E. Mortality

E.1. General Mortality

62:10097 Crombie, D. L.; Fleming, D. M.; Cross, K. W.; Lancashire, R. J. Concurrence of monthly variations of mortality related to underlying cause in Europe. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, Vol. 49, No. 4, Aug 1995. 373-8 pp. London, England. In Eng.
"The study aimed to examine the concurrence in the variation of monthly numbers of deaths in summer and winter from the four main underlying causes--respiratory, circulatory, neoplastic, and all others--in four [European] countries. In particular, the hypothesis that most non-respiratory concurrent deaths are miscoded respiratory deaths and that a large proportion of the winter mortality currently attributed to circulatory disorders should be attributed to respiratory causes was considered....Concurrence, which was present in each of the underlying causal groups in each of the four national data sets examined, suggests a common cause separate from the underlying cause that has been used in the presentation of mortality statistics....Most of [the] non-respiratory concurrent deaths are miscoded. As a consequence, a large proportion of winter mortality currently attributed to circulatory disorders should be attributed to other causes, probably respiratory."
Correspondence: D. L. Crombie, Birmingham Research Unit/RCGP, 54 Lordswood Road, Harborne, Birmingham B17 9DB, England. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

62:10098 Cupples, L. Adrienne; Gagnon, David R.; Ramaswamy, Ratna; D'Agostino, Ralph B. Age-adjusted survival curves with application in the Framingham study. Statistics in Medicine, Vol. 14, No. 16, Aug 30, 1995. 1,731-44 pp. Chichester, England. In Eng.
"Kaplan-Meier curves provide descriptors of survival information for different subgroups within a data set. Investigators frequently use these figures for descriptive comparison of the effect of a particular measure upon survival. When subjects enter a study at different ages and age is associated with survival, it is often desirable to adjust survival information for age differences in the subgroups. This report discusses several methods for age-adjustment of survival curves, including direct age-adjustment and proportional hazard modelling with age as a covariate."
Correspondence: L. A. Cupples, Boston University, School of Public Health, 80 East Concord Street, Boston, MA 02118. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

62:10099 Del Panta, Lorenzo; Forini, Maria E. The availability of adequate food supplies and mortality in Italy: an attempt at an analysis for the period 1861-1921. [Disponibilita alimentari e tendenze della mortalita in Italia: un tentativo di analisi per il periodo 1861-1921.] Bollettino di Demografia Storica, No. 20, 1994. 111-21 pp. Florence, Italy. In Ita.
Official data on mortality and the availability of food in Italy are used to analyze changes in the relationship between mortality and nutrition in the period from 1861 to 1921.
Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

62:10100 Gartner, Karla. Mortality trends in selected industrialized countries. [Sterblichkeitstrends in Ausgewahlten Industrielandern.] Zeitschrift fur Bevolkerungswissenschaft, Vol. 20, No. 1, 1995. 101-24 pp. Wiesbaden, Germany. In Ger. with sum. in Eng; Fre.
"In 1982...the Federal Institute of Population Research studied the development of mortality in the Federal Republic of Germany (old federal states) since 1950 in comparison with eleven industrialized countries having a similar economic and technical level of development and of advanced medical care. The corresponding European countries were Austria, Belgium, Great Britain, France, Switzerland, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden as well as the two non-European countries, i.e. the U.S.A. and Japan....The present contribution is to show major features of the further development of mortality in these twelve countries during the last decade."
Correspondence: K. Gartner, Bundesinstitut fur Bevolkerungsforschung, Gustav-Stresemann-Ring 6, Postfach 5528, 65180 Wiesbaden, Germany. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

62:10101 Houston, R. A.; Prest, W. A. "To die in the term": the mortality of English barristers. Journal of Interdisciplinary History, Vol. 26, No. 2, Autumn 1995. 233-49 pp. Cambridge, Massachusetts. In Eng.
The authors analyze mortality trends among an elite group of adult males in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England, namely barristers or trial lawyers, and make comparisons with other elite groups in Europe. "We show that the life expectancy of adult males at age thirty years in late sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England was approximately thirty more years and compare that figure with other estimates for all or parts of the populations of contemporary England, Scotland, and continental Europe....We argue that in certain historical settings relatively well-documented elite groups can be used as a surrogate for the demographic experience of the adult population at large, allowing plausible estimates of specific demographic parameters, such as adult mortality, that may be difficult or impossible to extract from sources conventionally used by historical demographers."
Correspondence: R. A. Houston, University of St. Andrews, Department of Modern History, St. Andrews, Fife KY16 9AJ, Scotland. Location: Princeton University Library (SH).

62:10102 Hull, Terence H. Looking back to the Hygiene Study Ward: a brief guide to the literature. Working Papers in Demography, No. 54, 1995. 21 pp. Australian National University, Research School of Social Sciences, Division of Demography and Sociology: Canberra, Australia. In Eng.
This study reviews the literature on the Hygiene Study Ward project, which was carried out over 50 years in Tanah Tinggi, a slum area in Batavia (now Jakarta) in Indonesia, starting in the 1920s. The focus of the study was on urban morbidity and mortality.
Correspondence: Australian National University, Research School of Social Sciences, Division of Demography and Sociology, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

62:10103 Mesle, France. Mortality in France: still declining. [La mortalite en France: le recul se poursuit.] Population, Vol. 50, No. 3, May-Jun 1995. 745-78 pp. Paris, France. In Fre.
Mortality trends in France are reviewed over time. The author notes that although the trend toward longer life expectancy has been steady over time, excluding the effect of the two World Wars, the factors affecting mortality have changed considerably. Separate consideration is given to changes in the factors affecting mortality, differences in mortality by age, and the continuation of excess male mortality.
Correspondence: F. Mesle, Institut National d'Etudes Demographiques, 27 rue du Commandeur, 75675 Paris Cedex 14, France. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

62:10104 Moritz, Palne; Valkovics, Emil. Contributions to the analysis of the development of Hungarian mortality between 1980 and 1990. [Nehany adalek halandosagi viszonyaink 1980 es 1990 kozotti alakulasanak elemzesehez.] Demografia, Vol. 38, No. 2-3, 1995. 188-202 pp. Budapest, Hungary. In Hun.
Trends in mortality in Hungary are analyzed over the period 1980-1990. Data are presented by sex on changes over this period in causes of death and in life expectancy.
Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

62:10105 Norrish, Alan; North, Diana; Yee, Roy L.; Jackson, Rodney. Do cardiovascular disease risk factors predict all-cause mortality? International Journal of Epidemiology, Vol. 24, No. 5, Oct 1995. 908-14 pp. Oxford, England. In Eng.
"Mortality data were collected for a randomly selected cohort of 1,209 New Zealand men aged 35-64 years, followed up over a 9-year period. A proportional hazards regression model was used to estimate the relative risks...for all-cause mortality associated with a number of cardiovascular risk factors....This study shows that standard cardiovascular disease risk factors are strongly associated with all-cause mortality and provides supporting evidence for coronary heart disease and treatment programmes having an important impact on total mortality in a Western population of middle-aged and older men. For men in this age group, non-smoking status and light alcohol consumption is associated with the same benefits for all-cause mortality as would be expected for coronary heart disease. Furthermore, a low serum total cholesterol was not associated with an increased risk of all-cause mortality."
Correspondence: A. Norrish, University of Auckland, School of Medicine, Department of Community Health and General Practice, Private Bag, Auckland, New Zealand. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

62:10106 Smith, Daniel S.; Hacker, J. David. Cultural demography: New England deaths and the Puritan perception of risk. Journal of Interdisciplinary History, Vol. 26, No. 3, Winter 1996. 367-92 pp. Cambridge, Massachusetts. In Eng.
This study examines the perception of the risk of death among New Englanders in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century America, and compares it with the actual risk of death using the life table concepts developed by demographers. Emphasis is on the relationship between actual and perceived risks of death. The authors conclude that, although the actual risk of death changed radically over time as the mortality transition evolved, the perceptions of Puritan ministers and others of the individual mortality risk did not. The demographic implication of this failure to understand the significance of this change in mortality is discussed, and some modern parallels concerning the gap between perceived and actual risk of death are noted.
Correspondence: D. S. Smith, University of Illinois, Department of History, Chicago, IL 60680. Location: Princeton University Library (SH).

62:10107 Weindruch, Richard. Caloric restriction and aging. Scientific American, Vol. 274, No. 1, Jan 1996. 46-52 pp. New York, New York. In Eng.
The relationship between eating less and greater longevity is explored. The author notes that eating less, but ensuring an adequate supply of protein, fat, vitamins, and minerals, has been shown to improve the health and longevity of rodents. The relevance of these findings to humans is considered.
Correspondence: R. Weindruch, University of Wisconsin, Institute on Aging, Madison, WI 53706. Location: Princeton University Library (SW).

E.2. Prenatal and Perinatal Mortality

62:10108 Hoyert, Donna L. Perinatal mortality in the United States: 1985-91. Vital and Health Statistics, Series 20: Data from the National Vital Statistics System, No. 26, Pub. Order No. DHHS (PHS) 95-1854. ISBN 0-8406-0508-0. LC 95-30868. Aug 1995. iii, 20 pp. U.S. National Center for Health Statistics [NCHS]: Hyattsville, Maryland. In Eng.
"This report presents recent [U.S.] trend data on perinatal mortality. Deaths and mortality rates are shown by race and State. In addition, the rank of the United States' perinatal mortality rate relative to other countries is presented."
Correspondence: U.S. National Center for Health Statistics, 6525 Belcrest Road, Hyattsville, MD 20782. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

62:10109 Imaizumi, Yoko. Geographical variations in the perinatal death rate. Jinko Mondai Kenkyu/Journal of Population Problems, Vol. 50, No. 4, Jan 1995. 57-68 pp. Tokyo, Japan. In Jpn.
Geographical differences in perinatal mortality in Japan are analyzed for the period from 1951 to 1992.
Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

E.3. Infant and Childhood Mortality

62:10110 Alam, Nurul. Birth spacing and infant and early childhood mortality in a high fertility area of Bangladesh: age-dependent and interactive effects. Journal of Biosocial Science, Vol. 27, No. 4, Oct 1995. 393-404 pp. Cambridge, England. In Eng.
"To examine the effects of birth spacing on early childhood mortality, 3,729 singleton births in 1983-84 were followed for 3 years in rural Bangladesh. Logistic regression analyses were used to assess whether the survival of older siblings modifies the effect of preceding birth intervals and to see if the effects of preceding and succeeding birth intervals are inter-related, controlling for the effects of sex of the child, mother's age and household economic status. With the exception of the neonatal period, birth spacing effects were highly significant....The results suggest that the high mortality risk of closely spaced children are due to sibling competition for parental resources."
Correspondence: N. Alam, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh, G.P.O. Box 128, Dhaka 1000, Bangladesh. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

62:10111 Bird, Sheryl T. Separate black and white infant mortality models: differences in the importance of structural variables. Social Science and Medicine, Vol. 41, No. 11, Dec 1995. 1,507-12 pp. Tarrytown, New York/Oxford, England. In Eng.
"In 1988, 23 of the 50 [U.S.] states had a black infant mortality rate that was more than twice as large as its white infant mortality rate. This study assesses whether state-level structural variables relate differentially to states' black and white infant mortality rates. With the state as the unit of analysis, separate black (N=34) and white (N=50) multivariate models of infant mortality were...compared. The structural variables accounted for 57.7% of the variance in states' black infant mortality rates and 35.2% of the variance in states' white infant mortality rates....[The results show that] although both black and white infant mortality rates were higher in states with smaller percentages of the population having a bachelor's degree or higher, black infant mortality rates were also higher in states where proportionately more black persons lived, where there were higher levels of residential segregation in the urban areas, and, contrary to what was expected, where smaller percentages of the population lived below the poverty level. This study supports the need for race-specific models of infant mortality."
Correspondence: S. T. Bird, 5040 Picadilly Circle NW, Albany, OR 97321. Location: Princeton University Library (PR).

62:10112 Choe, Minja Kim; Hao, Hongsheng; Wang, Feng. Effects of gender, birth order, and other correlates on childhood mortality in China. Social Biology, Vol. 42, No. 1-2, Spring 1995. 50-64 pp. Port Angeles, Washington. In Eng.
"Using data from the 1988 Two-Per-Thousand Survey of Fertility and Birth Control, this paper examines the effects of gender, birth order, and other correlates of childhood mortality in China. Controlling for family-level factors, childhood mortality is found to be associated with the child's gender and birth order. Among firstborn children the difference between male and female childhood mortality is not statistically significant, but among others, female children between ages 1 and 5 experience higher mortality than male children. Childhood mortality is slightly higher for children who have older brothers only than for those who have older sisters only, and it is highest for those who have both older brothers and sisters. Other factors affecting childhood mortality in China include mortality of older siblings, birth interval, urban/rural residence, mother's level of education, and mother's occupation. All interactive effects between gender and family-level characteristics are found to be statistically insignificant."
Correspondence: M. K. Choe, East-West Center, Program on Population, 1777 East-West Road, Honolulu, HI 96848. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

62:10113 Defo, Barthelemy K. Areal and socioeconomic differentials in infant and child mortality in Cameroon. Social Science and Medicine, Vol. 42, No. 3, Feb 1996. 399-420 pp. Tarrytown, New York/Oxford, England. In Eng.
Using data from the 1978 Cameroon World Fertility Survey, the author examines the impact of ethnic, geographic, and socioeconomic factors on differences in infant and child mortality. The results indicate that "the most vulnerable groups of children in the country are: rural residents; residents of the East, North and South-West regions; Kaka-Baya and Fulbe-Fulani children; and children whose mothers have no education, are Traditionalists, are unmarried, or are in polygamous unions. Lack of maternal schooling alone explains [most of the excess child mortality]....The robustness of the excess neonatal mortality of newborns in the East region probably reflects the higher prevalence of tetanus in that region compared to the rest of the country. The study also suggests that the place/region of residence in Cameroon is likely to be a proxy for inequalities in the provision of and/or use of health services."
Correspondence: B. K. Defo, Universite de Montreal, Departement de Demographie, C.P. 6128, Succursale A, Montreal, Quebec H3C 3J7, Canada. Location: Princeton University Library (PR).

62:10114 Desgrees du Lou, A.; Pison, G.; Aaby, P. Role of immunizations in the recent decline in childhood mortality and the changes in the female/male mortality ratio in rural Senegal. American Journal of Epidemiology, Vol. 142, No. 6, Sep 15, 1995. 643-52 pp. Baltimore, Maryland. In Eng.
Using data on a remote area of eastern Senegal where immunization was introduced in 1987, the impact of immunization on childhood mortality is examined, with the focus on differences by age and sex. "The decline [in mortality] was stronger in villages that maintained high coverage after the initial national campaign, whereas mortality increased again in the villages where the coverage declined. Since the reduction in mortality was most marked after 9 months of age, measles immunization is likely to have been the most important vaccination. Both female and male mortality declined but not equally quickly. The reduction in mortality in the neonatal period was significantly greater in males than in females....After 9 months of age, the reduction in mortality was somewhat greater in females than in males...."
Correspondence: G. Pison, Musee de l'Homme, Laboratoire d'Anthropologie Biologique, 17 place du Trocadero, 75116 Paris, France. Location: Princeton University Library (SZ).

62:10115 Desgrees du Lou, Annabel; Pison, Gilles. The role of vaccination in lowering children's death rates in Senegal. [Le role des vaccinations dans la baisse de la mortalite des enfants au Senegal.] Population, Vol. 50, No. 3, May-Jun 1995. 591-620 pp. Paris, France. In Fre. with sum. in Eng; Spa.
"Since the end of World War II, death rates of children and teenagers in Senegal have fallen....Implementation of a broader vaccination programme to immunize all children less than five years old, as well as pregnant women, appears to have played a decisive part in accelerating the decline in death rates in the recent past, especially in rural areas. We studied child mortality in the rural area of Bandafassi where the demographic situation has been monitored for some time. The study also shows that although conditions did not change greatly, vaccination resulted in halving the death rates of children during the first five years of life."
Correspondence: A. Desgrees du Lou, Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Laboratoire d'Anthropologie Biologique, Musee de l'Homme, 17 place du Trocadero, 75116 Paris, France. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

62:10116 Douglas, Lasford E. Man--population density--health: geographical analysis of infant mortality in Panama. [Hombre--espacio--salud: analisis geografico de la mortalidad infantil en Panama.] Coleccion Miscelanea del CIAUP, Vol. 2, 1991. x, 115 pp. Universidad de Panama, Centro de Investigaciones Antropologicas [CIAUP], Facultad de Humanidades: Panama City, Panama. In Spa.
The author examines infant mortality in Panama over the period 1940-1990 from a geographical perspective. He first looks at Panama's place in a global context, then traces the country's infant mortality history. He examines rural and urban infant mortality by province and district, then enumerates the major causes of death among those younger than one year of age. A final section looks at infant mortality among indigenous groups.
Correspondence: Universidad de Panama, Centro de Investigaciones Antropologicas, Facultad de Humanidades, Panama City, Panama. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

62:10117 Haines, Michael R. Socio-economic differentials in infant and child mortality during mortality decline: England and Wales, 1890-1911. Population Studies, Vol. 49, No. 2, Jul 1995. 297-315 pp. London, England. In Eng.
"In this paper data from the 1911 Census of the Fertility of Marriage of England and Wales are used to study patterns of mortality decline by socio-economic characteristics, principally the occupation of husband. That census reported data on number of wives, children ever born, and children dead by marriage-duration cohorts for 190 non-overlapping occupations of husband. These results, along with those on number of rooms in the dwelling of the family are used to make indirect estimates of childhood mortality using the techniques described in United Nations, Manual X....The aggregate results indicate that social class in England and Wales during the 1890s and 1900s tended to be related to the speed of mortality decline: childhood mortality declined more rapidly in the higher and more privileged social class groups. But the results were neither nearly as strong nor as regular as those which predicted the level of mortality within any marriage-duration cohort."
Correspondence: M. R. Haines, Department of Economics, Colgate University, Hamilton, NY 13346. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

62:10118 Hellerstedt, Wendy L.; Pirie, Phyllis L.; Alexander, Greg R. Adolescent parity and infant mortality, Minnesota, 1980 through 1988. American Journal of Public Health, Vol. 85, No. 8, Aug 1995. 1,139-42 pp. Washington, D.C. In Eng.
"The association of parity and infant mortality was studied using linked birth-death files for 46,985 infants born to 11- to 19-year-old Minnesota residents between 1980 and 1988. Compared with infants of primiparas, infants of multiparas were at twice the risk for infant and postneonatal death but at no increased risk for neonatal death. They were also at two to three times the risk for deaths due to accidents, infections, and sudden infant death syndrome."
Correspondence: W. L. Hellerstedt, University of Minnesota, School of Public Health, Division of Health Management and Policy, Box 97 Mayo, Minneapolis, MN 55454-1015. Location: Princeton University Library (SZ).

62:10119 Huck, Paul. Infant mortality and living standards of English workers during the Industrial Revolution. Journal of Economic History, Vol. 55, No. 3, Sep 1995. 528-50 pp. New York, New York/Cambridge, England. In Eng.
"Infant mortality data gathered from the registers of nine parishes in the industrial North of England are used as a concrete indicator of living standards for the early nineteenth century. Rising infant mortality in the sample parishes provides evidence that the standard of living was not improving substantially in these towns up to midcentury. This conclusion remains after considering the effect on mortality of population growth, climate, and feeding practices."
Correspondence: P. Huck, Wake Forest University, Department of Economics, Winston-Salem, NC 27109. Location: Princeton University Library (PF).

62:10120 Ikamari, Lawrence D. E. Explaining regional variation in infant and child mortality in Kenya. Working Papers in Demography, No. 57, 1995. 26 pp. Australian National University, Research School of Social Sciences: Canberra, Australia. In Eng.
"This paper uses a regression decomposition technique to examine the relative roles of the differences in the levels of explanatory variables and differences in the nature of [the] relationship between the explanatory variables and mortality in explaining the differences in infant and child mortality between the two mortality regions of Kenya. The data drawn from the 1988/89 Kenya Demographic and Health Survey were used for this purpose."
Correspondence: Australian National University, Research School of Social Sciences, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

62:10121 Kilgore, Paul E.; Holman, Robert C.; Clarke, Matthew J.; Glass, Roger I. Trends of diarrheal disease--associated mortality in U.S. children, 1968 through 1991. JAMA: Journal of the American Medical Association, Vol. 274, No. 14, Oct 11, 1995. 1,143-8 pp. Chicago, Illinois. In Eng.
Trends in infant and child mortality related to diarrheal disease in the United States are analyzed using data on the 14,137 deaths that occurred over the period 1968-1991. The results show that mortality from this disease declined by 75% from 1968 to 1985 but has stabilized since that date at about 300 deaths per year. Ways to reduce such mortality further, primarily through the greater use of rehydration, are discussed.
Correspondence: P. E. Kilgore, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Viral Gastroenteritis Section, Mailstop G-04, Atlanta, GA 30333. Location: Princeton University Library (SZ).

62:10122 Mahmood, Naushin; Kiani, M. Framurz K. Health care determinants of child survival in Pakistan. Pakistan Development Review, Vol. 33, No. 4, Pt. 2, Winter 1994. 759-71 pp. Islamabad, Pakistan. In Eng.
"Given that a substantial difference in the urban and rural levels of development and life-styles already exists, this paper examines the relative contribution of health related factors which affect the survival chances of children under five years of age in urban and rural areas [of Pakistan]. This analysis may give us an important basis to judge the variation in child survival and its determining factors across the two settings and help to identify more specific and effective policies for lessening the urban-rural and regional gap in child mortality."
Correspondence: N. Mahmood, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, P.O. Box 1091, Islamabad 44000, Pakistan. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

62:10123 Makinson, C. Discrimination against the female child. International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Vol. 46, No. 2, 1994. 119-25 pp. Limerick, Ireland. In Eng.
"The present paper will examine two aspects of sex discrimination in childhood: sex differentials in mortality, and the potential role played by sex differences in treatment in determining these differentials; and sex differentials in access to education." The geographical focus is on developing countries.
Correspondence: C. Makinson, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, 140 East 62nd Street, New York, NY 10021. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

62:10124 Mejia, Julio C. Infant mortality and maternal education in the Dominican Republic: the 1970s and 1980s. [Mortalidad infantil y educacion materna en Republica Dominicana: decadas de los 70 y los 80.] DHS Working Paper, No. 17, Jun 1995. 58 pp. Macro International, Demographic and Health Surveys [DHS]: Columbia, Maryland. In Spa.
The author analyzes the relation between maternal education and rates of neonatal and postneonatal mortality in the Dominican Republic. Rates are calculated for urban and rural areas. Mediating effects of reproductive factors and of maternal-infant health services are considered.
Correspondence: Macro International, Demographic and Health Surveys, 11785 Beltsville Drive, Calverton, MD 20705. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

62:10125 Panis, Constantijn W. A.; Lillard, Lee A. Child mortality in Malaysia: explaining ethnic differences and the recent decline. Population Studies, Vol. 49, No. 3, Nov 1995. 463-79 pp. London, England. In Eng.
"Infant and child mortality rates have dropped sharply for all ethnic groups in Malaysia between 1950 and 1988, but persistent ethnic differences remain. In this article we assess the contribution of several potential reasons both for the decline and the remaining differences between the Malay and Chinese sub-populations. Increased use of health inputs is found to explain a substantial part of the decline, but increased education of mothers, and income growth are also important. Longer spacing between births, and higher average age at birth as a result of lower fertility and higher age at marriage provide only a marginal direct contribution to the fall in mortality. We find that lower mortality among the Chinese is accounted for by their higher incomes and greater propensity to purchase medical care. We also control for self-selection among users of medical care, and find that those who use health care in Malaysia tend to be subject to higher-than-average risks."
Correspondence: C. W. A. Panis, RAND, P.O. Box 2138, 1700 Main Street, Santa Monica, CA 90407-2138. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

62:10126 Pastore, Lisa M.; MacDorman, Marian F. Infant mortality by Hispanic origin of mother: 20 states, 1985-87 birth cohorts. Vital and Health Statistics, Series 20: Data from the National Vital Statistics System, No. 27, Pub. Order No. DHHS (PHS) 95-1855. ISBN 0-8406-0510-2. LC 95-25370. Oct 1995. iv, 42 pp. U.S. National Center for Health Statistics [NCHS]: Hyattsville, Maryland. In Eng.
"This report examines the mortality experience of infants born between 1985 and 1987 to mothers of Hispanic origin who resided in a study area of 20 [U.S.] States and the District of Columbia and compares it with that of non-Hispanic white infants. Infant mortality is analyzed for the 1985-87 birth cohort by birthweight, mother's age, prenatal care, and other characteristics."
Correspondence: U.S. National Center for Health Statistics, 6525 Belcrest Road, Hyattsville, MD 20782. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

62:10127 Pelletier, D. L.; Frongillo, E. A.; Schroeder, D. G.; Habicht, J.-P. The effects of malnutrition on child mortality in developing countries. Bulletin of the World Health Organization/Bulletin de l'Organisation Mondiale de la Sante, Vol. 73, No. 4, 1995. 443-8 pp. Geneva, Switzerland. In Eng. with sum. in Fre.
"This paper describes a recently-developed epidemiological method to estimate the percentage of child deaths (aged 6-59 months) which could be attributed to the potentiating effects of malnutrition in infectious disease. The results from 53 developing countries with nationally representative data on child weight-for-age indicate that 56% of child deaths were attributable to malnutrition's potentiating effects, and 83% of these were attributable to mild-to-moderate as opposed to severe malnutrition. For individual countries, malnutrition's total potentiating effects on mortality ranged from 13% to 66%, with at least three-quarters of this arising from mild-to-moderate malnutrition in each case. These results show that malnutrition has a far more powerful impact on child mortality than is generally appreciated, and suggest that strategies involving only the screening and treatment of the severely malnourished will do little to address this impact."
Correspondence: D. L. Pelletier, Cornell University, Food and Nutrition Policy Program, 3M28, Martha Van Rensselaer Hall, Ithaca, NY 14853. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

62:10128 Reher, David. Wasted investments: some economic implications of childhood mortality patterns. Population Studies, Vol. 49, No. 3, Nov 1995. 519-36 pp. London, England. In Eng.
"In the present paper, the author argues that both structures and levels of childhood mortality patterns have important implications for family economies in historical and in developing societies. Where mortality is high or when its neonatal component is low relatively to the probabilities of death at higher ages, economies tend to suffer because parental investments in bearing and rearing the children who die are greater. These investments can best be measured in terms of time, especially mothers' time. In unfavourable mortality regimes, a far greater part of a woman's activity is dedicated to children who eventually die, thus limiting the time and energy available for other productive activities. In this way, adverse infant mortality patterns can be seen as an independent variable, an important contributing factor to the vicious circle of poverty and underdevelopment."
Correspondence: D. Reher, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Instituto de Demografia de Madrid, Ciudad Universitaria, 28040 Madrid, Spain. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

62:10129 Ronsmans, Carine. Patterns of clustering of child mortality in a rural area of Senegal. Population Studies, Vol. 49, No. 3, Nov 1995. 443-61 pp. London, England. In Eng.
"This study assesses the empirical evidence for the presence and the patterns of heterogeneity in child mortality between families in a rural area of Senegal that is apparently homogeneous with regard to the known determinants of mortality....There are important variations in child mortality between families in this community, and the familial component in child mortality is almost entirely correlated with the size of the family. High-risk women experience repeated child deaths and repeated short birth intervals; they therefore have larger families. Heterogeneity in mortality and selective fertility, however, fail to explain the observed association between low mortality risk and family size."
Correspondence: C. Ronsmans, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Department of Epidemiology and Population Sciences, Maternal and Child Epidemiology Unit, Keppel Street, London WC1E 7HT, England. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

62:10130 Taha, Taha E. T.; Dallabetta, Gina A.; Canner, Joseph K.; Chiphangwi, John D.; Liomba, George; Hoover, Donald R.; Miotti, Paolo G. The effect of human immunodeficiency virus infection on birthweight, and infant and child mortality in urban Malawi. International Journal of Epidemiology, Vol. 24, No. 5, Oct 1995. 1,022-9 pp. Oxford, England. In Eng.
"This study was conducted to determine the effects of maternal/infant HIV infection on the birthweight and on the risk of infant and child mortality in an urban population of Malawi....[The authors indicate that] maternal HIV infection is the main determinant of mortality in the first 30 months of life in this urban community. While only 12% of children born to HIV seronegative mothers died in the first 30 months of life, three times as many (36%) died among children born to seropositive mothers. The lower survival in infants of HIV seropositive mothers is consistent with other reports from Africa. The substantial difference in mortality rates between infants born to HIV seronegative and those born to seropositive mothers is a reminder that the spread of HIV infection among women of childbearing age may reverse the gains achieved by successful child survival programmes."
Correspondence: T. E. T. Taha, Johns Hopkins University, School of Hygiene and Public Health, Department of Epidemiology, 615 North Wolfe Street, Baltimore, MD 21205. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

62:10131 VanLandingham, Mark J.; Hogue, Carol J. R. Birthweight-specific infant mortality risks for Native Americans and whites, United States, 1960 and 1984. Social Biology, Vol. 42, No. 1-2, Spring 1995. 83-94 pp. Port Angeles, Washington. In Eng.
"We used NCHS [National Center for Health Statistics] natality and linked-birth/death certificate tapes to compare birthweight-specific neonatal and postneonatal mortality risks for Native Americans and whites in 1960 and in 1984. The birthweight distributions for the two groups were similar both years. Native American neonatal mortality risk dropped from 20.2 in 1960 to 5.2 in 1984, and the relative risk for Native Americans with respect to whites fell from 1.31 in 1960 to a nonsignificant difference in 1984. Postneonatal mortality risks for Native Americans fell from 27.5 in 1960 to 6.2 in 1984, with a drop in the relative risk from 5.2 to 2.1. Although the relative improvements for Native Americans were highest in postneonatal survival, Native Americans still had over twice the level of white postneonatal mortality. Birthweight was positively associated with survival for both groups...."
Correspondence: M. J. VanLandingham, University of Washington, Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology, Department of Sociology, Seattle, WA 98195. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

62:10132 Velkoff, Victoria A.; Miller, Jane E. Trends and differentials in infant mortality in the Soviet Union, 1970-90: How much is due to misreporting? Population Studies, Vol. 49, No. 2, Jul 1995. 241-58 pp. London, England. In Eng.
"We use recently released data on perinatal mortality and cause of death to assess how much of the spatial and temporal variation in infant mortality in the former Soviet Union is attributable to differences in the extent of misreporting. We demonstrate that the dramatic rise in infant mortality that occurred in the mid-1970s was accounted for in large part by an increase in death rates from causes which predominate after the first month of life, particularly in the Central Asian republics, but also in the more developed Baltic and European republics....Despite the apparent improvements in the recording of deaths that occurred shortly after birth, there is evidence in several republics of substantial misclassification of early infant deaths as late fetal deaths as recently as 1990. Because such a pattern would lead to the omission of many infant deaths, it appears that infant mortality rates may have been understated in several of the less developed republics even at the end of the period studied."
Correspondence: V. A. Velkoff, U.S. Bureau of the Census, International Programs Center, Washington, D.C. 20233. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

62:10133 Williams, Naomi; Galley, Chris. Urban-rural differentials in infant mortality in Victorian England. Population Studies, Vol. 49, No. 3, Nov 1995. 401-20 pp. London, England. In Eng.
"This paper examines the magnitude of urban-rural differentials in infant mortality in England during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and also compares the timing of decline for a selection of towns of varying size, and their immediate rural hinterlands. Most towns continued to experience short-term fluctuations in infant mortality until the very end of the nineteenth century; however, in some of the adjacent rural communities--where levels of infant mortality were much lower--conditions were sufficiently favourable to allow a continuous decline in infant mortality from at least the 1860s, if not before. The final part of the paper considers the causes of these patterns and their implications for explanations of infant mortality decline."
Correspondence: N. Williams, University of Liverpool, Department of Geography, Roxby Building, P.O. Box 147, Liverpool L69 3BX, England. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

E.4. Mortality at Other Ages

62:10134 Arriaga, Eduardo E. Adult mortality in developing countries: a global overview. [La mortalidad adulta en paises en desarrollo: una vision general.] Notas de Poblacion, Vol. 23, No. 61, Jun 1995. 79-110 pp. Santiago, Chile. In Spa. with sum. in Eng.
"The article analyzes [selected] developing countries with reliable information on adult mortality between ages 15 and 65 years....A brief analysis of each country indicates the following aspects. Females maintained a more sustained and systematic decline of adult mortality than males. There are some countries that in spite of reasonable development, as Mexico, still have a great excess of male mortality in relation to other countries. Finally, some countries experienced a stagnation of the male mortality decline, while females continued benefiting from a decline of mortality."
Correspondence: E. E. Arriaga, U.S. Bureau of the Census, Population Division, Washington, D.C. 20233. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

62:10135 Bah, Sulaiman M. Quantitative approaches to detect the fourth stage of the epidemiologic transition. Social Biology, Vol. 42, No. 1-2, Spring 1995. 143-8 pp. Port Angeles, Washington. In Eng.
"Widely diverse quantitative measures have been used to study the onset of the different stages of the epidemiologic transition, including the fourth stage....This report does not seek to replace the other quantitative methods that have been used to investigate the epidemiologic transition. Rather, it seeks to propose more compact methods which are less arbitrary. Three methods are proposed for this undertaking: first, for the study of the trend in old-age patterns of mortality; second, for the study of the trend in causes of death from degenerative diseases; and third, for the study of the impact of cause-of-death structure on old-age patterns of mortality." One of the methods is illustrated using Canadian data.
Correspondence: S. M. Bah, University of Zimbabwe, Department of Sociology, Mount Pleasant, Population Studies Programme, Harare, Zimbabwe. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

62:10136 Ebrahim, Shah; Wannamethee, Goya; McCallum, Alison; Walker, Mary; Shaper, A. G. Marital status, change in marital status, and mortality in middle-aged British men. American Journal of Epidemiology, Vol. 142, No. 8, Oct 15, 1995. 834-42 pp. Baltimore, Maryland. In Eng.
"The effects of marital status and change in marital status on mortality among middle-aged British men were examined in a prospective cohort study, the British Regional Heart Study. This is a nationally representative cohort of men selected at random from general medical practices in 24 towns in England, Wales, and Scotland. It comprises 7,735 men aged 40-59 recruited in 1978-1980 and followed up for 11.5 years. Marital status and a wide range of biologic and lifestyle variables were measured at screening, and changes in marital status were assessed after 5 years....The excess mortality among single and recently divorced men was not explained by poor health or by exposure to a wide range of risk factors. It is unlikely that selection bias, chance, or artifact is responsible for the general relation between marital status and mortality....It is possible that the social support offered by marriage exerts a protective effect for some men."
Correspondence: S. Ebrahim, Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine, Department of Public Health, Division of Population and Health Care Sciences, Rowland Hill Street, London NW3 2PF, England. Location: Princeton University Library (SZ).

62:10137 Grushka, Carlos O. Adult mortality in Argentina. Recent trends, causes, and differentials. [Mortalidad adulta en Argentina. Tendencias recientes, causas y diferenciales.] Notas de Poblacion, Vol. 23, No. 61, Jun 1995. 111-46 pp. Santiago, Chile. In Spa. with sum. in Eng.
"Despite the economic decline of the [1980s], adult mortality rates in Argentina decreased by about 14% between 1980 and 1990....The data used for this analysis come from vital statistics registration and the 1980 and 1991 censuses. The reduction in mortality rates for diseases of the circulatory system was the most important factor....Analysis of province-level data reveals a significant correlation between adult mortality and socioeconomic indicators in the case of females but not for males. The impact of different causes is considered through a decomposition of the correlation into cause-specific associations."
This paper was originally presented at the 1994 Annual Meeting of the Population Association of America.
Correspondence: C. O. Grushka, University of Pennsylvania, Population Studies Center, 3718 Locust Walk, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6297. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

62:10138 Katz, Martha E.; Holmes, Michelle D.; Power, Karen L.; Wise, Paul H. Mortality rates among 15- to 44-year-old women in Boston: looking beyond reproductive status. American Journal of Public Health, Vol. 85, No. 8, Aug 1995. 1,135-8 pp. Washington, D.C. In Eng.
"Mortality rates were examined for Boston women, aged 15 to 44, from 1980 to 1989. There were 1,234 deaths, with a rate of 787.8/100,000 for the decade. Leading causes were cancer, accidents, heart disease, homicide, suicide, and chronic liver disease. After age adjustment, African-American women in this age group were 2.3 times more likely to die than White women. Deaths at least partly attributable to smoking and alcohol amounted to 29.8% and 31.9%, respectively. Mortality was found to be related more directly to the general well-being of young women than to their reproductive status, and many deaths were preventable."
Correspondence: M. E. Katz, Harvard Institute for Reproductive and Child Health, RFB 519, 221 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA 02115. Location: Princeton University Library (SZ).

62:10139 Krishnan, Parameswara; Jin, Yan. A bivariate distribution of age at death of the elderly. In: American Statistical Association, 1992 Proceedings of the Social Statistics Section. [1992]. 253-5 pp. American Statistical Association [ASA]: Alexandria, Virginia. In Eng.
"The objective of this study is to develop appropriate probability distributions of age at death occurring among the elderly using two variates (age and income)....The models are derived from first principles with an appropriate rationale." The concepts are illustrated using official Canadian data.
Correspondence: P. Krishnan, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2H4, Canada. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

62:10140 Manton, Kenneth G.; Vaupel, James W. Survival after the age of 80 in the United States, Sweden, France, England, and Japan. New England Journal of Medicine, Vol. 333, No. 18, Nov 2, 1995. 1,232-5 pp. Boston, Massachusetts. In Eng.
"In many developed countries, life expectancy at birth is higher than in the United States. Newly available data permit, for the first time, reliable cross-national comparisons of mortality among persons 80 years of age or older. Such comparisons are important, because in many developed countries more than half of women and a third of men now die after the age of 80....We used extinct-cohort methods to assess mortality in Japan, Sweden, France, and England (including Wales) and among U.S. whites for cohorts born from 1880 to 1894, and used cross-sectional data for the year 1987....In the United States, life expectancy at age of 80 and survival from the ages of 80 to 100 significantly exceeded life expectancy in Sweden, France, England, and Japan."
Correspondence: K. G. Manton, Duke University, Center for Demographic Studies, 2117 Campus Drive, Box 90408, Durham, NC 27708-0408. Location: Princeton University Library (SZ).

62:10141 Nam, Charles B. Another look at mortality crossovers. Social Biology, Vol. 42, No. 1-2, Spring 1995. 133-42 pp. Port Angeles, Washington. In Eng.
"Considerable debate still ensues on whether or not the so-called `mortality crossover,' the intersection of age curves of mortality at the older ages, is artifactual or real. One school of thought argues that it is a function of misreporting of ages, greater for one population than another. The other school of thought counters that it persists apart from age misreporting and is due to selective frailty processes as age increases. An historical review of the debate is reported, after which an attempt at a balanced conclusion is offered."
Correspondence: C. B. Nam, Florida State University, Center for the Study of Population, 659-C Bellamy Building, Tallahassee, FL 32306-4063. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

62:10142 Wilmoth, John R. Are mortality rates falling at extremely high ages? An investigation based on a model proposed by Coale and Kisker. Population Studies, Vol. 49, No. 2, Jul 1995. 281-95 pp. London, England. In Eng.
"It is known that further mortality reductions in industrialized countries depend heavily on trends in mortality rates at the oldest ages. In this article, a model proposed by Coale and Kisker is used to investigate mortality trends at the extreme old age of 110 years. The most important conclusions are that (1) the form of the model proposed by Coale and Kisker fits observed mortality schedules very well indeed, and (2) the trend in mortality rates at extremely high ages has apparently been flat for men, but may have declined slightly for women during this century."
Correspondence: J. R. Wilmoth, University of California, Department of Demography, 2232 Piedmont Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94720. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

E.5. Life Tables

62:10143 Congdon, Peter. Modelling frailty in area mortality. Statistics in Medicine, Vol. 14, No. 17, Sep 15, 1995. 1,859-74 pp. Chichester, England. In Eng.
"This paper investigates the impact on area life tables of the specification of unobserved frailty. Frailty specification may affect both the regression effects of area and individual level covariates, and lead to changes in the value of summary mortality parameters, such as life expectancy. The paper also investigates how frailty affects life tables for specific causes of death, especially lung cancer and heart disease. Implications for choice between different model specifications, both in terms of age dependence and frailty, are discussed. The focus is on registered deaths recorded by age, birthplace and by small area within a borough of Greater London."
Correspondence: P. Congdon, Queen Mary and Westfield College, Department of Geography, Mile End Road, London E1 4NS, England. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

62:10144 Hermis, Sabah R. The effect of selected causes of death on the expectation of life at birth. Dirasat Series B (Pure and Applied Sciences), Vol. 21, No. 5, 1994. 133-55 pp. Amman, Jordan. In Eng. with sum. in Ara.
"This paper is an attempt to construct cause-deleted life tables [for Iraq]. Certain causes of death were selected to be deleted depending on the outcomes of a sample of 20,947 death certificates which represent 1 out of each 7 registered death events....The paper reveals that the expectation of life is considerably affected by the hypothetical absence of these causes which leads to the importance of carrying out profound health studies concerning these selected causes of death."
Location: Princeton University Library (FST).

E.6. Differential Mortality

62:10145 Bishop, John A.; Formby, John P.; Zeager, Lester A. Evaluating a neglected dimension of economic development: mortality, risk aversion and uncertainty. International Review of Economics and Finance, Vol. 3, No. 2, 1994. 133-51 pp. Greenwich, Connecticut/London, England. In Eng.
"This paper develops a general method for applying stochastic dominance ranking procedures to evaluate mortality distributions across populations and among major regions of the world. The dominance approach is shown to have a number of important advantages, which are illustrated with applications using data from standard life tables. The problem of `missing women' is investigated by making dominance comparisons of female mortality distributions among major LDC regions. Using United Nations model life-table data it is shown that for a wide range of life expectancy values, female mortality in the Far East dominates the overall pattern for females in LDCs, while the converse is true for South Asia and Latin America."
Correspondence: J. A. Bishop, East Carolina University, Department of Economics, Greenville, NC 27850. Location: World Bank, Joint Bank-Fund Library, Washington, D.C.

62:10146 Borrell, Carme; Arias, Antoni. Socioeconomic factors and mortality in urban settings: the case of Barcelona, Spain. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, Vol. 49, No. 5, Oct 1995. 460-5 pp. London, England. In Eng.
"This study aimed to describe the relationship between health and socioeconomic indicators in the 38 neighbourhoods of the city of Barcelona, Spain....Mortality data for 1983-89 and socioeconomic data for each of the 38 neighbourhoods of Barcelona were used....All correlations between mortality and socioeconomic indicators were high and statistically significant: the higher the unemployment and illiteracy levels and the older the cars, the greater the comparative mortality figure and ratio of potential years of life lost, and the lower the life expectancy (negative correlations). Conversely, the higher the telephone use, the more powerful the cars, and the greater the rateable value, the lower the mortality (negative correlations) and the greater the life expectancy. These correlations were greater in males than in females. The highest correlations were with illiteracy."
Correspondence: C. Borrell, Municipal Institute of Health, P1 Lesseps 1, 08023 Barcelona, Spain. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

62:10147 Carey, Arlen D.; Lopreato, Joseph. The biocultural evolution of the male-female mortality differential. Mankind Quarterly, Vol. 36, No. 1, Fall 1995. 3-28 pp. Washington, D.C. In Eng.
"We aim in this paper to [outline] a theory of the human sex mortality differential that encompasses the effects of male intra-sexual selection, of natural selection pressures specific to females, and of environmental, including sociocultural, factors that mitigate or enhance the effects of evolutionary dynamics. Our focus is on the overall sex-differentiated mortality rate....We first characterize the range of the sex mortality differentials observed in recent populations and then turn to some basic aspects of evolutionary biology, as well as certain environmental variables, in order to provide a biocultural explanation of the differential in question."
Correspondence: A. D. Carey, University of Central Florida, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Orlando, FL 32816. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

62:10148 Elo, Irma T.; Preston, Samuel H. Educational differentials in mortality: United States, 1979-85. Social Science and Medicine, Vol. 42, No. 1, Jan 1996. 47-57 pp. Tarrytown, New York/Oxford, England. In Eng.
"The paper examines educational differentials in adult mortality in the United States within a multivariate framework using data from the National Longitudinal Mortality Survey (NLMS). As a preliminary step we compare the magnitude of educational mortality differentials in the United States to those documented in Europe. At ages 35-54, the proportionate reductions in mortality for each one year increase in schooling are similar in the United States to those documented in Europe. The analyses further reveal significant educational differentials in U.S. mortality among both men and women in the early 1980s. Differentials are larger for men and for working ages than for women and persons age 65 and above. These differentials persist but are reduced in magnitude when controls for income, marital status and current place of residence are introduced."
Correspondence: I. T. Elo, University of Pennsylvania, Population Studies Center, 3718 Locust Walk, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6298. Location: Princeton University Library (PR).

62:10149 Filakti, Haroulla; Fox, John. Differences in mortality by housing tenure and by car access from the OPCS Longitudinal Study. Population Trends, No. 81, Autumn 1995. 27-30 pp. London, England. In Eng.
"Using Longitudinal Study data, this article presents an analysis of differences in male and female mortality in England and Wales in the 1980s according to household tenure and car access. The findings are compared with those observed in the 1970s. Mortality levels are lower in the 1980s for all groups. The analyses suggest that differences across tenure and car access groups have increased in relative and absolute terms, particularly for those under 65."
Correspondence: H. Filakti, Office of Population Censuses and Surveys, Health Statistics Division, St. Catherine's House, 10 Kingsway, London WC2B 6JP, England. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

62:10150 Harding, Seeromanie. Social class differences in mortality of men: recent evidence from the OPCS Longitudinal Study. Population Trends, No. 80, Summer 1995. 31-7 pp. London, England. In Eng.
"Social class differences in male mortality by age and cause of death [in England and Wales] are presented using the most recently available data (1976-89) from the OPCS Longitudinal Study. Consistent differences in mortality by social class (as defined by occupation) are found through to the late 1980s. On a scale of increasing mortality disadvantage, mortality of men in Social Class I [professional] was the lowest and mortality of men in Social Class V [unskilled] was the highest."
Correspondence: S. Harding, Office of Population Censuses and Surveys, Health Statistics Division, Longitudinal Study Medical Analysis Section, St. Catherine's House, 10 Kingsway, London WC2B 6JP, England. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

62:10151 Haudidier, Benoit. A comparison of mortality trends in West Germany and France (1950-1989). [Evolution comparee de la mortalite en RFA et en France (1950-1989).] Population, Vol. 50, No. 3, May-Jun 1995. 653-88 pp. Paris, France. In Fre. with sum. in Eng; Spa.
"Since the end of World War II growth of the populations of West Germany and France has increasingly been correlated with life expectancies at birth. The apparent similarity in the two countries, however, hides significantly different trends in age-specific mortality. The author uses both a period and a cohort approach to analyze these differences in depth. Having identified the respective influences of history and the environment, he demonstrates differences between the patterns of French and German mortality....The study also throws light on the demographic future of European populations which are moving toward an increasingly uniform lifestyle, and a similar interpenetration of economic systems."
Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

62:10152 Kim, Insun; Williamson, David F.; Byers, Tim; Koplan, Jeffrey P. Vitamin and mineral supplement use and mortality in a U.S. cohort. American Journal of Public Health, Vol. 83, No. 4, Apr 1993. 546-50 pp. Washington, D.C. In Eng.
The relationship between the use of vitamin and mineral supplements and mortality in the United States is analyzed. Data concern some 14,000 individuals who were first interviewed in the First National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey between 1971 and 1975. The survivors were then reinterviewed between 1982 and 1984. "We found no evidence of increased longevity among vitamin and mineral supplement users in the United States. Considering the wide use of supplements in the general population, the cost-effectiveness and the safety of supplement use need to be better defined."
Correspondence: I. Kim, DHMH/LFHA, 201 West Preston Street, Baltimore, MD 21201. Location: Princeton University Library (SZ).

62:10153 Koskinen, Seppo; Martikainen, Pekka; Martelin, Tuija; Valkonen, Tapani. Convergence of lifestyles and trends in the sex mortality ratio among the middle-aged in Finland. Yearbook of Population Research in Finland, Vol. 32, 1994-1995. 32-44 pp. Helsinki, Finland. In Eng.
"Male excess mortality has increased rapidly during this century. A hypothesis has been brought forth, however, that the growing equality of the sexes and the concomitantly increasing similarity of lifestyles, result in a convergence of female and male mortality. In addition, it can be assumed that this process is most evident in those `modern' population groups which can be considered forerunners in adopting new behavior patterns, e.g. among the young with higher education or living in the capital region. This article examines the plausibility of these hypotheses among the Finnish middle-aged population during the period 1971-85."
Correspondence: S. Koskinen, University of Helsinki, Department of Sociology, Population Research Unit, Helsinki, Finland. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

62:10154 Lissner, Lauren; Bengtsson, Calle; Bjorkelund, Cecilia; Wedel, Hans. Physical activity levels and changes in relation to longevity: a prospective study of Swedish women. American Journal of Epidemiology, Vol. 143, No. 1, Jan 1, 1996. 54-62 pp. Baltimore, Maryland. In Eng.
"In 1968-1969, a population-based sample of Swedish women aged 38-60 years was recruited for a health survey, and 20-year survival was later ascertained from national registries. Occupational and leisure-time physical activity data from the baseline and 6-year follow-up examinations were evaluated in relation to all-cause mortality among 1,405 women who were initially free of major diseases. In comparison with being inactive, the mortality relative risk associated with being somewhat active was 0.28...for occupational activity and 0.56...for leisure-time activity....It is concluded that decreases in physical activity as well as low initial levels are strong risk factors for mortality in women, and that their predictive value persists for many years."
Correspondence: L. Lissner, Vasa Hospital, Department of Primary Health Care, 411 33 Goteborg, Sweden. Location: Princeton University Library (SZ).

62:10155 Manson, JoAnn E.; Willett, Walter C.; Stampfer, Meir J.; Colditz, Graham A.; Hunter, David J.; Hankinson, Susan E.; Hennekens, Charles H.; Speizer, Frank E. Body weight and mortality among women. New England Journal of Medicine, Vol. 333, No. 11, Sep 14, 1995. 677-85 pp. Boston, Massachusetts. In Eng.
The association between body weight and mortality in the United States is examined using data for 115,195 women aged 30-55 who were enrolled in the Nurses' Health Study and were followed over a 16-year period. "Body weight and mortality from all causes were directly related among these middle-aged women. Lean women did not have excess mortality. The lowest mortality rate was observed among women who weighed at least 15 percent less than the U.S. average for women of similar age and among those whose weight had been stable since early adulthood."
Correspondence: J. E. Manson, 180 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA 02115. Location: Princeton University Library (SZ).

62:10156 Mathers, Colin. Mortality patterns of urban, rural and remote populations in northern Australia. People and Place, Vol. 3, No. 2, 1995. 15-24 pp. Monash, Australia. In Eng.
"There has recently been a movement of Aboriginals to outlying settlements [in Australia]. This article...examines the patterns of mortality in remote Aboriginal communities and compares these with rates for other locations in Australia's northern regions. The results indicate mortality rates several times higher in remote Aboriginal settlements than elsewhere in the north or in Australia as a whole."
Correspondence: C. Mathers, Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, G.P.O. Box 570, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

62:10157 Pajunen, Airi; Notkola, Veijo; Leino-Arjas, Paivi. Disability by occupation in Finland 1986-1990. Yearbook of Population Research in Finland, Vol. 32, 1994-1995. 70-9 pp. Helsinki, Finland. In Eng.
"The present paper describes differences in the standardized disability ratio between occupations in Finland in 1986-1990. Furthermore, it gives an overview of the relationship between occupational disability and mortality. The data are based on the 1985 census records in Finland linked with all disability pensions during the period 1986-1990....Results indicated clear differences in disability by occupations for both men and women. Among both sexes, the manual workers occupations had higher standardized disability ratios and white collar occupations had lower ratios than the entire labor force. The disability of male occupations correlated strongly with occupational mortality, whereas among women the correlation between mortality and disability was weaker."
Correspondence: A. Pajunen, University of Helsinki, Department of Sociology, Helsinki, Finland. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

62:10158 Pekkanen, Juha; Tuomilehto, Jaakko; Uutela, Antti; Vartiainen, Erkki; Nissinen, Aulikki. Social class, health behaviour, and mortality among men and women in eastern Finland. British Medical Journal, Vol. 311, No. 7005, Sep 2, 1995. 589-93 pp. London, England. In Eng.
The relationship between social class and mortality in Finland is examined using data from two prospective studies that originated in 1972 and 1977 and were followed up to the year 1987. The results indicate that "unfavourable cardiovascular risk factors and high mortality are concentrated among lower social classes in Finland. Among men about half of the excess coronary and all cause mortality among unskilled blue collar workers was associated with their unfavourable risk factor profile. The association was smaller in women."
Correspondence: J. Pekkanen, National Public Health Institute, Department of Environmental Epidemiology, P.O. Box 95, 70701 Kuopio, Finland. Location: Princeton University Library (SZ).

62:10159 Quine, Susan; Taylor, Richard; Hayes, Lillian. Australian trends in mortality by socioeconomic status using NSW small area data, 1970-89. Journal of Biosocial Science, Vol. 27, No. 4, Oct 1995. 409-19 pp. Cambridge, England. In Eng.
"This ecological study examines trends in socioeconomic differentials in mortality in New South Wales, Australia, over a 20-year period (1970-89). The proportion unskilled was used as the indicator of socioeconomic status and its selection justified....Although there has been an overall decline in mortality for males and females, and for high and low status groups, over this period the relative socioeconomic differentials have not declined. For the most recent period (1985-89) there appears to be some widening of differentials for males. The NSW state trends are generally similar to those reported for Britain and for other industrialised countries, suggesting that this is a common trend and that policies to reduce inequalities have not been effective."
Correspondence: S. Quine, University of Sydney, Department of Public Health and Community Medicine, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

62:10160 Regidor, Enrique; Gutierrez-Fisac, Juan L.; Rodriguez, Carmen. Increased socioeconomic differences in mortality in eight Spanish provinces. Social Science and Medicine, Vol. 41, No. 6, Sep 1995. 801-7 pp. Tarrytown, New York/Oxford, England. In Eng.
Information from death certificates in eight Spanish provinces is used to study socioeconomic differences in mortality by cause of death in the 1980s among men aged 30-64. The focus is on the differences between professionals and managers on the one hand, and manual laborers on the other. The results indicate that not only is there an expected inverse relation between mortality and socioeconomic status, but there is also an increase in these mortality differentials over time.
Correspondence: E. Regidor, Ministry of Health, Department of Epidemiology, Madrid, Spain. Location: Princeton University Library (PR).

62:10161 Schouten, Erik J.; Borgdorff, Martien W. Increased mortality among Dutch development workers. British Medical Journal, Vol. 311, No. 7016, Nov 18, 1995. 1,343-4 pp. London, England. In Eng.
"Little is known about the health risks of expatriates in developing countries today. We compared the mortality of development workers who were sent out by Dutch development organisations with that of the general population in the Netherlands, adjusted for age and sex....Records of three large Dutch development organisations were reviewed. From 1984 to 1994 over 6,500 development workers and spouses spent a total of 15,144 years abroad....[The records indicate that] Dutch development workers had a mortality almost double that of the general Dutch population. The true increase in mortality was probably higher because of a healthy cohort effect (medical selection) and mortality after the end of a contract attributable to infections acquired abroad, but leading to death later, such as hepatitis, malaria, or HIV infection."
Correspondence: E. J. Schouten, HealthNet International, 1017 MB Amsterdam, Netherlands. Location: Princeton University Library (SZ).

62:10162 Shatenstein, Bryna; Kark, Jeremy D. Mortality in two Jewish populations--Montreal and Israel: environmental determinants of differences. International Journal of Epidemiology, Vol. 24, No. 4, Aug 1995. 730-9 pp. New York, New York/Oxford, England. In Eng.
"Mortality was compared in the Jewish populations of Montreal and Israel and the overall Canadian population, to investigate whether the Israeli pattern of low male mortality and relatively high female mortality is replicated among Jews living elsewhere....All-cause cumulative mortality for ages 35-74 (CM), was exceedingly low in Montreal Jews, both in males...and females...compared to all Canadians...and Israeli Jews...for males and females. Sex ratios...were 1.36, 1.54, and 1.69 for Israeli Jews, Montreal Jews, and Canadians, respectively....Sex ratios for circulatory deaths were lowest in Israel (1.63), highest in Montreal (3.23) and intermediate in Canadians (2.47)....These findings suggest that the mortality pattern characteristic of Israeli Jews is not a universal Jewish phenomenon and may be affected by modifiable environmental factors."
Correspondence: B. Shatenstein, Universite de Montreal, Unite de Recherche en Epidemiologie, Centre de Recherche, Departement de Nutrition, Hopital Hotel-Dieu, 3850 rue St-Urbain, Montreal, Quebec H2W 1T8, Canada. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

62:10163 Shye, Diana; Mullooly, John P.; Freeborn, Donald K.; Pope, Clyde R. Gender differences in the relationship between social network support and mortality: a longitudinal study of an elderly cohort. Social Science and Medicine, Vol. 41, No. 7, Oct 1995. 935-47 pp. Tarrytown, New York/Oxford, England. In Eng.
"Despite well-recognized gender differences in patterns of social network support, few studies have explored whether the pathways by which social support affects mortality risk differ for men and women. In a 15-year follow-up study of elderly HMO members [in the northwestern United States], we found that network size affected men's mortality risk indirectly, through their health status, while no such indirect effect was found for women. The data also suggested that network size had a direct protective effect on mortality risk for both men and women, with men gaining protection at a lower level of network size than women."
Correspondence: D. Shye, Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research, 3800 North Kaiser Center Drive, Portland, OR 97227. Location: Princeton University Library (PR).

62:10164 Veneziano, Vincenzo; Sacco, Pietro. Recent evolution of Italian regional mortality. [Evoluzione recente della mortalita regionale italiana.] Rassegna Economica, Vol. 59, No. 2, Apr-Jun 1995. 367-82 pp. Naples, Italy. In Ita. with sum. in Eng.
This essay examines regional mortality in Italy, particularly regarding differences by age and sex, using mortality tables developed by De Simone for 1990. The research method used is that proposed by L.S.N. Rao in 1973 and applied by Chiassino and others. "Besides the analysis of the phenomenon studied in connection with its structure by sex and [age] group in 1990, the authors dwell on the evolution of the...structure [for] the period 1978-1990."
Correspondence: V. Veneziano, Universita degli Studi di Bari, Palazzo Ateneo, 70121 Bari, Italy. Location: Princeton University Library (PF).

62:10165 Watson, Peggy. Explaining rising mortality among men in Eastern Europe. Social Science and Medicine, Vol. 41, No. 7, Oct 1995. 923-34 pp. Tarrytown, New York/Oxford, England. In Eng.
"Since the mid-1960s, rates of premature mortality have increased among men in all Eastern European countries, giving rise to an East-West health divide. The paper examines the existing data concerning the possible role of levels of smoking, fats consumption and/or environmental factors in explaining this phenomenon. An overview is offered of the key ways in which social experience in Eastern Europe has diverged from that in the West and it is argued that such an overview is pre-requisite for understanding the deteriorating health of men in the East....The importance of the private sphere is reflected in the fact that the rise of premature male mortality has been overwhelmingly concentrated in the non-married population in the East European countries for which data is currently available."
Correspondence: P. Watson, University of Cambridge, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Free School Lane, Cambridge CB2 3RQ, England. Location: Princeton University Library (PR).

62:10166 Wilkins, Kathryn. Causes of death: how the sexes differ. [Causes de deces: differences entre les sexes.] Health Reports/Rapports sur la Sante, Vol. 7, No. 2, 1995. 33-43, 39-50 pp. Ottawa, Canada. In Eng; Fre.
"This article examines sex-specific variations in death rates and causes of death at different ages in 1993 [in Canada], and trends in cause-specific death rates since 1950...."
Correspondence: K. Wilkins, Statistics Canada, Health Statistics Canada, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0T6, Canada. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

62:10167 Woods, Robert; Williams, Naomi. Must the gap widen before it can be narrowed? Long-term trends in social class mortality differentials. Continuity and Change, Vol. 10, No. 1, May 1995. 105-37 pp. Cambridge, England. In Eng. with sum. in Fre; Ger.
The authors critically examine a model developed by Aaron Antonovsky in 1967; the model was designed to measure social class differentials in mortality. "This article will argue, amongst other things, that Antonovsky's model still has much to commend it, but that with the benefit of new evidence it is now even more apparent than it was in the 1960s that long-run mortality trends of a class-specific nature are exceptionally difficult to measure. Further, it is apparent that the mortality measure one adopts and the age-components of the changing mortality structure must play an important part in the interpretation of those trends, and that social class and environment probably confound one another in influencing long-term changes....[We] narrow the focus to England and Wales...and to the period before the First World War."
Correspondence: R. Woods, University of Liverpool, Department of Geography, P.O. Box 147, Liverpool L69 3BX, England. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

62:10168 Zhang, X. H.; Sasaki, S.; Kesteloot, H. The sex ratio of mortality and its secular trends. International Journal of Epidemiology, Vol. 24, No. 4, Aug 1995. 720-9 pp. New York, New York/Oxford, England. In Eng.
"The sex ratio of all-cause mortality and the main causes of death, i.e. total cardiovascular disease and cancer, for 30 populations in 1988...and the time trends of the sex ratio for 27 populations are analysed....Large differences in the sex ratio of mortality exist among the studied populations. The sex ratio of all-cause, total cardiovascular and cancer mortality markedly increased in most countries during recent decades....The differences of the sex ratio of mortality and their time trends between populations cannot be explained by genetic factors. They could be attributed to differences in life style. A different exposure and different reaction to the risk factors of cardiovascular diseases and cancer, e.g. saturated fat intake, alcohol intake and smoking habits, between men and women are considered to be the main causes for these differences in the sex ratio of mortality."
Correspondence: H. Kesteloot, University of Leuven, Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Capucijnenvoer 33, 3000 Louvain, Belgium. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

E.7. Mortality by Cause

62:10169 Bhat, P. N. Mari; Navaneetham, K.; Rajan, S. Irudaya. Maternal mortality in India: estimates from a regression model. Studies in Family Planning, Vol. 26, No. 4, Jul-Aug 1995. 217-32 pp. New York, New York. In Eng.
"This report outlines a new technique for the estimation of maternal mortality by relating the sex differentials in mortality for people of reproductive age to the age schedule of fertility. The application of this method to the data from the Sample Registration System for 1982-86 indicates a level of maternal mortality of 580 deaths per 100,000 live births for India as a whole, 638 deaths in rural areas, and 389 deaths in urban areas. Estimates derived for the major states suggest relatively high maternal mortality in the eastern and northern parts of the country. They also indicate a substantial decline in maternal mortality since the 1960s. The decline in the birth rate is estimated to have accounted for nearly one-fourth of the decrease in the maternal death rate and 5 percent of the fall in the maternal mortality ratio in the 10-year period between 1972-76 and 1982-86."
Correspondence: P. N. M. Bhat, JSS Institute of Economic Research, Population Research Centre, Vidyagiri, Dharwad, 580 004 Karnataka, India. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

62:10170 Carrat, Fabrice; Valleron, Alain-Jacques. Influenza mortality among the elderly in France, 1980-90: how many deaths may have been avoided through vaccination? Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, Vol. 49, No. 4, Aug 1995. 419-25 pp. London, England. In Eng.
"This study aimed to assess total influenza mortality among the elderly...in France, and to evaluate how many deaths may have been avoided through vaccination during the past 10 years....Between 1980 and 1990 registered influenza death rates ranged from 11-81 per 100,000. The number of deaths attributable to influenza but registered as resulting from another cause was up to eight times the number of deaths registered as influenza. Total influenza death rates were estimated as ranging from 28 per 100,000 (1988-89) to 482 per 100,000 (1985-86). At the same time it was estimated that the use of influenza vaccine avoided from 7 per 100,000 deaths in 1981-82 to 697 per 100,000 deaths in 1989-90, depending on the intensity of the epidemic, the vaccine coverage, and the vaccine effectiveness."
Correspondence: F. Carrat, Institut National de la Sante et de la Recherche Medicale, U 263, Institut Saint-Antoine de Recherche sur la Sante, 27 rue Chaligny, 75571 Paris Cedex 12, France. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

62:10171 Casper, Michele L.; Wing, Steve; Anda, Robert F.; Knowles, Marilyn; Pollard, Robert A. The shifting stroke belt: changes in the geographic pattern of stroke mortality in the United States, 1962 to 1988. Stroke, Vol. 26, No. 5, May 1995. 755-60 pp. Dallas, Texas. In Eng.
"This study describes changes in the locations of areas with the highest rates of stroke mortality [in the United States] and the implications for new hypotheses regarding the Stroke Belt. We calculated annual, age-adjusted stroke mortality rates for black women, black men, white women, and white men for the years 1962 to 1988 using a three-piece log-linear regression model." The authors conclude that "temporal changes in the location of areas with the highest stroke mortality rates suggest that new hypotheses for understanding the geographic pattern of stroke mortality should consider temporal trends in a variety of medical, socioeconomic, and behavioral factors."
Correspondence: M. L. Casper, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease Control and Health Promotion, Division of Chronic Disease Control and Community Intervention, 1600 Clifton Road, MS K47, Atlanta, GA 30333. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

62:10172 Darby, Sarah C.; Ewart, David W.; Giangrande, Paul L. F.; Dolin, Paul J.; Spooner, Rosemary J. D.; Rizza, Charles R. Mortality before and after HIV infection in the complete U.K. population of haemophiliacs. Nature, Vol. 377, No. 6544, Sep 7, 1995. 79-82 pp. London, England. In Eng.
Mortality before and after infection with HIV is analyzed in the United Kingdom in a population of 1,227 hemophiliacs who were infected with HIV-1 via transfusion with contaminated blood products between 1976 and 1986. The results show that, in this population, whose members were all tested for AIDS, mortality among those infected with HIV rose almost tenfold, irrespective of the severity of hemophilia and the frequency of transfusion. In the rest of the hemophiliac population, however, it remained static. The results strongly support the case that HIV is directly associated with AIDS mortality.
Correspondence: S. C. Darby, University of Oxford, Imperial Cancer Research Fund, Cancer Epidemiology Unit, Gibson Building, Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford OX2 6HE, England. Location: Princeton University Library (SG).

62:10173 Garenne, Michel; Madison, Maria; Tarantola, Daniel; Zanou, Benjamin; Aka, Joseph; Dogore, Raymond. The demographic consequences of AIDS in Abidjan: 1986-1992. [Consequences demographiques du SIDA en Abidjan: 1986-1992.] Les Etudes du CEPED, No. 10, ISBN 2-87762-076-X. Sep 1995. xxii, 198 pp. Centre Francais sur la Population et le Developpement [CEPED]: Paris, France. In Fre. with sum. in Eng.
Vital statistics and data from hospital records on causes of death are used to analyze the demographic impact of AIDS in Abidjan, the capital of the Ivory Coast, from 1986. The data show that almost 25,000 individuals died from AIDS between 1986 and 1992, the first seven years of the epidemic, and that most of those who died were young males. The authors estimate that the city can expect an annual death toll from the disease of at least 7,000 deaths a year up to the year 2000. The implications for the health infrastructure are discussed.
Correspondence: Centre Francais sur la Population et le Developpement, 15 rue de l'Ecole de Medecine, 75270 Paris Cedex 06, France. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

62:10174 Goldman, Noreen; Takahashi, Shigesato; Hu, Yuanreng. Mortality among Japanese singles: a re-investigation. Population Studies, Vol. 49, No. 2, Jul 1995. 227-39 pp. London, England. In Eng.
"This analyis uses prefecture-level data on deaths by cause and marriage type in Japan to test hypotheses which relate the `arranged marriage' system to cause-specific mortality patterns among single Japanese men and women. The results from this analysis, combined with earlier findings, confirm the importance of the mate selection process in producing atypically high and rapidly declining mortality rates among Japanese singles, and suggest that the presence of tuberculosis, along with several other diseases, was an important component of the screening process for potential spouses. The findings also highlight the difficulties of identifying marriage selection mechanisms in industrialized societies from cause of death data."
Correspondence: N. Goldman, Princeton University, Office of Population Research, 21 Prospect Avenue, Princeton, NJ 08544-2091. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

62:10175 Illing, Eva M. M.; Kaiserman, Murray J. Mortality attributable to tobacco use in Canada and its regions, 1991. Canadian Journal of Public Health/Revue Canadienne de Sante Publique, Vol. 86, No. 4, Jul-Aug 1995. 257-65 pp. Ottawa, Canada. In Eng. with sum. in Fre.
"Using the data from the 1991 General Social Survey, Canadian Mortality Database, the 1991 Annual Report of Fire Losses in Canada and previously published estimates of lung cancer deaths attributable to passive smoking, the...[authors] estimate national and regional smoking-attributable mortality (SAM) for 1991. The results indicate that 27,867 men and 13,541 women died as a result of smoking, including 171 children under the age of one. This total of 41,408 deaths represents an increase of 3,051 deaths since 1989, with women accounting for 2,721 of these increased deaths. The increase in female mortality is almost entirely due to adult diseases, equally divided between neoplasms (990), cardiovascular diseases (927) and respiratory diseases (821)."
Correspondence: M. J. Kaiserman, Health Canada, Office of Tobacco Control, Environmental Health Directorate, Health Protection Branch, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0L2, Canada. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

62:10176 Juel, Knud; Sjol, Anette. Decline in mortality from heart disease in Denmark: some methodological problems. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, Vol. 48, No. 4, 1995. 467-72 pp. Tarrytown, New York/Oxford, England. In Eng.
"Mortality rates in Denmark from ischemic heart diseases (IHD), other heart diseases and unknown causes are presented for the period 1968-92. In all age groups, mortality from IHD is higher at the beginning of the period than at the end....For the group of unknown causes, the rates are increasing for all sex and age groups. The relationship between deaths from IHD and deaths from unknown causes varies with period, age, sex and region. For women in Copenhagen in the age group 30-64, the mortality rate from unknown causes is higher than the rate for IHD at the end of the period. Vital statistics must therefore be used cautiously in analysing trends for IHD, and even the validity of temporal changes within a country must be questioned."
Correspondence: K. Juel, Danish Institute of Clinical Epidemiology, 25 Svanemollevej, 2100 Copenhagen O, Denmark. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

62:10177 Kelly, Sue; Charlton, John; Jenkins, Rachel. Suicide deaths in England and Wales, 1982-92: the contribution of occupation and geography. Population Trends, No. 80, Summer 1995. 16-25 pp. London, England. In Eng.
"This article examines...the effect of occupation and geography on suicide mortality [in England and Wales]. For both men and women the highest risk occupations are mostly in Social Class I or II. The occupations at highest risk, which include several medical-related professions, and the method of suicide they choose, suggest that easy access to means of suicide is an important factor. Suicide rates for men aged 15-44 are generally higher in Inner London, rural areas, resort and retirement areas, and urban manufacturing areas."
Correspondence: S. Kelly, Office of Population Censuses and Surveys, Health Statistics, St. Catherine's House, 10 Kingsway, London WC2B 6JP, England. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

62:10178 Kubik, Antonin K.; Parkin, D. Maxwell; Plesko, Ivan; Zatonski, Witold; Kramarova, Eva; Mohner, Matthias; Friedl, Hans P.; Juhasz, Lajos; Tzvetansky, Christo G.; Reissigova, Jindra. Patterns of cigarette sales and lung cancer mortality in some Central and Eastern European countries, 1960-1989. Cancer, Vol. 75, No. 10, May 15, 1995. 2,452-60 pp. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In Eng.
"This study examines the patterns of lung cancer mortality rates and cigarette sales in 1960-1989 in seven CEE [Central and Eastern European] countries with a total population of 97.5 million and 43,000 deaths from lung cancer in the last year under study....The rising cigarette consumption through the 1960s, 1970s, and, in some countries, the 1980s is accompanied in most of the countries by rising lung cancer mortality rates for young adults. This increasing cigarette consumption will determine future trends in lung cancer, which will increase well beyond the turn of the century and will continue longer for females than for males."
Correspondence: A. K. Kubik, Institute of Chest Diseases, Budinova 67, 18071 Prague 8, Czech Republic. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

62:10179 Lessa, Ines. Trends in relative mortality from cerebrovascular disease in Brazilian state capitals, 1950-1988. Bulletin of the Pan American Health Organization, Vol. 29, No. 3, Sep 1995. 216-25 pp. Washington, D.C. In Eng.
"This article seeks to describe trends in relative mortality from cerebrovascular diseases (CVDs) in Brazilian state capitals from 1950 through 1988. Absolute numbers of deaths from all causes; from CVDs; and from ill-defined signs, symptoms, and afflictions were obtained from official Brazilian mortality statistics....During the study period CVD mortality was found to play an increasing role in overall mortality in all the state capitals. Regional grouping of data showed greater relative CVD mortality in the South and Southwest Regions toward the start of the study period. However, over the course of this period the part that CVD mortality played in overall mortality grew most rapidly in the less-developed North, Northeast, and Center-West Regions."
Correspondence: I. Lessa, Universidade Federal da Bahia, Instituto de Saude Coletiva, Rua Padre Feijo 29, 4o andar, CEP 40140, Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

62:10180 Matos, Elena L.; Loria, Dora I.; Vilensky, Marta. Cancer mortality and poverty in Argentina: a geographical correlation study. Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention, Vol. 3, No. 3, Apr-May 1994. 213-8 pp. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In Eng.
"Age-standardized mortality rates of cancer were calculated for the Argentine provinces using deaths from 7 years of registration (1980-1986). Correlations between the geographical distributions of the rates for the main causes of death by cancer were analyzed. The correlations were adjusted for socioeconomic status...." The results showed changes in the values of many of the correlations between age-standardized mortality rates in males and females for the same tumor site by level of socioeconomic status.
Correspondence: E. L. Matos, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Facultad de Medicina, Instituto de Oncologia, Angel H. Roffo, Area Investigacion, Avenida San Martin 5481, C.P. 1417, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

62:10181 Moore, Michael J. Death and tobacco taxes. NBER Working Paper, No. 5153, Jun 1995. 22 pp. National Bureau of Economic Research [NBER]: Cambridge, Massachusetts. In Eng.
"This study analyzes the effects of tobacco excise tax changes on mortality due to heart disease, cancer, and asthma [in the United States]. Reduced form regressions of mortality rates on tax data for the years 1954-1988, with controls for state, year, income, and unobserved persistence, indicate that tax increases lead to statistically significant decreases in mortality. A 10% increase in the tax is projected to save approximately 5,200 lives a year."
Correspondence: National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138. Location: Princeton University Library (FST).

62:10182 Negri, Eva; La Vecchia, Carlo; Franceschi, Silvia; Levi, Fabio. Patterns of mortality from major cancers in Europe. Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention, Vol. 3, No. 7, Oct-Nov 1994. 531-6 pp. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In Eng.
WHO data on mortality from major cancers over the period 1960-1989 are analyzed for European countries excluding the former Soviet Union. "In Europe, mortality rates for all neoplasms increased for men and decreased for women....Overall, the most unfavorable trends were in Eastern Europe, due to major epidemics in tobacco-related neoplasms and in other common cancers related to diet and other lifestyle habits."
Correspondence: E. Negri, Instituto de Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri, Via Eritrea 62, 20157 Milan, Italy. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

62:10183 Pickle, Linda W.; Barnett, Clair; White, Andrew A. Effects of the choice of age-adjustment method on maps of death rates. In: American Statistical Association, 1992 Proceedings of the Social Statistics Section. [1992]. 247-52 pp. American Statistical Association [ASA]: Alexandria, Virginia. In Eng.
The use of indirectly adjusted death rates to produce maps of mortality in the United States is examined. The authors suggest that the use of such indirect methods can lead to extreme differences in the apparent geographic patterns in mortality that are unsupported by the available data.
Correspondence: L. W. Pickle, U.S. National Center for Health Statistics, Room 915, 6525 Belcrest Road, Hyattsville, MD 20782. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

62:10184 Pinner, Robert W.; Teutsch, Steven M.; Simonsen, Lone; Klug, Laura A.; Graber, Judith M.; Clarke, Matthew J.; Berkelman, Ruth L. Trends in infectious diseases mortality in the United States. JAMA: Journal of the American Medical Association, Vol. 275, No. 3, Jan 17, 1996. 189-93 pp. Chicago, Illinois. In Eng.
"Between 1980 and 1992, the death rate due to infectious diseases as the underlying cause of death increased 58%, from 41 to 65 deaths per 100,000 population in the United States. Age-adjusted mortality from infectious diseases increased 39% during the same period. Infectious diseases mortality increased 25% among those aged 65 years and older (from 271 to 338 per 100,000), and 6.3 times among 25- to 44-year-olds (from six to 38 deaths per 100,000). Mortality due to respiratory tract infections increased 20%, from 25 to 30 deaths per 100,000, deaths attributed to human immunodeficiency virus increased from virtually none to 13 per 100,000 in 1992, and the rate of death due to septicemia increased 83% from 4.2 to 7.7 per 100,000."
Correspondence: R. W. Pinner, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Infectious Diseases, Mail Stop C12, 1600 Clifton Road NE, Atlanta, GA 30333. Location: Princeton University Library (SZ).

62:10185 Pritchett, Jonathan B.; Tunali, Insan. Stangers' disease: determinants of yellow fever mortality during the New Orleans epidemic of 1853. Explorations in Economic History, Vol. 32, No. 4, Oct 1995. 517-39 pp. Orlando, Florida. In Eng.
The authors analyze the epidemic of yellow fever which occurred in New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1853, and during which immigrants accounted for a vast majority of the number of deaths. "In this paper, we analyze differential mortality risk from yellow fever using microdata from interment records. Using a logit model, we sort out the influence of demographic and socioeconomic factors on mortality risk. We establish that the strong relationship between nativity and yellow fever mortality disappears once we control for poverty status and immunization as measured by duration of residence in New Orleans."
An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 1991 Annual Meeting of the Population Association of America.
Correspondence: J. B. Pritchett, Tulane University, Department of Economics, New Orleans, LA 70118. Location: Princeton University Library (PF).

62:10186 Reijneveld, Sijmen A. Causes of death contributing to urban socioeconomic mortality differences in Amsterdam. International Journal of Epidemiology, Vol. 24, No. 4, Aug 1995. 740-9 pp. New York, New York/Oxford, England. In Eng.
"Socioeconomic mortality differences exist between parts of many cities. This study aims to identify causes of death associated with such mortality differences and which preventive or curative interventions can modify....Associations were compared between socioeconomic status and age-standardized mortality by borough of Amsterdam, The Netherlands,...for causes of death grouped by feasible interventions....In men, mortality due to external and ill-defined causes occurs more frequently in low-income boroughs. In women, this holds for smoking-related and ill-defined causes. AIDS-related mortality is higher in boroughs with a high educational level. Mortality in low-income boroughs is generally higher for those causes of death which explain the relatively high urban mortality."
Correspondence: S. A. Reijneveld, Amsterdam Municipal Health Service, Department of Epidemiology, P.O. Box 20244, 1000 HE Amsterdam, Netherlands. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

62:10187 Santo, Augusto H.; Pinheiro, Celso E. The use of microcomputers in the selection of underlying cause of death. [Uso do microcomputador na selecao da causa basica de morte.] Boletin de la Oficina Sanitaria Panamericana, Vol. 119, No. 4, Oct 1995. 319-27 pp. Washington, D.C. In Por. with sum. in Eng.
"The article begins with a discussion of some mortality statistics issues, problems encountered in the manual selection of underlying cause of death, and also the increasing need for information on associated causes....In order to standardize and improve the quality of mortality data in Brazil, the Informatics Department of the Ministry of Health's National Health Foundation and the World Health Organization Collaborating Center for the Classification of Diseases in Portuguese developed the microcomputer-based Underlying Cause Selection System (SCB) in 1993." The article describes how the system works.
Correspondence: A. H. Santo, Universidade de Sao Paulo, Faculdade de Saude Publica, Departamento de Epidemiologia, Av. Dr. Arnaldo 715, 01255 Sao Paulo, SP, Brazil. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

62:10188 Shahidullah, M. A comparison of sisterhood information on causes of maternal death with the registration causes of maternal death in Matlab, Bangladesh. International Journal of Epidemiology, Vol. 24, No. 5, Oct 1995. 937-48 pp. Oxford, England. In Eng.
"The present study compares the `sisterhood' method's causes of maternal death with the Matlab Demographic Surveillance System's (DSS) causes of maternal death [in Bangladesh]. The sisterhood method is an indirect method for providing a community-based estimate of the level of maternal mortality in situations where no other data exist. The method uses the proportions of adult sisters dying of causes related to pregnancy and delivery reported by adults during a community census or survey. The proportions can be converted into [a] conventional measure of maternal mortality. The Matlab DSS, which has been in operation since 1966, maintains continuous surveillance of vital events--births, pregnancy outcomes, deaths, and in- and out-migrations--and also undertakes a periodic census in the study area."
Correspondence: M. Shahidullah, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh, Matlab Extension Project, GPO Box 128, Dhaka 2, Bangladesh. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

62:10189 Tang, Jin-Ling; Morris, Joan K.; Wald, Nicholas J.; Hole, David; Shipley, Martin; Tunstall-Pedoe, Hugh. Mortality in relation to tar yield of cigarettes: a prospective study of four cohorts. British Medical Journal, Vol. 311, No. 7019, Dec 9, 1995. 1,530-3 pp. London, England. In Eng.
The relation between the tar yield of cigarettes and mortality from smoking-related diseases is explored using data from a prospective epidemiological study of four cohorts of men carried out in the United Kingdom from 1967 to 1982. The results indicate that "about a quarter of deaths from lung cancer, coronary heart disease, and possibly other smoking related diseases would have been avoided by lowering tar yield from 30 mg per cigarette to 15 mg. Reducing cigarette tar yields in Britain has had a modest effect in reducing smoking related mortality."
Correspondence: N. J. Wald, St. Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College, Department of Environmental and Preventive Medicine, Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine, London EC1M 6QB, England. Location: Princeton University Library (SZ).

62:10190 Vallenas, Guillermo. Maternal mortality in Peru. [Mortalidad materna en el Peru.] Aug 1993. 64 pp. Consejo Nacional de Poblacion [CONAPO]: Lima, Peru. In Spa.
This analysis of maternal mortality in Peru is based on data from the Second National Demographic and Health Survey carried out in 1991-1992. After reviewing previous studies on the topic, the author analyzes maternal mortality trends in the country using data from the survey. Next, he examines methods for the indirect estimation of maternal mortality. He concludes with an estimation of maternal mortality levels in the country as a whole.
Correspondence: Consejo Nacional de Poblacion, Edificio del Ex-Ministerio de Educacion, Avenida Abancay s/n Piso 19, Casilla Postal 10233, Lima 1, Peru. Location: New York Public Library, New York, NY.

62:10191 Vallin, Jacques. Causes of adult mortality in developing and developed countries with low mortality rates. [Causas de defuncion de adultos en paises en desarrollo y desarrollados con bajas tasas de mortalidad.] Notas de Poblacion, Vol. 23, No. 61, Jun 1995. 147-76 pp. Santiago, Chile. In Spa. with sum. in Eng.
"In a certain number of developing countries, life expectancy levels now approach those of the developed world. But, though life expectancies at birth may be similar, the infant mortality rate in developing countries remains higher, but is compensated by a lower rate of mortality for adults. Is it to be expected that as infant mortality rates continue to decline, the developing countries will maintain their advantageous adult mortality rates and that life expectancy will forge ahead of the level achieved in developed countries?...To answer this question, recent trends in adult cause-specific mortality rates in four developing countries (Chile, Hong Kong, Mexico, and Costa Rica) were compared with those in three industrialized countries (France, Germany and Japan). The results were inconclusive. Whilst life expectancies in some of these countries may be expected to forge ahead (Chile, Hong Kong), in others the margin between their life expectancies and those of developed countries have already narrowed."
Correspondence: J. Vallin, Institut National d'Etudes Demographiques, 27 rue du Commandeur, 75675 Paris Cedex 14, France. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

62:10192 Verschuren, W. M. Monique; Kromhout, Daan. Total cholesterol concentration and mortality at a relatively young age: Do men and women differ? British Medical Journal, Vol. 311, No. 7008, Sep 23, 1995. 779-83 pp. London, England. In Eng.
The relationship between total cholesterol level and mortality from various causes is examined using data for 23,000 men and 26,000 women aged 30-54 who were examined in the Netherlands between 1974 and 1980. "Mortality from coronary heart disease in men was five times higher than that in women. A strong positive association between total cholesterol concentration and mortality from coronary heart disease and cardiovascular diseases was observed in both men and women....[The authors conclude that] total cholesterol concentration is a strong predictor of mortality from coronary heart disease, cardiovascular diseases, and all causes in women as well as in men. Low cholesterol concentrations are not associated with increased mortality from non-cardiovascular causes."
Correspondence: W. M. M. Verschuren, National Institute of Public Health and Environmental Protection, Department of Chronic Diseases and Environmental Epidemiology, P.O. Box 1, 3720 BA Bilthoven, Netherlands. Location: Princeton University Library (SZ).

62:10193 Villeneuve, Paul J.; Morrison, Howard I. Trends in mortality from smoking-related cancers, 1950 to 1991. Canadian Social Trends, No. 39, Winter 1995. 8-11 pp. Ottawa, Canada. In Eng.
"Cigarette smoking is widely recognized as the leading preventable cause of death in Canada. An estimated 20% of all deaths and about 30% of cancer deaths are directly attributable to tobacco use. Deaths from cancers largely due to tobacco use have also become more common. Since the 1950s, the proportion of all cancer deaths that resulted from smoking-related cancers has risen, while the proportion due to all non-smoking-related cancers combined has declined. Today, the most common cause of cancer death is lung cancer. Nearly 90% of lung cancer deaths are due to smoking. Despite the link between tobacco use and increased risk of developing cancer, many Canadians continue to smoke on a regular basis."
Correspondence: P. J. Villeneuve, Health Canada, Laboratory Centre for Disease Control, Bureau of Chronic Disease Epidemiology, Cancer Division, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Location: Princeton University Library (PR).

62:10194 Wilson, Andrew; Siskind, Victor. Coronary heart disease mortality in Australia: is mortality starting to increase among young men? International Journal of Epidemiology, Vol. 24, No. 4, Aug 1995. 678-84 pp. New York, New York/Oxford, England. In Eng.
"Death registrations for acute myocardial infarction and CHD [coronary heart disease in Australia] were used to construct male and female 5-year age- and cohort-specific mortality rates starting at 1900-1904 for cohorts and 25-29 years [of] age. Trends within age group and within cohort were compared across time....Across all female and most male birth cohorts there was a decrease in CHD mortality across the time period....Comparison of age-specific mortality across cohorts showed the mortality at any period to be lower in the most recent cohort....This analysis demonstrates a continuing decline in mortality from CHD among females of all ages in Australia although the rate of decline appears to have slowed or even ceased in younger males."
Correspondence: V. Siskind, University of Queensland Medical School, Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Herston Road, Herston, Queensland 4006, Australia. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).