions of the country and an attempt is made to relate the observed differences to some environmental and life-style factors. Rural-urban and educational differences of mortality by cause of death are also analyzed. The paper ends by comparing mortality by chronic disease in Chile with that of other countries of the Latin American region, noting some difficulties [in] such a comparison and proposing hypotheses for future studies."
Correspondence: E. Taucher, Universidad de Chile, Avenida Bernardo O'Higgins 1058, Casilla 10-D, Santiago, Chile. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

61:30174 Wannamethee, Goya; Shaper, A. Gerald; Whincup, Peter H.; Walker, Mary. Low serum total cholesterol concentrations and mortality in middle aged British men. British Medical Journal, Vol. 311, No. 7002, Aug 12, 1995. 409-13 pp. London, England. In Eng.
The relationship between low cholesterol and mortality is examined using data on 7,735 middle-aged British men followed over a 15-year period. The results indicate that "the association between comparatively low serum total cholesterol concentrations and excess mortality seemed to be due to preclinical cancer and other non-cardiovascular diseases. This suggests that public health programmes encouraging lower average concentrations of serum total cholesterol are unlikely to be associated with increased cancer or other non-cardiovascular mortality."
Correspondence: G. Wannamethee, Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine, Department of Public Health, London NW3 2PF, England. Location: Princeton University Library (SZ).

E.5. Life Tables

61:30175 Israel. Central Bureau of Statistics (Jerusalem, Israel). Complete life tables of Israel, 1987-1991. Monthly Bulletin of Statistics, Vol. 44, No. 12, Suppl., Dec 1993. 33-48 pp. Jerusalem, Israel. In Eng; Heb.
"This publication presents complete life tables [for Israel] for 1987-1991. Data are detailed by single ages, for males and females separately. The data are presented for the entire population and for Jews and Non-Jews separately."
Correspondence: Central Bureau of Statistics, Hakirya, Romema, Jerusalem 91130, Israel. Location: Princeton University Library (FST).

61:30176 Israel. Central Bureau of Statistics (Jerusalem, Israel). Complete life tables of Israel, 1988-1992. Monthly Bulletin of Statistics, Vol. 45, No. 5, Suppl., May 1994. 141-56 pp. Jerusalem, Israel. In Eng; Heb.
"This publication presents complete life tables for [Israel for] 1988-1992. In the tables data are detailed by single ages, for males and females separately. The data are presented for the entire population and for Jews and Non-Jews separately."
Correspondence: Central Bureau of Statistics, Hakirya, Romema, Jerusalem 91130, Israel. Location: Princeton University Library (FST).

61:30177 Mitra, S. Boundary condition sets limits on Brass's model life table parameters. Canadian Studies in Population, Vol. 22, No. 1, 1995. 67-78 pp. Edmonton, Canada. In Eng. with sum. in Fre.
"The Brass mortality model is based on a strong linear relationship between the logits of the survivorship probabilities of any two life tables. This strong empirical relationship justifies the construction of model life tables from any life table taken as a standard, by manipulating the values of the parameters of the linear equation. The purpose here is to show that a boundary condition exists for this model which has so far gone unnoticed....[It] can only be found through an investigation of other forms of relationships between life tables which must also be true if the linear model holds."
Correspondence: S. Mitra, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

61:30178 United States. National Center for Health Statistics [NCHS] (Hyattsville, Maryland). Vital statistics of the United States, 1991. Volume II, Section 6. Life tables. Pub. Order No. DHHS (PHS) 95-1104. ISBN 0-16-048039-6. Apr 1995. 20 pp. Hyattsville, Maryland. In Eng.
These are the official life tables for the United States for 1991. They include abridged life tables for 1991, number of survivors at single years of age, life expectancy, life tables for the period 1900-1991, and average length of life for 1900-1991. The data are provided by race and sex.
For the 1990 tables, see 61:10170.
Correspondence: U.S. Government Printing Office, Superintendent of Documents, Mail Stop SSOP, Washington, D.C. 20402-9328. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

E.6. Differential Mortality

61:30179 Bratti, Concepcion; Amador, Norma. Mortality among women of childbearing age in Costa Rica, 1987-1989. [Mortalidad de la mujer en edad fertil en Costa Rica, 1987-1989.] Boletin de la Oficina Sanitaria Panamericana, Vol. 118, No. 3, Mar 1995. 191-200 pp. Washington, D.C. In Spa. with sum. in Eng.
"The purpose of this descriptive study was to detect regional differences in the mortality of women 15-44 years of age, especially mortality due to preventable causes...[in] Costa Rica....The nationwide mortality rate for women 15 to 44 years of age was 6.9 per 10,000 women....Almost all the peripheral regions showed higher mortality than the central plateau, which may be because of their lesser degrees of socioeconomic and infrastructure development and of access to health services. Another influence may be the more subordinate status of women in rural areas."
Correspondence: C. Bratti, Ministerio de Salud, Departamento de Oncologia, Apartado 1253-1007, San Jose, Costa Rica. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

61:30180 Bucher, Heiner C.; Ragland, David R. Socioeconomic indicators and mortality from coronary heart disease and cancer: a 22-year follow-up of middle-aged men. American Journal of Public Health, Vol. 85, No. 9, Sep 1995. 1,231-6 pp. Washington, D.C. In Eng.
The extent to which the inverse relationship between socioeconomic status, defined by education and income, and mortality in the United States can be explained by risk factors for major causes of death is examined. Data for 3,154 white middle-aged men from California followed-up over a 22-year period in the Western Collaborative Group Study are used. The focus is on mortality from coronary heart disease and cancer.
Correspondence: H. C. Bucher, McMaster University, Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, 1200 Main Street West, Hamilton, Ontario L8N 3Z5, Canada. Location: Princeton University Library (SZ).

61:30181 Chackiel, Juan; Plaut, Renate. Latin America: demographic trends with emphasis on mortality. [America Latina: tendencias demograficas con enfasis en la mortalidad.] Notas de Poblacion, Vol. 22, No. 60, Dec 1994. 11-46 pp. Santiago, Chile. In Spa. with sum. in Eng.
"The paper presents the Latin American demographic situation and trends since 1950, with special emphasis on differential mortality across and within countries....The large declines in mortality, specially those at young ages, are linked to changes in epidemiological profiles which imply a greater relative importance of non-transmissible diseases and a lesser role of infectious and parasitic diseases. Population ageing also contributes to these changes due to the increased fraction of adult and elderly population. In the majority of countries, excessive mortality due to avoidable causes is still present among the poor."
Correspondence: J. Chackiel, UN Centro Latinoamericano de Demografia, Edificio Naciones Unidas, Avenida Dag Hammarskjold, Casilla 91, Santiago, Chile. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

61:30182 Choiniere, Robert. Socioeconomic and cultural inequalities in Montreal's death rate at the end of the 1980s. [Les inegalites socio-economiques et culturelles de la mortalite a Montreal a la fin des annees 1980.] Cahiers Quebecois de Demographie, Vol. 22, No. 2, Fall 1993. 339-62 pp. Montreal, Canada. In Fre. with sum. in Eng; Spa.
"This study examines the socio-economic and cultural inequalities of the mortality rate [in Montreal, Canada,] using an ecological approach at the census tract level. The proportion of poor individuals, as estimated from the income and size of private households, was used as a measure of socio-economic status, while the proportion of immigrants was used as a measure of cultural status. Each death was classified in relation to the proportion of poor and the percentage of immigrants found in the residential sector of the dead according to the 1986 census statistics. The results show that substantial differences exist in Montreal based on income; and significant disparities were also found according to the quintile of immigrants and the combination of income and immigrant tertiles."
Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

61:30183 Christenson, Bruce A.; Johnson, Nan E. Education inequality in adult mortality: an assessment with death certificate data from Michigan. Demography, Vol. 32, No. 2, May 1995. 215-29 pp. Washington, D.C. In Eng.
"The current study uses Michigan's 1989-1991 death certificates, together with the 1990 [U.S.] Census, to evaluate the quality of data on education from death certificates and to examine educational differences in mortality rates. With log-rates modeling, we systematically analyze the variability in educational differences in mortality by race and sex across the adult life cycle. The relative differences in mortality rates between educational levels decline with age at the same pace for all sex and race categories. Women gain a slightly greater reduction in mortality than men by reaching the secondary-education level, but a modestly smaller reduction by advancing beyond it. Blacks show a reduction in predicted mortality rates comparable to whites' by moving from the secondary to the postsecondary level of education but experience less reduction than whites by moving from the primary to the secondary level. Thus, the secular decline in mortality rates that generally accompanies historical improvements in education might actually be associated with an increase in the relative differences between blacks' and whites' mortality. We discuss limitations of the data and directions for future research."
Correspondence: B. A. Christenson, American Institutes for Research, 1791 Arastradero Road, P.O. Box 1113, Palo Alto, CA 94302. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

61:30184 Duleep, Harriet O. Mortality and income inequality among economically developed countries. Social Security Bulletin, Vol. 58, No. 2, Summer 1995. 34-50 pp. Washington, D.C. In Eng.
"The absence of a correlation between age-adjusted death rates and the average income levels of economically developed countries has led researchers to conclude that income does not affect the mortality levels of economically developed countries. The mortality experiences of the former Soviet Union and some of the eastern European countries have further brought into question the importance of income's distribution in determining mortality among economically developed countries....Using insights from a longitudinal microanalysis of U.S. mortality, this study presents evidence that, even for economically developed countries, the income distribution of a nation is an important determinant of its mortality. The results of this study also suggest that the relatively unequal income distribution of the United States is an important contributing factor to its low life expectancy relative to other high-income countries."
Correspondence: H. O. Duleep, U.S. Social Security Administration, Room 211, Van Ness Center, 4301 Connecticut Avenue NW, Washington, D.C. 20008. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

61:30185 Duleep, Harriet O. Occupational experience and socioeconomic variations in mortality. Population Studies Center Discussion Paper Series, No. UI-PSC-20, Jan 1995. 28 pp. Urban Institute, Population Studies Center: Washington, D.C. In Eng.
"This paper explores to what extent occupational experience is responsible for the adverse effect of low income and education on [U.S.] mortality. Using Current Population Survey data on education and disability matched to Social Security data on earnings, disability, and mortality, this question is pursued by examining how the estimated effects of income and education are affected once occupational experience is included in the mortality model....[The] findings suggest that the high mortality of low income and poorly educated persons is not due to characteristics of their employment but to other aspects associated with poverty."
Correspondence: H. O. Duleep, 4417 Yuma Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20016. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

61:30186 Duncan, Bruce B.; Rumel, Davi; Zelmanowicz, Alice; Mengue, Sotero S.; Dos Santos, Simone; Dalmaz, Aneliese. Social inequality in mortality in Sao Paulo State, Brazil. International Journal of Epidemiology, Vol. 24, No. 2, Apr 1995. 359-65 pp. Oxford, England. In Eng.
"In order to evaluate the extent of social differentials in mortality in a setting of major social inequality--the State of Sao Paulo, Brazil, deaths in men aged 15-64 years residing in Sao Paulo from 1980 to 1982 were linked in broad, occupationally-determined categories to estimates of population size based on the 1980 Brazilian national census....Mortality was 3.8 and 2.9 times greater comparing least to most socially favoured occupational category in each of the two classification systems, respectively. Independent of system, mortality decreased approximately 1.1% for each 1% increase along the occupationally-defined social gradient. This decrease was 48% greater than the equivalent calculated decrease for men of England and Wales....These data support the contention that mortality for Brazilian adults, even more so than for adults of the world's more economically developed nations, is inextricably bound to the issue of social equity."
Correspondence: B. B. Duncan, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Faculdade de Medicina, Rua Ramiro Barcellos 2600/414, Porto Alegre, RS 90035-003, Brazil. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

61:30187 Martikainen, Pekka. Mortality and socio-economic status among Finnish women. Population Studies, Vol. 49, No. 1, Mar 1995. 71-90 pp. London, England. In Eng.
"This study uses record linkage data for all Finnish women aged 35-64 years to examine how different measures of socio-economic status are related to mortality, and how these relationships vary according to employment status, marital status, motherhood, or age. Socio-economic mortality differentials among Finnish women exist for all cause-of-death groups analysed in this study. Although important discrepancies were observed, the patterns of mortality differentials were broadly similar by education, occupational status, family disposable income, and housing tenure. The strength of mortality differentials, however, varied according to the measure of socio-economic status used....The results indicate that no single indicator of socio-economic status is ideal. Different indicators are by no means interchangeable, and each may depict a distinct aspect of socio-economic status."
Correspondence: P. Martikainen, University of Helsinki, Department of Sociology, Research Group for Population Studies, P.O. Box 46, 00140 Helsinki, Finland. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

61:30188 McDaniel, Antonio; Grushka, Carlos. Did Africans live longer in the antebellum United States? The sensitivity of mortality estimates of enslaved Africans. Historical Methods, Vol. 28, No. 2, Spring 1995. 97-105 pp. Washington, D.C. In Eng.
"This article argues that the accepted view of the mortality of enslaved Africans in the United States rests on fragile estimates; these estimates are not robust to flaws in the data....We examine the sensitivity of previous life table estimates for the African population of the United States to assumptions about the data. We combine modern demographic techniques and new model life tables--the Liberian model life tables--developed for the study of historical mortality....We focus our attention on two periods: 1850 to 1860 and 1860 to 1870. These periods cover the two major events that could have had an impact on the data, namely, the illegal slave trade and the American Civil War."
Correspondence: A. McDaniel, University of Pennsylvania, Population Studies Center, 3718 Locust Walk, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6298. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

61:30189 Ogren, Mats; Hedblad, Bo; Isacsson, Sven-Olof; Janzon, Lars; Jungquist, Gudrun; Lindell, Sven-Eric. Ten year cerebrovascular morbidity and mortality in 68 year old men with asymptomatic carotid stenosis. British Medical Journal, Vol. 310, No. 6990, May 20, 1995. 1,294-8 pp. London, England. In Eng.
Results of a study of morbidity and mortality from carotid artery stenosis in "470 men, who belong to the prospective cohort study of men born in 1914 from Malmo in Sweden, [who] have been followed up since [an] initial health examination" in 1982-1983, are presented. "In this cohort carotid stenosis was not associated with an increased risk of stroke. Part of this lack of association was explained by the high mortality from ischaemic heart disease in men with severe stenosis."
Correspondence: M. Ogren, University of Lund, Malmo General Hospital, Department of Community Health Sciences, 21401 Malmo, Sweden. Location: Princeton University Library (SZ).

61:30190 Rantakallio, Paula; Laara, Esa; Koiranen, Markku. A 28 year follow up of mortality among women who smoked during pregnancy. British Medical Journal, Vol. 311, No. 7003, Aug 19, 1995. 477-80 pp. London, England. In Eng.
Long-term mortality trends for 11,994 women in northern Finland who gave birth in 1966 are explored, the focus being on the impact of smoking during pregnancy on subsequent mortality. "The mortality ratio adjusted for age, place of residence, years of education and marital status was 2.3...for the women who smoked during pregnancy and 1.6...for those who stopped smoking before the second month of pregnancy, both compared with non-smokers....The risk of premature death seems to be higher in women who smoke during pregnancy than in other women who smoke."
Correspondence: P. Rantakallio, University of Oulu, Department of Public Health Science and General Practice, Aapistie 1, 90220 Oulu, Finland. Location: Princeton University Library (SZ).

61:30191 Ritz, Hans-Gunther. Social inequality in mortality in the Federal Republic of Germany. [Soziale Ungleichheit vor Tod in de Bundesrepublik Deutschland.] Schriftenreihe Gesundheit--Arbeit--Medizin, Vol. 3, ISBN 3-89429-110-9. 1992. 153 pp. Wirtschaftsverlag NW: Bremerhaven, Germany. In Ger.
Social differentials in mortality in West Germany are analyzed by comparing the standardized mortality rates of various occupational groups. The data are primarily for the mid-1980s. International research on this subject is also reviewed, and the implications of mortality differentials for social and health policy are considered.
Correspondence: Wirtschaftsverlag NW, Verlag fur Neue Wissenschaft, Postfach 101110, 2850 Bremerhaven 1, Germany. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

61:30192 Westerling, Ragnar. Components of small area variation in death rates: a method applied to data from Sweden. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, Vol. 49, No. 2, Apr 1995. 214-21 pp. London, England. In Eng.
A method for small area analysis of different non-random components of the variation in death rates is developed and applied to Swedish data for the period 1974-1985. The results indicate that much of the observed geographic variation in mortality can be explained by the estimated random variation, and that it is important to take such random effects into account in the analysis of variation in death rates from various causes between regions.
Correspondence: R. Westerling, Uppsala University, Department of Social Medicine, Akademiska Sjukhuset, 751 85 Uppsala, Sweden. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

E.7. Mortality by Cause

61:30193 April, K.; Koster, R. AIDS: a leading cause of death among young adults in Switzerland. [Aids--eine fuhrende Todesursache junger Menschen in der Schweiz.] Schweizerische Medizinische Wochenschrift/Journal Suisse de Medecine, Vol. 124, No. 47, 1994. 2,119-22 pp. Basel, Switzerland. In Ger. with sum. in Eng.
"Analysis of Swiss mortality statistics reveals that from 1980 to 1992 AIDS has become one of the leading causes of death among Swiss women and men aged 25 to 44 years....In spite of the inadequate epidemiological data position in Switzerland it may be suspected that in a few years AIDS will be the leading cause of death for both sexes in this age group in Switzerland."
Correspondence: K. April, AIDS Aufklarung Schweiz, Postfach 3176, 8033 Zurich, Switzerland. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

61:30194 Armstrong, Donna L.; Wing, Steven B.; Tyroler, Herman A. United States mortality from ill-defined causes, 1968-1988: potential effects on heart disease mortality trends. International Journal of Epidemiology, Vol. 24, No. 3, Jun 1995. 522-7 pp. Oxford, England. In Eng.
"Vital statistics and [U.S.] census data were used to create annual age-adjusted ill-defined rates, unrevised CHD [coronary heart disease] rates, and CHD rates revised to include ill-defined deaths for U.S. African Americans and whites, ages 35-74 years, during 1968-1988. Ill-defined and CHD mortality trends analyses were conducted....Ill-defined mortality was of sufficient magnitude to potentially contribute to substantial underestimation of racial disparities in CHD mortality. Also, temporal changes in ill-defined mortality may have affected CHD trends which are used to evaluate the efficacy of public health interventions."
Correspondence: D. L. Armstrong, University of North Carolina, School of Public Health, Department of Epidemiology, No. 7400, McGavran-Greenburg Building, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7400. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

61:30195 Burnley, I. H. Socioeconomic and spatial differentials in mortality and means of committing suicide in New South Wales, Australia, 1985-91. Social Science and Medicine, Vol. 41, No. 5, Sep 1995. 687-98 pp. Tarrytown, New York/Oxford, England. In Eng.
"Analysis of suicide mortality in New South Wales, Australia is undertaken with reference to marital status and occupational status between 1986-89/90 and with reference to the principal means of committing suicide." Differences in means of committing suicide by geographic region and sex are noted.
Correspondence: I. H. Burnley, University of New South Wales, School of Geography, NSW 2052, Australia. Location: Princeton University Library (PR).

61:30196 Egypt. Ministry of Health. Child Survival Project (Cairo, Egypt). National Maternal Mortality Study: Egypt, 1992-1993. Findings and conclusions. [1993?]. xii, 86 pp. Cairo, Egypt. In Eng. with sum. in Ara.
"This preliminary report provides the major findings of the National Maternal Mortality Study: Egypt, 1992-1993 in an abbreviated form. It summarizes the trends of maternal mortality and the major causes of maternal death in Egypt. More importantly, it examines the avoidable factors that contributed to these deaths, so that preventive programs can be designed and implemented."
Correspondence: Ministry of Health, Child Survival Project, 1 Abdel Mageed El Ramly Street, Bab El-Louk, Cairo, Egypt. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

61:30197 Garenne, Michel; Madison, Maria; Tarantola, Daniel; Zanou, Benjamin; Aka, Joseph; Dogore, Raymond. Demographic impact of HIV/AIDS in three West-African cities. Volume 1: Abidjan. Center for Health and Human Rights Working Paper Series, No. 4, Jun 1995. viii, 190 pp. Harvard University, School of Public Health, Francois-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights: Cambridge, Massachusetts. In Eng.
This is the first volume in a planned two-volume study on the demographic impact of HIV/AIDS in three West African cities. The data for the study are from death certificates for the period 1973-1992. This first volume concerns Abidjan, the capital of the Ivory Coast: the second volume will cover Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso and Dakar, Senegal. It is noted that "Mortality in Abidjan had more than doubled in the seven years between 1986 and 1992, and this increase was attributable almost entirely to HIV/AIDS. When cumulated over the 1986-1992 years, 24,292 deaths were estimated to be attributable to HIV/AIDS, an increase of 56% with respect to the expected number of deaths from the previous trends. This dramatic increase in mortality has already cost a loss of 4.3 years in life expectancy at age 15 for the males and a loss of 1.1 years for the females."
Correspondence: Harvard University, School of Public Health, Francois-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights, 8 Story Street, Cambridge, MA 02138. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

61:30198 Hibbard, Bryan M.; Milner, Dawn. Maternal mortality in Europe. European Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Reproductive Biology, Vol. 56, No. 1, 1994. 37-41 pp. Limerick, Ireland. In Eng.
The authors note that maternal mortality rates are frequently used as an indicator of the quality of medical care, and examine the extent to which such data are in fact comparable among European countries. "A survey of practices in European countries confirms that there are differences in interpretation of definitions and evidence of significant under-reporting in official returns of vital statistics. Actual and potential sources of error are identified and a need for greater precision and uniformity of data collection is established."
Correspondence: B. M. Hibbard, University of Wales College of Medicine, Department of Epidemiology and Community Health, Heath Park, Cardiff CF4 4XM, Wales. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

61:30199 Hogberg, U.; Innala, E.; Sandstrom, A. Maternal mortality in Sweden, 1980-1988. Obstetrics and Gynecology, Vol. 84, No. 2, Aug 1994. 240-4 pp. New York, New York. In Eng.
The authors "assess recent maternal mortality in Sweden according to the different definitions of the eight, ninth, and tenth editions of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD)....According to ICD-9, the maternal mortality ratio in Sweden for 1980-1988 was 7.4 per 100,000 live births. Of the 58 deaths, 36 were direct maternal deaths. Embolism, hemorrhage, preeclampsia, and infection were the predominant causes in the direct cases. Advanced age was the most pronounced risk factor. Suboptimal standard of care was a contributing cause in almost one-third of the direct maternal deaths."
Correspondence: U. Hogberg, Umea University Hospital, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 901-87 Umea, Sweden. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

61:30200 Izsak, Janos. Fatal accidents classified according to their causes. [A halalos balesetek okok szerinti koncentraltsaga.] Statisztikai Szemle, Vol. 73, No. 4-5, Apr-May 1995. 367-74 pp. Budapest, Hungary. In Hun. with sum. in Eng.
The author analyzes accidental deaths in Hungary according to cause. The impact of age and environmental factors is considered.
Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

61:30201 Jaspers-Faijer, Dirk; Orellana, Hernan. Evaluation of vital statistics for the study of causes of death in Latin America. [Evaluacion del uso de las estadisticas vitales para estudios de causas de muerte en America Latina.] Notas de Poblacion, Vol. 22, No. 60, Dec 1994. 47-77 pp. Santiago, Chile. In Spa. with sum. in Eng.
"The present article attempts to take a deeper look at the most relevant aspects of the problems presented by the data on adult mortality and causes of death in Latin America....Statistical coverage of registered deaths by age and sex is analysed, finding important differences among the countries and higher coverage in the registration of adult deaths than of younger ones....Data quality on causes of death...showed some improvement during the period studied....Reference is made to topics related to the analysis of causes of death [that] generally complicate the work, such as the heterogeneity of coverage and data quality at subnational levels, the compatibility among different revisions of the ICD, the use of ill-defined causes and, finally, access and management of basic information."
Correspondence: D. Jaspers-Faijer, UN Centro Latinoamericano de Demografia, Edificio Naciones Unidas, Avenida Dag Hammarskjold, Casilla 91, Santiago, Chile. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

61:30202 Khlat, Myriam; Courbage, Youssef. Mortality and causes of death of Moroccans in France, 1979-1981. Part 2. Causes of death. [La mortalite et les causes de deces des Marocains en France 1979 a 1991. II. Les causes de deces.] Population, Vol. 50, No. 2, Mar-Apr 1995. 447-71 pp. Paris, France. In Fre. with sum. in Eng; Spa.
"Causes of death among Moroccan immigrants to France were studied for the period 1979 to 1991, using an indirect method to adjust for underreporting. Mortality of Moroccans from diseases of the nervous system and sensory organs, as well as from cancer, are lower than those of the native French population. Mortality of Moroccan men from most types of cancer, excepting lung cancer, and that of Moroccan women from cancers of the digestive system and cancer of the breast (but not cancer of the uterus) is lower than in the French population. Mortality from circulatory disease is lower for men, but slightly higher for women, who also suffer higher mortality from diabetes and diseases of the genito-urinary system. Deaths related to pregnancy and childbirth are also high....The results are discussed in the light of what is known about the lifestyle and use of the health system by Moroccans living in France."
For Part 1, also published in 1995, see 61:20163.
Correspondence: M. Khlat, Institut National d'Etudes Demographiques, 27 rue du Commandeur, 75675 Paris Cedex 14, France. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

61:30203 Kruger, Oystein; Aase, Asbjorn; Westin, Steinar. Ischaemic heart disease mortality among men in Norway: reversal of urban-rural difference between 1966 and 1989. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, Vol. 49, No. 3, Jun 1995. 271-6 pp. London, England. In Eng.
"This study aimed to examine regional urban-rural differences in mortality from ischaemic heart disease, including sudden death of unknown cause (IHD/SUD) in Norway from 1966-89, for men and women aged 30-69 years....Analysis was based on vital statistics....In 1966-70 the age adjusted IHD/SUD mortality in the age group 30-69 years was higher in urban than in rural areas....In 1986-89 the IHD/SUD mortality for men showed a reversed urban-rural gradient....The mortality rates for women were equal for both these aggregates....The results confirm a phase-shifted peak in IHD/SUD mortality, which began in towns and ended in rural areas, and provides clues to the main underlying factors in the IHD epidemic at the population level."
Correspondence: O. Kruger, University of Trondheim, Department of Community Medicine and General Practice, Medical Technical Centre, 7005 Trondheim, Norway. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

61:30204 Kvasnicka, J.; Kvasnicka, E.; Schnadt, H.; Geuer, W.; Havers, W.; Breckow, J. Temporal and regional trends of cancer mortality in West Germany. Radiation and Environmental Biophysics, Vol. 32, No. 2, 1993. 163-82 pp. Berlin, Germany. In Eng.
"Age-specific and cumulative mortality rates are presented for different cancer sites from 1970 until 1988 for the 11 individual federal states of West Germany (FRG). Sex- and age-specific evaluations are performed and temporal and regional trends in mortality from different cancer sites are revealed....In view of the lack of a nationwide cancer registry the importance of long-term cancer mortality studies for health policy is emphasized. Methodological aspects of certification regulations and classification of cancer sites are discussed."
Correspondence: J. Kvasnicka, TUV Rheinland, Epidemiologie und Notfallschutz, Postfach 91 09 51, 5000 Cologne 91, Germany. Location: Rutgers University Library, New Brunswick, NJ.

61:30205 Lang, Thierry; Ducimentiere, Pierre. Premature cardiovascular mortality in France: divergent evolution between social categories from 1970 to 1990. International Journal of Epidemiology, Vol. 24, No. 2, Apr 1995. 331-9 pp. Oxford, England. In Eng.
"The goal of the study was...to assess the differences in coronary heart disease (CHD) and cerebrovascular diseases (CVD) mortality according to social category, and to determine their trends over the last 20 years in France....Mortality data for CHD, CVD, diseases of the circulatory system...and all causes mortality...were based on death certificates for 1970, 1980 and 1990, and categorized by sex, age group (35-44 and 45-54 years), region and social category....In men, the inequalities have increased over the last two decades for CHD and have not been reduced for CVD. The category of employees and workers were found to be at special risk for premature cardiovascular disease mortality. Among women, the trends were less clear, although the tendencies were the same. An increasing disparity between active and non-active people suggests that a health-related selection process towards unemployment might have contributed to the decreasing mortality rates observed among employees and workers."
Correspondence: T. Lang, Institut National de la Sante et de la Recherche Medicale, Unite 258, Hopital Broussais, 96 rue Didot, 75014 Paris, France. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

61:30206 MacKellar, F. Landis; Yanagishita, Machiko. Homicide in the United States: who's at risk? Population Trends and Public Policy, No. 21, Feb 1995. 20 pp. Population Reference Bureau: Washington, D.C. In Eng.
This report examines homicide in the United States. "Drawing on data from two national data sources--mortality statistics from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) and crime statistics from the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) Uniform Crime Reports...the study looks at victims, offenders, and the circumstances surrounding the crime. It also traces homicide victimization rates over time and finds that while homicide rates are currently at near-record highs for the 20th century, the risk of being a victim has increased for some segments of the population but declined for others."
Correspondence: Population Reference Bureau, 1875 Connecticut Avenue NW, Suite 520, Washington, D.C. 20009-5728. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

61:30207 MacNeill, I. B.; Elwood, J. M.; Miller, D.; Mao, Y. Trends in mortality from melanoma in Canada and prediction of future rates. Statistics in Medicine, Vol. 14, No. 8, Apr 30, 1995. 821-39 pp. Chichester, England. In Eng.
The authors use a multiplicative exponential/logistic model and official data for 1951-1989 to extrapolate future trends in mortality from melanoma in Canada.
Correspondence: I. B. MacNeill, University of Western Ontario, Department of Statistical and Actuarial Sciences, London, Ontario N6A 5B7, Canada. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

61:30208 Marzuk, Peter M.; Tardiff, Kenneth; Leon, Andrew C.; Hirsch, Charles S.; Stajic, Marina; Portera, Laura; Hartwell, Nancy; Iqbal, M. Irfan. Fatal injuries after cocaine use as a leading cause of death among young adults in New York City. New England Journal of Medicine, Vol. 332, No. 26, Jun 29, 1995. 1,753-7 pp. Boston, Massachusetts. In Eng.
This study examines the extent of cocaine use among 14,843 New York City residents who received fatal injuries between 1990 and 1992. The results indicate that "cocaine use...was found in 26.7 percent of all New York City residents receiving fatal injuries; free cocaine was detected in 18.3 percent. Approximately one third of deaths after cocaine use were the result of drug intoxication, but two thirds involved traumatic injuries resulting from homicides, suicides, traffic accidents, and falls. If fatal injury after cocaine use was considered as a separate cause of death, it would rank among the five leading causes of death among those 15 to 44 years of age in New York City."
Correspondence: P. M. Marzuk, New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center, Department of Psychiatry, Box 147, 525 East 68th Street, New York, NY 10021. Location: Princeton University Library (SZ).

61:30209 Menotti, Alessandro; Seccareccia, Fulvia; Blackburn, Henry; Keys, Ancel. Coronary mortality and its prediction in samples of U.S. and Italian railroad employees in 25 years within the Seven Countries Study of cardiovascular diseases. International Journal of Epidemiology, Vol. 24, No. 3, Jun 1995. 515-21 pp. Oxford, England. In Eng.
"Samples of railroad male employees aged 40-59 were examined from companies operating in the northwest quadrant of the U.S. in the late 1950s (n=2,571), and in Rome and surroundings, Italy in the early 1960s (n=768) in an international co-operative study on cardiovascular diseases....A number of cardiovascular risk factors (age, blood pressure, serum cholesterol, body mass index, subscapular skinfold, physical activity, smoking habits) were measured at year 0 and year 5, while data on mortality and causes of death were collected for 25 years....Coronary heart disease (CHD) death rates were always higher in the U.S. than in Italy; after 25 years the excess was 51%."
Correspondence: H. Blackburn, University of Minnesota, School of Public Health, Division of Epidemiology, 1300 South Second Street, Suite 300, Minneapolis, MN 55454-1015. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

61:30210 Nizard, Alfred; Munoz-Perez, Francisco. Alcohol, smoking and mortality in France since 1950: an evaluation of the number of deaths in 1986 due to alcohol and tobacco consumption. Population: English Selection, Vol. 6, 1994. 159-94 pp. Paris, France. In Eng.
"In the present study, we first attempt to evaluate how many deaths [in France] in a given year (1986) are brought on prematurely by drinking and smoking....This first stage revealed a number of causes which are largely alcohol--or smoking--related. We next compare the time trends in mortality from these causes and in alcohol and tobacco consumption. Third, we consider these selected causes, along with traumas, another source of premature deaths, in relation to mortality from all causes, and follow the changes over time in levels and age structures. We thus measure the impact of these causes on the general death rates since 1950. Finally, we examine how these causes have contributed to the increase of excess male mortality during the last 40 years."
For the French version of this article, see 60:10209.
Correspondence: F. Munoz-Perez, Institut National d'Etudes Demographiques, 27 rue du Commandeur, 75675 Paris Cedex 14, France. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

61:30211 Oba, Tamotsu. An application of spectral analytic method (MEM) to the time series of frequency of deaths by cause of death: the case of total deaths. Jinko Mondai Kenkyu/Journal of Population Problems, Vol. 50, No. 3, Oct 1994. 33-41 pp. Tokyo, Japan. In Jpn.
This is a methodological study concerning the application of the maximum entropy method (MEM) to the analysis of data on causes of death.
Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

61:30212 Rajs, Danuta; Parada, Soledad; Peyser, Alexia. Maternal mortality in Latin America and the Caribbean. [La mortalidad materna en America Latina y el Caribe.] Notas de Poblacion, Vol. 22, No. 60, Dec 1994. 187-227 pp. Santiago, Chile. In Spa. with sum. in Eng.
"The underlying analytical scheme in this study [focuses] on the phenomena of maternal mortality in relation to fertility rates [in Latin America and the Caribbean]....The countries of the region are classified under a typology, formulated in function of the association between maternal mortality and fertility rates. Using that typology, the causes of maternal death are then presented, stressing...recent trends. Finally, the intermediate factors and the contextual variables related to fertility are discussed...."
Correspondence: D. Rajs, Instituto Medico Legal, Santiago, Chile. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

61:30213 Ramchandran, L.; Muthuswamy, P. An assessment of maternal mortality and its causes--a demonstration project in Tamil Nadu State. Journal of Family Welfare, Vol. 40, No. 3, Sep 1994. 51-8 pp. Bombay, India. In Eng.
The authors report on a study of maternal mortality, conducted in 1993 in Tamil Nadu, India. "The objectives of the study were (a) to evolve a system of estimation of maternal mortality in a state; (b) to assess the maternal mortality rate in a state, and (c) to identify the causes of maternal mortality....This study has successfully demonstrated the feasibility and soundness of the mechanism for collection of data for the assessment of maternal mortality and its causes."
Correspondence: L. Ramchandran, Centre for Research in Health, Dindigul 624 009, Tamil Nadu, India. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

61:30214 Ruzicka, Ladislav. Suicide rates in Australia, 1971-1991. [Sebevrazednost v Australii 1971-1991.] Demografie, Vol. 37, No. 1, 1995. 22-35 pp. Prague, Czech Republic. In Cze. with sum. in Eng; Rus.
The author analyzes trends in suicide in Australia from 1971 to 1991. Aspects considered include sex distribution, marital status, native- or foreign-born, and cause of death.
Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

61:30215 Shahidullah, Mohammed. The sisterhood method of estimating maternal mortality: the Matlab experience. Studies in Family Planning, Vol. 26, No. 2, Mar-Apr 1995. 101-6 pp. New York, New York. In Eng.
"This study reports the results of a test of validation of the sisterhood method of measuring the level of maternal mortality using data from a Demographic Surveillance System (DSS) operating since 1966 in Matlab, Bangladesh. The records of maternal deaths that occurred during 1976-90 in the Matlab DSS area were used. One of the deceased woman's surviving brothers or sisters, aged 15 or older and born to the same mother, was asked if the deceased sister had died of maternity-related causes. Of the 384 maternal deaths for which siblings were interviewed, 305 deaths were correctly reported, 16 deaths were underreported, and the remaining 63 were misreported as nonmaternal deaths. Information on maternity-related deaths obtained in a sisterhood survey conducted in the Matlab DSS area was compared with the information recorded in the DSS. Results suggest that in places similar to Matlab, the sisterhood method can be used to provide an indication of the level of maternal mortality if no other data exist, though the method will produce negative bias in maternal mortality estimates."
Correspondence: M. Shahidullah, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Maternal and Child Health, Family Planning Extension Project (Rural), Bangladesh, G.P.O. Box 128, Dhaka 2, Bangladesh. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

61:30216 Soderlund, N.; Zwi, A. B. Traffic-related mortality in industrialized and less developed countries. Bulletin of the World Health Organization/Bulletin de l'Organisation Mondiale de la Sante, Vol. 73, No. 2, 1995. 175-82 pp. Geneva, Switzerland. In Eng. with sum. in Fre.
"This article reviews the current global and regional patterns of traffic-related mortality, and examines the relationship between traffic-related mortality rates and case-fatality rates, including age and sex-specific data, with selected socioeconomic, geographic, demographic and health care characteristics of the countries studied....Cross-sectional data on the numbers of traffic-related deaths and injuries were obtained for 1990 from 83 countries." Results indicate that "middle-income countries appear to have, on average, the largest road-traffic mortality burden. After adjusting for motor vehicle numbers, however, the poorest countries show the highest road traffic-related mortality rates. Many industrialized countries would appear to have introduced interventions that reduce the incidence of road traffic injury, and improve the survival of those injured."
Correspondence: A. B. Zwi, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Department of Public Health and Policy, Keppel Street, London WC1 7HT, England. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

61:30217 Stover, John. The impact of HIV/AIDS on adult and child mortality in the developing world. Health Transition Review, Vol. 4, Suppl., 1994. 47-63 pp. Canberra, Australia. In Eng.
"At the beginning of the AIDS epidemic some observers predicted that this disease would increase mortality so much that it would cause population decline in many countries. Others have said that the mortality impact of AIDS would not be large. This report reviews the evidence available to date in this issue and presents a simple methodology for assessing the magnitude of the impact at the country level, given a few pieces of readily available information. The paper also presents projections of the likely impact of HIV-AIDS on adult and child mortality in the developing world and for a number of specific developing countries."
Correspondence: J. Stover, Futures Group, 80 Glastonbury Boulevard, Glastonbury, CT 06033. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

61:30218 Szczesniak, Marek; Strzelecki, Zbigniew. Suicides in Poland--demographic aspect. Polish Population Review, No. 5, 1994. 194-221 pp. Warsaw, Poland. In Eng.
"The present paper contains a part of the results of a study conducted based on suicide statistics [in Poland]....Information contained in the...paper mainly concerns the 1990s (comparisons), the last 30 years (trends) and the years 1992-1993 (structure)."
Correspondence: M. Szczesniak, Central Statistical Office, Al. Niepodleglosci 208, 00-608 Warsaw, Poland. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

61:30219 Tapia Conyer, R.; Kuri Morales, P.; Meneses Gonzales, F. Smoking-attributable mortality--Mexico, 1992. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, Vol. 44, No. 19, May 19, 1995. 372-3, 379-81 pp. Atlanta, Georgia. In Eng.
"This report summarizes trends in the occurrence of smoking-related diseases in Mexico and estimates smoking-attributable mortality and years of potential life lost before age 65 years (YPLL-65) in 1992....The findings in this report document the substantial impact of cigarette smoking on premature mortality in adults in Mexico. Death rates from the leading causes of smoking-related deaths have nearly tripled since 1970 in Mexico."
Correspondence: U.S. Government Printing Office, Superintendent of Documents, Mail Stop SSOP, Washington, D.C. 20402-9328. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

61:30220 Thun, Michael J.; Day-Lally, Cathy A.; Calle, Eugenia E.; Flanders, W. Dana; Heath, Clark W. Excess mortality among cigarette smokers: changes in a 20-year interval. American Journal of Public Health, Vol. 85, No. 9, Sep 1995. 1,223-30 pp. Washington, D.C. In Eng.
This study examines changes in smoking-specific death rates in the United States from the 1960s to the 1980s, using data from the Cancer Prevention Studies I and II. "Premature mortality (the difference in all-cause death rates between smokers and nonsmokers) doubled in women and continued unabated in men from the 1960s to the 1980s. Lung cancer surpassed coronary heart disease as the largest single contributor to smoking-attributable death among White middle-class smokers."
Correspondence: M. J. Thun, American Cancer Society, Department of Epidemiology and Surveillance, 1599 Clifton Road NE, Atlanta, GA 30329-4251. Location: Princeton University Library (SZ).

61:30221 Traven, Neal D.; Kuller, Lewis H.; Ives, Diane G.; Rutan, Gale H.; Perper, Joshua A. Coronary heart disease mortality and sudden death: trends and patterns in 35- to 44-year-old white males, 1970-1990. American Journal of Epidemiology, Vol. 142, No. 1, Jul 1, 1995. 45-52 pp. Baltimore, Maryland. In Eng.
"Trends in coronary heart disease mortality and sudden death were studied in 35- to 44-year-old white male residents of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. Deaths coded as any cardiac or vascular disease, diabetes, unexplained sudden death, and other rubrics were eligible for investigation, and the cause of death was validated by physicians examining multiple data sources about the deaths. During 1970-1990, 1,424 white male deaths were investigated, with 903 validated as coronary heart disease. In that time span, white male coronary heart disease mortality fell from 93.4 to 36.7 per 100,000 population per year, a 60% decline. Little proportionate change was seen in characteristics of the deaths, which were predominantly sudden and out-of-hospital....These observations support the contention that the decline in coronary heart disease mortality relates to risk factor modification more than to improvements in the treatment of coronary heart disease. Differences in death certification practices must be considered when interpreting and comparing vital statistics data."
Correspondence: N. D. Traven, University of Pittsburgh, Graduate School of Public Health, Department of Epidemiology, Pittsburgh, PA 15261. Location: Princeton University Library (SZ).

61:30222 United States. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC] (Atlanta, Georgia). Pneumonia and influenza death rates--United States, 1979-1994. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, Vol. 44, No. 28, Jul 21, 1995. 535-7 pp. Atlanta, Georgia. In Eng.
"The combined cause-of-death category pneumonia and influenza (P&I)...ranks as the sixth leading cause of death in the United States following heart disease, cancer, stroke, unintentional injuries, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease....To characterize the epidemiology of P&I deaths in the United States, CDC...analyzed underlying and multiple cause-of-death mortality files for 1979-1994. This report summarizes the results of this analysis."
Correspondence: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Road, Atlanta, GA 30333. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

61:30223 Verschuren, W. M. Monique; Jacobs, David R.; Bloemberg, Bennie P. M.; Kromhout, Daan; Menotti, Alessandro; Aravanis, Christ; Blackburn, Henry; Buzina, Ratko; Dontas, Anastasios S.; Fidanza, Flaminio; Karvonen, Martti J.; Nedeljkovic, Srecko; Nissinen, Aulikki; Toshima, Hironori. Serum total cholesterol and long-term coronary heart disease mortality in different cultures. Twenty-five-year follow-up of the Seven Countries Study. JAMA: Journal of the American Medical Association, Vol. 274, No. 2, Jul 12, 1995. 131-6 pp. Chicago, Illinois. In Eng.
"Total cholesterol was measured at baseline (1958 through 1964) and at 5- and 10-year follow-up in 12,467 men aged 40 through 59 years in 16 cohorts located in seven countries: five European countries, the United States, and Japan. To increase statistical power six cohorts were formed, based on similarities in culture and cholesterol changes during the first 10 years of follow-up." The objective was "to compare the relationship between serum total cholesterol and long-term mortality from coronary heart disease (CHD) in different cultures....[It is found that] across cultures, cholesterol is linearly related to CHD mortality, and the relative increase in CHD mortality rates with a given cholesterol increase is the same."
Correspondence: W. M. M. Verschuren, National Institute of Public Health and Environmental Protection, P.O. Box 1, 3720 BA Bilthoven, Netherlands. Location: Princeton University Library (SZ).

61:30224 Westerling, Ragnar. Small-area variation in multiple causes of death in Sweden--a comparison with underlying causes of death. International Journal of Epidemiology, Vol. 24, No. 3, Jun 1995. 552-8 pp. Oxford, England. In Eng.
"The effect of using multiple causes of death, i.e. all causes of death mentioned on the death certificates, compared to using the underlying cause of death only for analyses of regional variation among small areas in mortality for asthma, diabetes, hypertensive disease and cerebrovascular disease was studied....Standardized mortality ratios (SMR) were analysed for the different health administrative areas in Sweden using data from the Swedish cause of death register for the period 1987-1991. The SMR were calculated for each of the selected underlying causes of death as well as for multiple causes of death....The highest level of correlation of the SMR between multiple and underlying causes of death was found for cerebrovascular disease (0.96) and the lowest for hypertensive disease in the age group 0-64 years (0.51). For hypertensive disease, diabetes and asthma, when using multiple causes of death some further areas were found to have high SMR and the level of significance was higher....By including multiple causes of death in small-area analysis more statistical outliers can be detected and the risk of false warning signals due to random effect can be limited."
Correspondence: R. Westerling, Uppsala University, Department of Social Medicine, Akademiska Sjukhuset, 751 85 Uppsala, Sweden. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).