Studies that treat quantitative mortality data analytically. Methodological studies primarily concerned with mortality are cited in this division and cross-referenced to N. Methods of Research and Analysis Including Models, if necessary. The main references to crude data are in the vital statistics items in S. Official Statistical Publications.
Studies of overall mortality and comparisons of several types of mortality. Studies dealing with two or more of the topics listed in this division are classified under the major section covered, or, if this is not self-evident, included here under General Mortality.
64:40089 Anderson, Robert N.; Rosenberg, Harry
M. Age standardization of death rates: implementation of
the year 2000 standard. NCHS National Vital Statistics Reports,
Vol. 47, No. 3, Oct 7, 1998. 16 pp. U.S. National Center for Health
Statistics [NCHS]: Hyattsville, Maryland. In Eng.
"The purpose
of this report is to provide the rationale for and the implications of
implementing a new population standard for age-adjusting death rates.
Based on the year 2000 population, the new standard replaces the
existing 1940 standard million population that has been used for over
50 years. The change will be implemented by the [U.S.] National Center
for Health Statistics...effective with deaths occurring in 1999. This
report also includes a technical discussion of direct and indirect
standardization and statistical variability in age-adjusted death
rates."
Correspondence: National Center for Health
Statistics, 6525 Belcrest Road, Hyattsville, MD 20782-2003.
Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).
64:40090 Capocaccia, Riccardo; Farchi, Gino;
Barcherini, Sabrina; Verdecchia, Arduino; Mariotti, Sergio; Scipione,
Riccardo; Feola, Giuseppe; Buratta, Vittoria. Mortality in
Italy in 1994. [La mortalità in Italia nell'anno 1994.]
Rapporti ISTISAN, No. 98/12, 1998. ii, 60 pp. Istituto Superiore di
Sanità [ISTISAN]: Rome, Italy. In Ita. with sum. in Eng.
"A series of analytical tables for mortality data in Italy in
1994 is presented. The age- and sex-specific rates for the whole of
Italy are reported for 45 different death causes, as well as the
national standardised rate referred to 1971 population. The
standardised rates for each of the 20 regions and the three main
subdivisions: North, Center, South/Islands are also reported. This
report belongs to a series describing mortality in Italy since 1970,
using the same methods, with yearly up-dating
editions."
Correspondence: Istituto Superiore di
Sanità, Viale Regina Elena 299, 00161 Rome, Italy. Location:
Princeton University Library (SPR).
64:40091 Cook, Noble D. Born to
die: disease and New World conquest, 1492-1650. New Approaches to
the Americas, ISBN 0-521-62208-5. LC 97-25064. 1998. xiii, 248 pp.
Cambridge University Press: New York, New York/Cambridge, England. In
Eng.
"The biological mingling of the previously separated Old
and New Worlds began with the first voyage of Columbus. The exchange
was a mixed blessing: It led to the disappearance of entire peoples in
the Americas, but it also resulted in the rapid expansion and
consequent economic and military hegemony of Europeans. Amerindians had
never before experienced the deadly Eurasian sicknesses brought by the
foreigners in wave after wave: smallpox, measles, typhus, plague,
influenza, malaria, yellow fever. These diseases conquered the Americas
before the sword could be unsheathed. From 1492 to 1650, from Hudson
Bay in the north to southernmost Tierra del Fuego, disease weakened
Amerindian resistance to outside domination. The Black Legend, which
attempts to place all of the blame for the injustices of conquest on
the Spanish, must be revised in light of the evidence that all Old
World peoples carried, literally though largely unwittingly, the germs
of the destruction of American
civilization."
Correspondence: Cambridge University
Press, Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 1RP, England.
Location: Princeton University Library (FST).
64:40092 Dalgard, Odd S.; Håheim, Lise
L. Psychosocial risk factors and mortality: a prospective
study with special focus on social support, social participation, and
locus of control in Norway. Journal of Epidemiology and Community
Health, Vol. 52, No. 8, Aug 1998. 476-81 pp. London, England. In Eng.
"The objective [of this study] is to investigate the effect on
mortality of psychosocial variables, with special focus on social
support, social participation, and locus of control.... The study is
based on a population sample randomly drawn from different
neighbourhoods of Oslo in 1975/76.... When controlling for
socio-demographic and biological factors, low social participation, and
to a lesser extent, few close relationships and external locus of
control, were associated with increased
mortality."
Correspondence: O. S. Dalgard, National
Institute of Public Health, Section SAFH, P.O. Box 4404, 0403 Oslo,
Norway. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).
64:40093 Donaldson, G. C.; Ermakov, S. P.;
Komarov, Y. M.; McDonald, C. P.; Keatinge, W. R. Cold
related mortalities and protection against cold in Yakutsk, eastern
Siberia: observation and interview study. British Medical Journal,
Vol. 317, No. 7614, Oct 10, 1998. 978-81 pp. London, England. In Eng.
This study examines how effective measures taken in extremely cold
climates are in controlling winter mortality. The data concern 1,002
people aged between 50 and 74 living in the Yakutsk region of Siberia
in the period 1989-1995. The results show that "people in Yakutsk
wore very warm clothing, and in extremely cold weather stayed indoors
in warm housing, preventing the increases in mortality seen in winter
in milder regions of the world. Only respiratory mortality rose,
perhaps because of breathing cold air."
Correspondence:
W. R. Keatinge, Russian Ministry of Health, Public Health Research
Institute, Moscow 127254, Russia. E-mail: w.r.keatinge@qmw.ac.uk.
Location: Princeton University Library (SZ).
64:40094 Higgs, G.; Senior, M. L.; Williams,
H. C. W. L. Spatial and temporal variation of mortality
and deprivation. 1: widening health inequalities. Environment and
Planning A, Vol. 30, No. 9, Sep 1998. 1,661-82 pp. London, England. In
Eng.
"In this paper we examine the relationship between
premature mortality and material deprivation both over time (the
intercensal period, 1981-91) and over space (for the population in
wards and ward groups in Wales). Our focus is on the methods of
analysis for small area...multiple cross-section mortality data and
their application to the substantive issue of the persistent and
widening inequalities in Wales.... We examine all-cause deaths and
mortality by specific disease classes for groups (quintiles) of wards
ranked according to standard measures of material deprivation. Although
there have been reductions in premature mortality across all
deprivation groups in Wales, over the decade, the gap has widened
between the most and least deprived areas."
Correspondence:
G. Higgs, University of Wales, Department of City and Regional
Planning, P.O. Box 906, Cardiff CF1 3YN, Wales. E-mail: higgs@cf.ac.uk.
Location: Princeton University Library (UES).
64:40095 Józan, Péter E.;
Prokhorskas, Remigijus. Atlas of leading and
"avoidable" causes of death in countries of Central and
Eastern Europe. ISBN 963-215-146-1. 1997. 323 pp. Központi
Statisztikai Hivatal: Budapest, Hungary; World Health Organization
[WHO]: Geneva, Switzerland. In Eng.
"The atlas presents the
mortality from `avoidable' and leading causes of death in 14 CCEE
[Central and Eastern European countries] in the late 1980s, i.e. before
the sweeping political and socio-economic changes in this part of
Europe, which were followed by a deterioration in health in many
countries of the region, as reflected by a sharp reduction in life
expectancy. The atlas provides the background for comparisons with more
recent data and will be of interest to many information users dealing
with the health status and health services in Central and Eastern
Europe, particularly to health administrators at national and
subnational levels." The countries covered are Belarus, Bulgaria,
Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania,
Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Ukraine, and
Yugoslavia.
Correspondence: Központi Statisztikai
Hivatal, P.O. Box 51, 1525 Budapest, Hungary. Location:
Population Council Library, New York, NY.
64:40096 Langner, Günther.
Estimation of infant mortality and life expectancy in the time of
the Roman Empire: a methodological examination. [Schätzung
von Säuglingssterblichkeit und Lebenserwartung im Zeitalter des
imperium romanum: Methodenkritische Untersuchung.] Historical Social
Research/Historische Sozialforschung, Vol. 23, No. 1-2, 1998. 299-326
pp. Cologne, Germany. In Ger. with sum. in Eng.
"The first
available written source in human history relating to the description
of the life expectancy of a living population is a legal text which
originates from the Roman jurist Ulpianus (murdered in AD 228). In
contrast to the prevailing opinion in demography, I not only do
consider the text to be of `historical interest'...but to be a document
of inestimable worth for evaluating the population survival probability
in the Roman empire. The criteria specified by Ulpianus are in line
with the `pan-human' survival function as described by modern model
life tables, when based on adulthood. Values calculated from tomb
inscriptions follow the lowest level of the model life tables as well
and support Ulpianus' statements. The specifications by Ulpianus for
the population of the Roman world empire as a whole in the `best fit'
with modern life tables lead to an average level of 20 years of life
expectancy. As a consequence a high infant mortality rate of almost 400
[per thousand] can be concluded resulting in no more than three
children at the age of five in an average family in spite of a high
fertility rate."
Correspondence: G. Langner,
Steinbeiss Straße 45, 70839 Gerlingen, Germany. Location:
Princeton University Library (SPR).
64:40097 Merli, M. Giovanna.
Mortality in Vietnam, 1979-1989. Demography, Vol. 35, No. 3,
Aug 1998. 345-60 pp. Silver Spring, Maryland. In Eng.
"Little
is known about past and present mortality in Vietnam, as the first
official data on mortality have only recently become available from
censuses taken in 1979 and 1989. Using these data, I estimate
Vietnamese mortality during the intercensal period using two techniques
that rely on age-specific growth rates from two successive age
distributions.... [The] results suggest a trend of declining mortality
between the 1970s and the 1980s and add solid empirical evidence to the
debate over whether mortality in Vietnam has been deteriorating or
improving."
Correspondence: M. G. Merli, University of
Washington, Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology, Box 353340,
Seattle, WA 98195-3340. E-mail: giovanna@u.washington.edu.
Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).
64:40098 Nanjo, Zenji; Shigematsu,
Takao. A retrospective of Japanese demography for the past
two decades. Part 2: research on deaths and diseases in Japan.
Jinkogaku Kenkyu/Journal of Population Studies, No. 21, Nov 1997. 35-41
pp. Tokyo, Japan. In Jpn.
This is a review of recent research by
Japanese scholars on mortality and morbidity in the context of research
on these topics being carried out elsewhere in the world.
For Part
1, by Haruo Sagaza, see elsewhere in this issue.
Location:
Princeton University Library (SPR).
64:40099 Peters, Kimberley D.; Kochanek,
Kenneth D.; Murphy, Sherry L. Deaths: final data for
1996. NCHS National Vital Statistics Reports, Vol. 47, No. 9, Pub.
Order No. DHHS (PHS) 99-1120. Nov 10, 1998. 100 pp. U.S. National
Center for Health Statistics [NCHS]: Hyattsville, Maryland. In Eng.
"This report presents 1996 data on U.S. deaths and death rates
according to demographic and medical characteristics such as age, sex,
race, Hispanic origin, marital status, educational attainment, injury
at work, State of residence, and cause of death. Trends and patterns in
general mortality, life expectancy, and infant and maternal mortality
are also described.... Measures of mortality in this report include the
number of deaths; crude, age-specific and age-adjusted death rates;
infant, neonatal, postneonatal, and maternal mortality rates; life
expectancy; and rate ratios."
Correspondence: U.S.
National Center for Health Statistics, 6525 Belcrest Road, Hyattsville,
MD 20782-2003. E-mail: nchsquery@cdc.gov. Location: Princeton
University Library (SPR).
64:40100 Prins, C. J. M. Many
deaths in March and April 1998. [Veel sterfgevallen in maart en
april 1998.] Maandstatistiek van de Bevolking, Vol. 46, No. 8, Aug
1998. 8-9 pp. Voorburg, Netherlands. In Dut. with sum. in Eng.
"In March and April 1998 the number of deaths [in the
Netherlands] was higher than usual. In these months the excess
mortality was about 1,400. Around 25 April the number of daily deaths
was back to normal.... It is assumed that the large number of deaths is
related to the increased incidence of influenza, which lasted from
mid-February until mid-April."
Location: Princeton
University Library (SPR).
64:40101 Senior, M. L.; Williams, H. C. W. L.;
Higgs, G. Spatial and temporal variation of mortality and
deprivation 2: statistical modelling. Environment and Planning A,
Vol. 30, No. 10, Oct 1998. 1,815-34 pp. London, England. In Eng.
"Building on the tabular analyses exemplified in our first
paper and widely used in the medical literature, we use generalised
linear models to provide a formal, statistical approach to the analysis
of mortality and deprivation relationships, and their change over time.
Three types of fixed effects model are specified and estimated with the
same ward-level data sets for Wales examined in our first paper. They
are: Poisson models for analysing mortality and deprivation at a single
cross section in time; repeated-measures Poisson models for analysing
mortality-deprivation relations, not only at cross sections in time,
but also their changes over time; and logit models focusing on temporal
changes in mortality-deprivation relationships. Nonlinear effects of
deprivation on mortality have been explored by using dummy variables
representing deprivation categories to establish the connection between
formal statistical models and the tabular approach"
For Part 1,
also published in 1998, see elsewhere in this issue.
Correspondence: M. L. Senior, University of Wales, College
of Cardiff, Department of City and Regional Planning, P.O. Box 906,
Cardiff CF1 3YN, Wales. E-mail: seniorml@cf.ac.uk. Location:
Princeton University Library (UES).
64:40102 Wilmoth, John R. Is the
pace of Japanese mortality decline converging toward international
trends? Population and Development Review, Vol. 24, No. 3, Sep
1998. 593-600, 670-1 pp. New York, New York. In Eng. with sum. in Fre;
Spa.
"Life expectancy in Japan rose at an unprecedented rate
in the years following World War II. By around 1980, Japan had attained
its current position of world leader in terms of average length of
life. However, after catching and then surpassing other countries, the
pace of mortality decline in Japan now appears to be converging toward
international trends."
Correspondence: J. R. Wilmoth,
University of California, Department of Demography, 2232 Piedmont
Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94720. E-mail: jrw@demog.berkeley.edu.
Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).
64:40103 Winegarden, C. R.; Murray, John
E. The contributions of early health-insurance programs to
mortality declines in pre-World War I Europe: evidence from
fixed-effects models. Explorations in Economic History, Vol. 35,
No. 4, Oct 1998. 431-46 pp. Orlando, Florida. In Eng.
"The
causes of the historical decline in European mortality rates are still
vigorously debated. Our contribution is to examine a previously
neglected aspect, the role of the early government-sponsored
health-insurance programs in widening access to medical care. We
construct and test fixed-effect models of mortality rates, using data
for a panel of five European countries over the 1878-1913 period. After
diagnostic tests of our results, we conclude that the expanding
population coverage of these health-insurance programs contributed
significantly to the observed declines in
mortality."
Correspondence: C. R. Winegarden,
University of Toledo, Department of Economics, Toledo, OH 43606-3390.
E-mail: fac0034@uoft01.utoledo.edu. Location: Princeton
University Library (PF).
Studies dealing primarily with fetal and neonatal mortality, except those dealing with spontaneous abortions, which are classified under F.3. Sterility and Other Pathology, and those studies dealing with induced abortions, which are classified under F.4.5. Induced Abortion. Perinatal mortality is defined as mortality occurring between the twenty-eighth week of gestation and the seventh day of life.
64:40104 Achyut, P.; Lahiri, S.; Acharya,
R. Non-biological correlates of early neonatal deaths:
evidences from five selected states of India. Demography India,
Vol. 26, No. 2, Jul-Dec 1997. 241-60 pp. Delhi, India. In Eng.
"The present paper is an attempt to...unearth specific
correlates of early neonatal deaths with the help of a conceived
framework of the process using latest available survey data for rural
area of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal
[India].... The study shows that caste and education of mother have
significant effect on the survival of infant in the first week of life.
All the variables related to pregnancy and delivery, mother's
demographic factors and child characteristics have shown significant
impact on outcome of pregnancy."
Correspondence: P.
Achyut, International Institute for Population Sciences, Govandi
Station Road, Deonar, Mumbai 400 088, India. Location:
Princeton University Library (SPR).
64:40105 Lalou, Richard.
Endogenous mortality in New France: at the crossroads of natural
and social selection. In: Infant and child mortality in the past,
edited by Alain Bideau, Bertrand Desjardins, and Héctor
Pérez Brignoli. 1997. 203-15 pp. Clarendon Press: Oxford,
England. In Eng.
The author analyzes "endogenous mortality in
New France [Quebec]. More specifically, early neonatal mortality was
studied, since in the absence of data on causes of death, endogenous
mortality could best be estimated from deaths during the first week of
life. To this end, data from New France parish registers between 1621
and 1730, compiled on computer by the Programme de recherche en
démographie historique at the University of Montreal, were
used...."
Correspondence: R. Lalou, Institut
Français de Recherche pour le Développement en
Coopération, B.P. 1386, Dakar, Senegal. Location:
Princeton University Library (SPR).
64:40106 van Enk, Adam; Buitendijk, Simone E.;
van der Pal, Karin M.; van Enk, Willem J. J.; Schulpen, Tom W.
J. Perinatal death in ethnic minorities in the
Netherlands. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, Vol.
52, No. 11, Nov 1998. 735-9 pp. London, England. In Eng.
The
authors "investigate differences in perinatal death rate and
associated obstetric risk factors between ethnic groups in the
Netherlands.... Ethnic minorities in the Netherlands except immigrants
from Asia and other European countries have higher rates of perinatal
death than indigenous Dutch women. With a twofold increase, black women
had the highest rate, which was related to an equally large increased
rate of preterm birth."
Correspondence: A. van Enk,
SORG-SAEM, Medical Research, Alberdingk, Thijmstraat 5, 1054 AH
Amsterdam, Netherlands. Location: Princeton University Library
(SPR).
Studies of infant mortality under one year of age, including neonatal mortality occurring after the seventh day of life, and childhood mortality after one year of age. The subject of infanticide, deliberate or implied, is also classified under this heading.
64:40107 Alam, Nurul; David, Patricia
H. Infant and child mortality in Bangladesh: age-specific
effects of previous child's death. Journal of Biosocial Science,
Vol. 30, No. 3, Jul 1998. 333-48 pp. Cambridge, England. In Eng.
"This study examines whether mortality of two adjacent
siblings in families is age-specific and is modified by the MCH-FP
programme and fertility and mortality declines in Matlab, Bangladesh,
using data for singleton births during 1977-78, 1985-86 and 1989-90 in
the treatment (MCH-FP) and comparison areas.... Odds of neonatal and
postneonatal deaths of younger siblings were found to be higher if the
elder sibling had died at the same age than if the sibling had survived
infancy. Toddler mortality was lower if the elder sibling had died in
infancy. The association between two siblings' mortality risks did not
decline over time in either area."
Correspondence: N.
Alam, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh,
Health and Population Surveillance Programme, G.P.O. Box 128, Dhaka
1000, Bangladesh. Location: Princeton University Library
(SPR).
64:40108 Alter, George. Infant
and child mortality in the United States and Canada. In: Infant
and child mortality in the past, edited by Alain Bideau, Bertrand
Desjardins, and Héctor Pérez Brignoli. 1997. 91-108 pp.
Clarendon Press: Oxford, England. In Eng.
The author reviews the
literature on historical trends in infant mortality in the United
States and Canada. Aspects considered include health and mortality in
cities and regions; ethnic and racial groups; income, wealth, and
literacy; and public health measures.
Correspondence: G.
Alter, Indiana University, Population Institute for Research and
Training, Memorial Hall East 220, Bloomington, IN 47405. Location:
Princeton University Library (SPR).
64:40109 Athreya, Venkatesh; Chunkath, Sheela
R. Gender and infant survival in rural Tamil Nadu:
situation and strategy. Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 33,
No. 40, Oct 3-9, 1998. 2,588-94 pp. Mumbai, India. In Eng.
"Infant mortality rate (IMR) is a useful indicator of the
health status of a population. In India IMR remains unacceptably high.
A sample survey of district-level IMRs in rural Tamil Nadu shows that
the crux of the problem is early neonatal mortality compounded by the
practice of female infanticide. The major medical causes of infant
mortality are birth asphyxia, respiratory infection, premature birth
and low birth weight. Better access to health facilities, training for
personnel and good quality equipment are required to tackle the
problem."
Location: Princeton University Library (PF).
64:40110 Bardet, Jean-Pierre; Dufour, Corinne;
Renard, Jacques. The death of foundlings: a tragedy in two
acts. In: Infant and child mortality in the past, edited by Alain
Bideau, Bertrand Desjardins, and Héctor Pérez Brignoli.
1997. 245-61 pp. Clarendon Press: Oxford, England. In Eng.
The
authors discuss the practice of child abandonment in Paris, France, in
the eighteenth century. Aspects considered include the practice of
sending foundlings to wet-nurses and the impact of this practice on
child mortality; comparisons of care among foundlings and bourgeois
children; and reasons for high rates of mortality among children cared
for by wet-nurses.
Correspondence: J.-P. Bardet, CNRS, URA
100, Université de Paris-Sorbonne, 12 place du Panthéon,
75231 Paris Cedex 05, France. Location: Princeton University
Library (SPR).
64:40111 Basu, Alaka M.
Underinvestment in children: a reorganization of the evidence on
the determinants of child mortality. In: The continuing
demographic transition, edited by G. W. Jones et al. 1997. 307-31 pp.
Clarendon Press: Oxford, England. In Eng.
"This paper has
tried to revise the framework of the determinants of infant and child
mortality by bringing together some of the dominant strands of research
on this subject in anthropological demography. It suggests that an
approach based on underinvestment as the major determinant of childhood
mortality has much to offer.... The paper also adds the possibility of
behavioural underinvestment to the analysis of the biological
determinants of infant and child mortality, to make a much less neat
but perhaps much more real representation of what kills
children."
Correspondence: A. M. Basu, Cornell
University, Division of Nutritional Sciences, Savage Hall, Ithaca, NY
14853-6501. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).
64:40112 Bideau, Alain; Desjardins, Bertrand;
Pérez Brignoli, Héctor. Infant and child
mortality in the past. ISBN 0-19-828995-2. LC 97-3696. 1997. xvii,
312 pp. Clarendon Press: Oxford, England. In Eng.
This is a
collection of papers presented at the Seminar on Child and Infant
Mortality in the Past, held in Montreal, Canada, in 1992. Papers are
grouped under the following headings: State of knowledge (Europe);
State of knowledge (America and Asia); Demographical, ecological,
biological, and epidemiological variables associated with infant and
child mortality; and Social variables associated with infant and child
mortality.
Selected items will be cited in this or subsequent issues
of Population Index.
Correspondence: Oxford University
Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP, England. Location:
Princeton University Library (SPR).
64:40113 Blaikie, Andrew. Infant
survival chances, unmarried motherhood and domestic arrangements in
rural Scotland, 1845-1945. Local Population Studies, No. 60,
Spring 1998. 34-46 pp. Cambridge, England. In Eng.
"This paper
assesses patterns of infant mortality and childhood survival in areas
of Scotland where illegitimacy was high during the later nineteenth
century and earlier twentieth centuries. The focus will be on nominal
record linkage based on rural parishes in north-east and south-west
Scotland between 1845 and 1945."
Correspondence: A.
Blaikie, University of Aberdeen, Department of Sociology, Aberdeen AB9
1FX, Scotland. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).
64:40114 Breschi, Marco; Livi Bacci,
Massimo. Month of birth as a factor in children's
survival. In: Infant and child mortality in the past, edited by
Alain Bideau, Bertrand Desjardins, and Héctor Pérez
Brignoli. 1997. 157-73 pp. Clarendon Press: Oxford, England. In Eng.
The authors investigate the influence of season on child mortality
in historical Europe. "In the first part of our paper we will
present mortality quotients by month (or season) of birth and age [for
the period 1828-1888].... In the second part of the paper we will use
data derived from family reconstitution of two Tuscan villages [in
Italy] which make possible a deeper analysis of the mechanisms of
deaths and survival in the first two years of
life."
Correspondence: M. Breschi, Università
degli Studi di Firenze, Via di Parione 7, 50123 Florence, Italy.
Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).
64:40115 Burström, Bo; Diderichsen, Finn;
Bernhardt, Eva; Smedman, Lars. Use of a historical
register in social epidemiology: child mortality in Stockholm at the
turn of the 19th century. Scandinavian Journal of Social Medicine,
Vol. 26, No. 3, Sep 1998. 166-72 pp. Oslo, Norway. In Eng.
"This study describes the age- and cause-specific levels and
social determinants of high child mortality in Stockholm [Sweden]
around the turn of the century. The study is based on computerized
individual level sociodemographic information and the death
certificates of children aged 0-15 years residing in Maria parish in
Stockholm during the years 1885, 1891 and 1910 (n=36,718).... Low
social class and being born out of wedlock increased the overall risk
of death in early childhood."
Correspondence: B.
Burström, Karolinska Institute, Department of Public Health
Science, Division of Social Medicine, 172 83 Sundbyberg, Sweden.
Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).
64:40116 Chauhan, Rajesh K.
Graduation of infant deaths by age. Demography India, Vol. 26,
No. 2, Jul-Dec 1997. 261-74 pp. Delhi, India. In Eng.
"In this
paper an attempt has been made to develop a model...which will take
into account the nature of declining tempo of deaths by age during the
first year of life. The model is used to give a functional shape to the
phenomenon of infant deaths distribution at different ages." The
model is tested by fitting it to data for Sweden, the United States,
and India.
Correspondence: R. K. Chauhan, Australian
National University, GSD 20 Balmain Crescent, 0200 Canberra, ACT,
Australia. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).
64:40117 Del Panta, Lorenzo.
Infant and child mortality in Italy, eighteenth to twentieth
century: long-term trends and territorial differences. In: Infant
and child mortality in the past, edited by Alain Bideau, Bertrand
Desjardins, and Héctor Pérez Brignoli. 1997. 7-21 pp.
Clarendon Press: Oxford, England. In Eng.
"The aim of this
report is to give an account...of the evolution of infant and child
mortality in Italy.... Some considerations will also be proposed
concerning the reliability of available data, with special regard to
the difficulties arising when data come from different experiences and
situations.... The evolution of infant and child mortality from
National Unification [1861] to the middle of the twentieth century will
first be described. Afterwards, some partial information will be
supplied about the trends and territorial differences of
pre-Unification infant mortality levels."
Correspondence:
L. Del Panta, Università degli Studi di Bologna,
Dipartimento di Scienze Statistiche, Via Zamboni 33, 40126 Bologna,
Italy. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).
64:40118 Desjardins, Bertrand.
Family formation and infant mortality in New France. In:
Infant and child mortality in the past, edited by Alain Bideau,
Bertrand Desjardins, and Héctor Pérez Brignoli. 1997.
174-87 pp. Clarendon Press: Oxford, England. In Eng.
"This
paper builds on an earlier piece of research on the effects of
reproductive behaviour on child mortality (Nault et al., 1990). The
data used for this study are taken from the population register created
by the Programme de recherche en démographie historique (PRDH)
at the University of Montreal, on the basis of parish registers for the
entire Quebec population since its origins in the seventeenth
century.... Not surprisingly, our results confirm that the mortality of
young children is influenced by the different parameters of the
mother's fertility and of the formation of the family of
origin."
Correspondence: B. Desjardins,
Université de Montréal, Programme de Recherche en
Démographie Historique, C.P. 6128, Succursale A, Montreal,
Quebec H3C 3J7, Canada. Location: Princeton University Library
(SPR).
64:40119 Dinh, Quang Chi. Social
inequalities in infant mortality are narrowing. [Les
inégalités sociales de la mortalité infantile
s'estompent.] Economie et Statistique, No. 314, 1998. 89-106, 112-4 pp.
Paris, France. In Fre. with sum. in Eng; Ger.
Recent trends in
infant mortality in France are analyzed using official data. "The
increase in public health care to cover pregnancy, birth and early
infancy has helped to reduce social inequalities in infant mortality.
The gaps have narrowed from one generation to the next and the social
groups with the highest infant mortality rates have posted the largest
decreases. Remarkable convergence in infant mortality rates is
therefore found across all the social groups. The greater part of this
decrease has occurred during the neonatal period (deaths in the first
month), which demonstrates the protective role of the health
system."
Correspondence: Q. C. Dinh, Institut National
de la Statistique et des Etudes Economiques, 18 boulevard Adolphe
Pinard, 75675 Paris Cedex 14, France. Location: Princeton
University Library (SPR).
64:40120 Dupâquier, Jacques.
For a history of prematurity. In: Infant and child mortality
in the past, edited by Alain Bideau, Bertrand Desjardins, and
Héctor Pérez Brignoli. 1997. 188-202 pp. Clarendon Press:
Oxford, England. In Eng.
The author investigates the causes of
infant mortality in the past, using the example of Paris, France, since
the seventeenth century. The focus is on the impact on mortality of
prematurity.
Correspondence: J. Dupâquier, Ecole des
Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, 54 boulevard Raspail, 75006 Paris,
France. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).
64:40121 Dyson, Tim. Infant and
child mortality in the Indian subcontinent, 1881-1947. In: Infant
and child mortality in the past, edited by Alain Bideau, Bertrand
Desjardins, and Héctor Pérez Brignoli. 1997. 109-34 pp.
Clarendon Press: Oxford, England. In Eng.
"The present paper
has several aims. First, we summarize previous work on early age (i.e.
infant and child) mortality [in India]. Second, after a brief
consideration of the system of vital registration, we present and
discuss time series of infant and child mortality rates relating to
British India as a whole. Third, we examine similar statistics for the
various provinces of British India and address regional variation in
levels, trends, age patterns, and sex differentials in early age
mortality. Fourth, we discuss urban-rural variation in infant
mortality--giving particular consideration to circumstances in the City
of Bombay."
Correspondence: T. Dyson, London School of
Economics and Political Science, Houghton Street, Aldwych, London WC2A
2AE, England. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).
64:40122 George, Sabu M.; Dahiya, Ranbir
S. Female foeticide in rural Haryana. Economic and
Political Weekly, Vol. 33, No. 32, Aug 8-14, 1998. 2,191-8 pp. Mumbai,
India. In Eng.
"Female foeticide over the last 15 years has
distorted sex ratios at birth in several Asian countries. Foetal sex
determination clinics have been established in India over the last 20
years in northern and western cities. Presented here is the outcome of
an intensive study of the abuse of prenatal diagnostic techniques for
sex selection in a rural population of 13,000 in Rohtak district.
Parents tend to be calculative in choosing the sex of the next child
and the decision is based on the birth order, sex sequence of previous
children and number of sons. Transfer of reproductive technology to
India is resulting in reinforcement of patriarchal values as
professional medical organisations seem to be indifferent to ethical
misconduct."
Location: Princeton University Library
(PF).
64:40123 Guilkey, David K.; Riphahn, Regina
T. The determinants of child mortality in the Philippines:
estimation of a structural model. Journal of Development
Economics, Vol. 56, No. 2, Aug 1998. 281-305 pp. Amsterdam,
Netherlands. In Eng.
"This paper employs a longitudinal data
set from the Philippines to estimate a structural model of the
determinants of infant mortality. To control for the endogeneity of
some explanatory variables, a set of reduced form equations for these
outcomes is estimated simultaneously with the mortality hazard. A
non-parametric discrete factor method is used to control for common
unobservable factors in the error terms. Birth interval and parity lose
explanatory power once biological measures are considered in the model.
The results indicate significant correlations across the equations'
error terms. The significant effects of breastfeeding and growth on
mortality are quantified in simulation experiments." The data are
from a longitudinal survey conducted in metropolitan Cebu between 1983
and 1986.
Correspondence: D. K. Guilkey, University of
North Carolina, Department of Economics, University Square, Chapel
Hill, NC 27599-3305. E-mail: david_guilkey@unc.edu. Location:
Princeton University Library (SPIA).
64:40124 Israel. Central Bureau of Statistics
(Jerusalem, Israel). Socio-demographic characteristics of
infant mortality based on data for 1990-1993. Central Bureau of
Statistics Publications, No. 1070, Sep 1997. [xxxvi], 45, xx pp.
Jerusalem, Israel. In Eng; Heb.
This is the fourth in a series of
publications presenting data on infant mortality in Israel. "This
publication presents data [for] the years 1990-1993, by infant's
characteristics and socio-demographic characteristics of parents."
Some international comparisons are also included.
For a previous
publication presenting data for the period 1885-1989, see 60:10152.
Correspondence: Central Bureau of Statistics, Hakirya,
Romema, P.O. Box 13015, Jerusalem 91130, Israel. Location:
Princeton University Library (PR).
64:40125 Jejeebhoy, Shireen J.
Associations between wife-beating and fetal and infant death:
impressions from a survey in rural India. Studies in Family
Planning, Vol. 29, No. 3, Sep 1998. 300-8 pp. New York, New York. In
Eng.
"This report examines the linkages between wife-beating
and one health-related consequence for women, their experience of fetal
and infant mortality. Community-based data are used drawn from women
surveyed in two culturally distinct sites of rural India.... Results
suggest that wife-beating is deeply entrenched, that attitudes
uniformly justify wife-beating, and that few women can escape an
abusive marriage. They also suggest that the health consequences of
domestic violence--in terms of pregnancy loss and infant mortality--are
considerable and that Indian women's experience of infant and fetal
mortality is powerfully conditioned by the strength of the patriarchal
social system."
Correspondence: S. J. Jejeebhoy, World
Health Organization, Development and Research Training in Human
Reproduction, Special Programme of Research, Avenue Appia, 1211 Geneva
27, Switzerland. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).
64:40126 Kertzer, David I. The
proper role of culture in demographic explanation. In: The
continuing demographic transition, edited by G. W. Jones et al. 1997.
137-57 pp. Clarendon Press: Oxford, England. In Eng.
The author
discusses the role of economics, rationality, and culture in
demographic behavior, with a focus on the implications of the
large-scale abandonment of infants in Europe in the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries. He supports "approaches to demographic
explanation that pay serious attention both to history and historical
contingency and to political factors that shape behaviour.... We should
examine a cultural sphere that is interwoven with, both shaping and
being shaped by, political and economic institutions, as well as by
kinship and other social organizational
structures."
Correspondence: D. I. Kertzer, Brown
University, Department of Anthropology, Providence, RI 02912.
Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).
64:40127 Kok, Jan; van Poppel, Frans; Kruse,
Ellen. Mortality among illegitimate children in
mid-nineteenth-century The Hague. In: The decline of infant and
child mortality. The European experience: 1750-1990, edited by Carlo A.
Corisini and Pier P. Viazzo. 1997. 193-211 pp. Martinus Nijhoff:
Dordrecht, Netherlands. In Eng.
"We studied infant and
childhood mortality of children born in the 1850s in the Dutch city of
The Hague, making use of the population register and the vital
registration system. We followed a cohort of children over time on a
day-by-day basis, noting as far as possible all the relevant
socio-economic and demographic characteristics of the environment in
which legitimate and illegitimate subjects were born and grew up....
Our analysis showed that, in the middle of the nineteenth century,
illegitimate children had very little chance of surviving infancy and
childhood.... Multivariate analysis showed that this excess mortality
was caused by a set of factors, the most important being the age of the
mother at birth, regional background, and the socio-economic group to
which the notifier of the birth belonged."
Correspondence:
J. Kok, International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam,
Netherlands. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).
64:40128 Lebedev, A. D.; Saravaiskaya, L. I.;
Begun, A. Z. New approaches to spatial analysis: the locus
pathology concept and infant mortality. [Novye podkhody k
prostranstvennomu analizu: kontseptsiya lokusov patologii i
mladencheskaya smertnost'.] Izvestiya Akademii Nauk, Seriya
Geograficheskaya, No. 2, Mar-Apr 1995. 50-7 pp. Moscow, Russia. In Rus.
with sum. in Eng.
The authors use data on infant mortality in
Russia to address the problems inherent in spatial analysis. Three
levels of geographic entities are examined: cities and their regions,
urban settlements, and rural settlements. The results suggest that
rather than averaging results across regions, the new approach to
analyzing local data described here would result in more useful
information about the health of the population and the environment in
specific areas.
Location: Princeton University Library
(FST).
64:40129 MacDorman, Marian F.; Atkinson,
Jonnae O. Infant mortality statistics from the 1996 period
linked birth/infant death data set. NCHS Monthly Vital Statistics
Report, Vol. 46, No. 12, Suppl., Pub. Order No. DHHS (PHS)98-1120. Aug
27, 1998. 24 pp. U.S. National Center for Health Statistics [NCHS]:
Hyattsville, Maryland. In Eng.
"This report presents [U.S.]
infant mortality data from the 1996 period linked file.... [Data are
given by] race and Hispanic origin of the mother, birthweight, period
of gestation, sex of infant, plurality, trimester of pregnancy prenatal
care began, maternal age, maternal educational attainment, livebirth
order, marital status, mother's place of birth, maternal smoking during
pregnancy, age at death, and underlying cause of death for the 50
States and the District of Columbia."
Correspondence:
U.S. National Center for Health Statistics, 6525 Belcrest Road,
Hyattsville, MD 20782-2003. E-mail: nchsquery@cdc.gov. Location:
Princeton University Library (SPR).
64:40130 McInnis, Marvin. Infant
mortality in late nineteenth-century Canada. In: Infant and child
mortality in the past, edited by Alain Bideau, Bertrand Desjardins, and
Héctor Pérez Brignoli. 1997. 262-75 pp. Clarendon Press:
Oxford, England. In Eng.
"This chapter describes the
estimation of rates of infant mortality for eight principal cities and
114 counties of the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec for the
census year 1891.... Four categories of cause of death are examined:
(1) infectious diseases (such as smallpox, diphtheria, and whooping
cough), (2) bronchitis and pneumonia, (3) diarrhoea and
gastro-enteritis, and (4) congenital debility.... Infant mortality in
Canada was without question related to urbanization. It was certainly
higher in the larger cities. It is less well established, though, that
the degree of urbanization had a significant effect on the county
levels of infant mortality."
Correspondence: M.
McInnis, Queen's University, Department of Economics, Kingston, Ontario
K7L 3N6, Canada. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).
64:40131 Milankovic, Jasna.
Infant mortality by cause of death. [Smrtnost odojcadi prema
uzrocima smrti.] Stanovnistvo, Vol. 36, No. 1-2, Jan-Jun 1998. 105-24
pp. Belgrade, Yugoslavia. In Scr. with sum. in Eng.
The author
analyzes infant mortality in Yugoslavia by cause of death, with a focus
on preventive social and health care measures. "During the initial
observation period when the general level of infant mortality was
exceptionally high, the share of infectious diseases and those of the
respiratory system was very large.... The period from 1989 to 1996 is
characterized by endogenous causes of infant mortality primarily during
the neo-natal period and have to do with the constitutional features
of...live-born children, congenital anomalies, premature birth,
respiratory distress, etc...."
Location: Princeton
University Library (SPR).
64:40132 Mohamed, Wan N.; Diamond, Ian; Smith,
Peter W. F. The determinants of infant mortality in
Malaysia: a graphical chain modelling approach. Journal of the
Royal Statistical Society, Series A: Statistics in Society, Vol. 161,
No. 3, 1998. 349-66 pp. London, England. In Eng.
"A graphical
chain modelling approach is used to study the determinants of neonatal
and post-neonatal mortality in Malaysia. This approach provides an
easily interpretable empirical description and illustrates explicitly
the conditional independence structure between each pair of variables.
The interpretation can be read directly from a mathematical graph.
Besides examining the direct association of each determinant on
mortality, we also examine the effects of socio-economic determinants
on intermediate determinants to understand the pathways through which
the socioeconomic determinants affect the chance of mortality. The data
anlaysed come from the second Malaysian Family Life Survey, fielded
between August 1988 and January 1989."
Correspondence:
P. W. F. Smith, University of Southampton, Department of Social
Statistics, Highfeld, Southampton SO17 1BJ, England. E-mail:
P.W.Smith@soton.ac.uk. Location: Princeton University Library
(PF).
64:40133 Montgomery, Mark R.; Lloyd, Cynthia
B.; Hewett, Paul C.; Heuveline, Patrick. The consequences
of imperfect fertility control for children's survival, health, and
schooling. DHS Analytical Report, No. 7, Dec 1997. viii, 65 pp.
Macro International, Demographic and Health Surveys [DHS]: Calverton,
Maryland. In Eng.
"This report explores the consequences of
imperfect fertility control for various dimensions of children's human
capital formation--their survival, health, and schooling--using
Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) data from [the Dominican Republic,
Egypt, Kenya, the Philippines, and Thailand].... Information on women's
fertility preferences is used to investigate two conceptually distinct
aspects of imperfect fertility control: unintended fertility and excess
fertility.... The aim...is to determine whether...departures from
women's preferences have implications for investments in the human
capital of their children."
Correspondence: Macro
International, Demographic and Health Surveys, 11785 Beltsville Drive,
Calverton, MD 20705-3119. E-mail: reports@macroint.com. Location:
Princeton University Library (SPR).
64:40134 Ota, A. B. Child
survival and family planning. ISBN 81-86040-46-3. 1996. iv, 222
pp. Mayur Publications: Bhubaneswar, India. Distributed by United
Research Pvt., N3/33 Nayapalli, Bhubaneswar, Orissa, India. In Eng.
This is an analysis of the factors responsible for the high rates
of infant and child mortality in a backward gram panchayat (district)
in Orissa, India. The data concern all infant and child deaths
occurring in Dudhjori during the period 1975-1984. The analysis is done
separately for the scheduled tribes and castes and the general
population. Emphasis is on the relationship between such mortality and
the adoption of family planning methods.
Correspondence:
Mayur Publications, C/5 Unit, 3 Kharevela Nagar, Bhubaneswar 751
001, Orissa, India. Location: Cornell University Library,
Ithaca, NY.
64:40135 Overpeck, Mary D.; Brenner, Ruth A.;
Trumble, Ann C.; Trifiletti, Lara B.; Berendes, Heinz W.
Risk factors for infant homicide in the United States. New
England Journal of Medicine, Vol. 339, No. 17, Oct 22, 1998. 1,211-6
pp. Boston, Massachusetts. In Eng.
The timing and risk factors for
infant deaths due to homicide are analyzed using linked birth and death
certificates for all live births occurring in the United States between
1983 and 1991. Homicide is the leading cause of infant deaths due to
injury, and 2,776 infant homicides were identified in this period. The
results indicate that childbearing at an early age was strongly
associated with infant homicide, particularly if the mother had given
birth previously.
Correspondence: M. D. Overpeck, National
Institute of Child and Human Development, Building 6100, Room 7B03,
9000 Rockville Pike, MSC 7510, Bethesda, MD 20892-7510. Location:
Princeton University Library (SZ).
64:40136 Perrenoud, Alfred. Child
mortality in francophone Europe: state of knowledge. In: Infant
and child mortality in the past, edited by Alain Bideau, Bertrand
Desjardins, and Héctor Pérez Brignoli. 1997. 22-37 pp.
Clarendon Press: Oxford, England. In Eng.
"I will examine the
patterns of child mortality [in Belgium, France, and Switzerland] in
the pre-statistical period. They can be expected to furnish us with the
material to comprehend better the reduction in mortality rates at the
beginning of the modern phase of the health transition. Next, after an
evaluation of the differentiated trends of mortality in the nineteenth
century, I will try to begin to answer the questions that this pattern
of development poses."
Correspondence: A. Perrenoud,
Université de Genève, Département d'Histoire
Economique, 3 Place de l'Université, 1211 Geneva 4, Switzerland.
Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).
64:40137 Prasad, Nooka R. Child
survival in rural areas. ISBN 81-7488-553-6. 1997. [ix], 196 pp.
Anmol Publications: New Delhi, India. In Eng.
The results of an
in-depth study on maternal and child health in rural areas of the
Indian state of Andhra Pradesh are presented. The data, which were
collected in 1993, concern 1,035 women aged 15-49 living in Warangal
district. The focus of the study is on the utilization of MCH services
by these women and on the impact of such use on child survival and on
the adoption of family planning.
Correspondence: Anmol
Publications, 4374/4B Ansari Road, Daryaganj, New Delhi 110 002, India.
Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).
64:40138 Rajna, P. N.; Mishra, Ajay K.;
Krishnamoorthy, S. Impact of maternal education and health
services on child mortality in Uttar Pradesh, India. Asia-Pacific
Population Journal, Vol. 13, No. 2, Jun 1998. 27-38 pp. Bangkok,
Thailand. In Eng.
"This article, which examines the effect of
maternal education on child mortality [in India], shows that education
has direct as well as indirect effects through antenatal care and
family formation patterns on neonatal mortality. Maternal education
also has a substantial effect on later childhood mortality. While
improving maternal education is a means of reducing childhood
mortality, an immediate reduction in childhood mortality is feasible
even under existing social conditions by enhancing accessibility to
maternal and child health services and safe drinking
water."
Correspondence: P. N. Rajna, Bharathiar
University, Department of Population Studies, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu
641 046, India. E-mail: popstu@as250.bharathi.ernet.in. Location:
Princeton University Library (SPR).
64:40139 Rollet, Catherine. The
fight against infant mortality in the past: an international
comparison. In: Infant and child mortality in the past, edited by
Alain Bideau, Bertrand Desjardins, and Héctor Pérez
Brignoli. 1997. 38-60 pp. Clarendon Press: Oxford, England. In Eng.
The author compares methods used in the fight against infant and
child mortality in the past. "I will compare the work of
demographers and historians on specific countries...with works of
sociologists, historians, doctors, and demographers on such themes as
the Welfare State, the demographic transition, the role of women, and
the family.... [The analyses are] structured around the following
specific questions: to what extent have the different countries
entering into the process of industrialization and modernization
followed the same path towards the awareness, conceptualization, and
actual practice of the fight against infant mortality? Were these
movements planned and then implemented in similar ways by different
societies?"
Correspondence: C. Rollet,
Université Versailles/Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, 23 rue du
Refuge, 78000 Versailles, France. Location: Princeton
University Library (SPR).
64:40140 Saito, Osamu. Infant
mortality in pre-transition Japan: levels and trends. In: Infant
and child mortality in the past, edited by Alain Bideau, Bertrand
Desjardins, and Héctor Pérez Brignoli. 1997. 135-53 pp.
Clarendon Press: Oxford, England. In Eng.
"This chapter
is...an attempt to determine the probable level of infant mortality for
a Tokugawa [Japan] village population. This chapter will also trace
changes from the Tokugawa to the Meiji periods, and then to the
inter-war period, in relation to the corresponding changes in childhood
mortality. The results will suggest that the level of infant mortality
was not very high in late Tokugawa times.... But...it will also be
suggested that as far as the period before 1920 is concerned, there
seems to have been no substantial improvement despite the economic,
social, and institutional changes following the Meiji
reforms...."
Correspondence: O. Saito, Hitotsubashi
University, Institute of Economic Research, Nishi 5, Kita 8, Kita-ku,
Sapporo 060, Japan. Location: Princeton University Library
(SPR).
64:40141 Samuelsen, Sven O.; Magnus, Per;
Bakketeig, Leiv S. Birth weight and mortality in childhood
in Norway. American Journal of Epidemiology, Vol. 148, No. 10, Nov
15, 1998. 983-91 pp. Baltimore, Maryland. In Eng.
"The
Norwegian Birth Registry, which has been in operation since 1967, now
includes about 1.5 million births which can be followed with linkage to
the National Cause of Death Registry. In light of the increased
interest in long-term consequences of low birth weight, the aim of this
paper is to estimate the relative risk of cause-specific mortality from
the second through the fifteenth year of life, for groups of children
defined by different levels of birth weight and gestational age at
birth."
Correspondence: P. Magnus, National Institute
of Public Health, Department of Epidemiology, P.O. Box 4404 Torshov,
0403 Oslo, Norway. Location: Princeton University Library
(SZ).
64:40142 Shah, Gulzar H.; Toney, Michael B.;
Pitcher, Brian L. Consanguinity and child mortality: the
risk faced by families. Population Research and Policy Review,
Vol. 17, No. 3, Jun 1998. 275-83 pp. Dordrecht, Netherlands. In Eng.
"This study investigates the effects of consanguinity on a
family's odds of experiencing the death of a child in Pakistan, a
society in which marriage among close relatives is common. Analysis of
data from the 1991 Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey reveals that
first cousin marriages increase a couple's risk of enduring the death
of one or more of their children. These couples are 1.18 times as
likely to have a child die by its fifth birthday than couples not
related by blood net of other factors associated with child mortality.
Elimination of first cousin marriages would contribute to a modest
decrease in the proportion of Pakistani families suffering the death of
a child."
Correspondence: M. B. Toney, Utah State
University, Department of Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology,
Population Research Laboratory, Logan, UT 84322-0730. E-mail:
mtoney@wpo.hass.usu.edu. Location: Princeton University
Library (SPR).
64:40143 Thornton, Patricia; Olson,
Sherry. Infant vulnerability in three cultural settings in
Montreal, 1880. In: Infant and child mortality in the past, edited
by Alain Bideau, Bertrand Desjardins, and Héctor Pérez
Brignoli. 1997. 216-41 pp. Clarendon Press: Oxford, England. In Eng.
The authors investigate cultural influences on infant mortality in
Montreal in the 1800s. "Study of the Montreal birth cohort of 1879
indicates the persistence of a strong cultural differential in infant
mortality.... The most powerful elements of explanation, we would
suggest, may lie with attitudes, especially the shift from fatalism to
conscious control which permeated so many aspects of behaviour
affecting both infant care and fertility."
Correspondence:
P. Thornton, McGill University, Department of Geography, Montreal,
Quebec H3A 2K6, Canada. Location: Princeton University Library
(SPR).
64:40144 United Nations. Department of
Economic and Social Affairs. Population Division (New York, New
York). Too young to die: genes or gender? No.
ST/ESA/SER.A/155, Pub. Order No. E.98.XIII.13. ISBN 92-1-151325-1.
1998. xii, 260 pp. New York, New York. In Eng.
This report is the
product of a UN Population Division study of the sex differentials in
infant, child, and under-five mortality and the specific mechanisms
that may lead to excess female mortality in childhood. It consists of
10 chapters "that explore a broad range of mechanisms, ranging
from the biological to the social and economic, that influence sex
differentials in childhood mortality. The mechanisms considered affect
mortality differentials either directly, as in the case of the
nutritional status of boys and girls or the differential use of health
care by sex of child, or indirectly, as in the case of maternal
education and decisions regarding the intra-household allocation of
resources. The study also provides a historical account of the
evolution of the sex differentials in childhood mortality in today's
developed countries during the nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries. Another major contribution is its measurement and analysis
of the levels and trends of infant, child and under-five mortality for
boys and girls during the 1970s and 1980s. Such analysis allows the
identification of the countries and regions in which girls have a
survival disadvantage compared to boys, and permits an objective
assessment of the magnitude and extent of excess female mortality in
childhood."
Correspondence: United Nations
Secretariat, Population Division, Room DC2-1950, New York, NY 10017.
Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).
64:40145 van Poppel, Frans; Mandemakers,
Kees. Differential infant and child mortality in the
Netherlands, 1812-1912: first results of the historical sample of the
population of the Netherlands. In: Infant and child mortality in
the past, edited by Alain Bideau, Bertrand Desjardins, and
Héctor Pérez Brignoli. 1997. 276-300 pp. Clarendon Press:
Oxford, England. In Eng.
The authors analyze infant and child
mortality in the Netherlands from 1812 to 1912. "After a general
overview of the trends and the intra-provincial variation in infant and
childhood mortality, we will then give a general description of
socio-economic mortality differences. Next, a more detailed description
of the results is given, paying particular attention to time trends,
sex differences in socio-economic mortality differentials, and regional
differences in social inequality before death. Finally, we present a
multivariate analysis of mortality during the first years of
life...."
Correspondence: F. van Poppel, Netherlands
Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute, Postbus 11650, 2502 AR The
Hague, Netherlands. Location: Princeton University Library
(SPR).
64:40146 Viazzo, Pier P. Alpine
patterns of infant mortality in perspective. In: Infant and child
mortality in the past, edited by Alain Bideau, Bertrand Desjardins, and
Héctor Pérez Brignoli. 1997. 61-73 pp. Clarendon Press:
Oxford, England. In Eng.
The author investigates historical infant
mortality patterns in the Alpine area of Europe, with a focus on
differences between this region and the surrounding lowland areas.
Sections are included on broad regional patterns, small-scale spatial
differences and the role of altitude, and environmental and social
factors as possible causes of low mortality.
Correspondence:
P. P. Viazzo, Università degli Studi di Torino, Department
of Anthropology, Via Verdi 8, 10124 Turin, Italy. Location:
Princeton University Library (SPR).
64:40147 Woods, Robert. Infant
mortality in Britain: a survey of current knowledge on historical
trends and variations. In: Infant and child mortality in the past,
edited by Alain Bideau, Bertrand Desjardins, and Héctor
Pérez Brignoli. 1997. 74-88 pp. Clarendon Press: Oxford,
England. In Eng.
"This chapter will be directed towards four
questions.... First, what are the best estimates of English infant
mortality rates over the last four hundred years and how might they
differ from the Scottish series? Secondly, how have regional and local
geographical variations persisted over time and to what extent have
there been trends in common? Thirdly, have there been differences in
infant mortality between social groups and how have they changed with
time? Fourthly, how many differential cause of death patterns have
affected mortality in early life?"
Correspondence: R.
Woods, University of Liverpool, Department of Geography, Liverpool L69
3BX, England. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).
64:40148 Zahid, Ghulam M.
Mother's health-seeking behaviour and childhood mortality in
Pakistan. Pakistan Development Review, Vol. 35, No. 4, Pt. 2,
Winter 1996. 719-31 pp. Islamabad, Pakistan. In Eng.
"The
paper examines the mother's health-seeking behaviour and childhood
mortality in Pakistan. This is based on the 1990-91 Pakistan
Demographic and Health Survey (PDHS).... It was found that neonatal,
infant, and child mortality rate is the highest among children of
mothers aged less than 20 years. Infant and child mortality rate is
likewise higher among first and higher order births than among births
of second or third order. It was further found that mortality declines
as the length of the birth interval increases. The results reveal that
the education of mother has significant effect on the neonatal, infant
and child survival.... Health care factors such as antenatal care,
place of delivery, assistance at delivery and immunisation also
influenced neonatal, infant and child
mortality."
Correspondence: G. M. Zahid, Pakistan
Institute of Development Economics, Department of Demography, P.O. Box
1091, Islamabad 44000, Pakistan. Location: Princeton
University Library (SPR).
Studies of age-specific mortality and of mortality in special groups defined by age.
64:40149 Grundy, Emily.
Demography and gerontology: mortality trends among the oldest
old. Ageing and Society, Vol. 17, No. 6, Nov 1997. 713-25 pp.
Cambridge, England. In Eng.
"This paper provides a brief
introduction to demography and population science and the newly emerged
subfield of the demography of ageing. Links with gerontology are
explored. Recent work on mortality at very high ages and on the
black-white mortality `cross-over' reported from the United States is
then reviewed. These topics are important substantively and
theoretically and also serve to illustrate demographic approaches to
data and data analysis.... Recent work indicates that the mortality of
very old people, including centenarians, has fallen considerably, at
least in those countries where good data exist. The mortality
`cross-over', however, appears to be artefactual, at least at ages
under 95 years."
Correspondence: E. Grundy, King's
College London, Age Concern Institute of Gerontology, Cornwall House,
Waterloo Road, London SE1 8TX, England. Location: Princeton
University Library (FST).
64:40150 Meslé, France; Vallin,
Jacques. Trends in mortality at advanced ages in France
since 1950. [Evolution de la mortalité aux âges
élevés en France depuis 1950.] INED Dossiers et
Recherches, No. 68, Apr 1998. 41 pp. Institut National d'Etudes
Démographiques [INED]: Paris, France. In Fre.
This analysis
focuses on trends in mortality among the elderly in France since 1950.
The authors note that most of the gains in life expectancy that have
occurred since 1950 have been due to increased life expectancy among
the older population. These trends in mortality are analyzed separately
by sex, cause, region, and social class.
Correspondence:
Institut National d'Etudes Démographiques, 133 boulevard
Davout, 75980 Paris Cedex 20, France. E-mail: ined@ined.fr.
Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).
64:40151 Oman, Douglas; Reed, Dwayne.
Religion and mortality among the community-dwelling elderly.
American Journal of Public Health, Vol. 88, No. 10, Oct 1998. 1,469-75
pp. Washington, D.C. In Eng.
The relationship between religious
observance and mortality is analyzed using data on some 2,000 elderly
residents of Marin County, California. The data were collected over the
course of the early 1990s. The results indicate that those who attended
religious services had lower mortality than those that did not, and
that religious attendance tended to be slightly more protective for
those with higher levels of social support.
Correspondence:
D. Oman, Buck Center for Research in Aging, 8001 Redwood
Boulevard, P.O. Box 638, Novato, CA 94948. E-mail:
oman@stat.berkeley.edu. Location: Princeton University Library
(SZ).
Studies that present actual life table data and all studies concerned primarily with life tables, including the appropriate methodological studies. Life table studies that are concerned with topics other than mortality are classified under the appropriate heading and cross-referenced to this heading.
64:40152 Belgium. Institut National de
Statistique (Brussels, Belgium). Life tables, 1997 and
1995-1997. [Tables de mortalité 1997 et 1995-1997.]
Statistiques Démographiques, 1998. 113 pp. Brussels, Belgium. In
Fre.
Life tables are presented for Belgium for 1997 by sex and
major region, and for the period 1995-1997 by sex, region, and
province, and separately for the Belgian and the foreign
population.
Correspondence: Institut National de
Statistique, 44 rue de Louvain, Centre Albert, 8e étage, 1000
Brussels, Belgium. Location: Princeton University Library
(SPR).
64:40153 Craig, John. To be or
not to be--what are the odds? Statistical News, No. 119, Spring
1998. 23-32 pp. London, England. In Eng.
Some aspects of life
expectancies in England are analyzed, with the focus on quantifying the
variations in length of life by looking at an individual's chances of
an early death or of having an exceptionally long life. The author
examines how these differences in individual length of life are related
to underlying patterns of mortality.
Location: Princeton
University Library (PR).
64:40154 Czech Republic. Ceský
Statistický Úrad (Prague, Czech Republic).
Abbreviated life tables for the districts of the Czech Republic,
1991-1995. [Zkrácené úmrtnostní
tabulky za okresy CR v letech 1991-1995.] Ceská Statistika, No.
4, ISBN 80-85949-58-X. 1996. 88 pp. Prague, Czech Republic. In Cze.
Abbreviated life tables are presented for the Czech Republic by
district and sex for the period 1991-1995.
Correspondence:
Ceský Statistický Úrad, Sokolovská
142, 186 04 Prague 8, Czech Republic. Location: Princeton
University Library (SPR).
64:40155 Lamur, H. E.; Bottse, R.; Rozenblad,
C. O. N. Rise of the expectation of life in Suriname,
1964-1995. Life tables for Suriname, 1980-1995. [Stijging van de
levensverwachting in Suriname 1964-1995. Sterftetafels voor Suriname,
1980-1995.] 1998. 30 pp. Census Bureau: Paramaribo, Suriname. In Dut.
with sum. in Eng.
"The publication presents both an analysis
of mortality tables for the period 1980-1995 and an overview of the
results of mortality tables for the pre-1980 period, in Suriname. The
analysis shows that the expectation of life at birth for the Surinamese
population as a whole (males and females) rose rapidly from 63.0 year
in 1964 to 66.5 year [in] 1979.... The rising trend of the expectation
of life at birth after 1964 may be considered as a continuation of the
rapid decline in (infant) mortality which began in the early twentieth
century, associated with an improvement of public health over the past
decades."
Correspondence: Census Bureau,
Coppenamestraat 170, Paramaribo, Suriname. Location: Princeton
University Library (SPR).
64:40156 Mathew, Anil C.; Krishnamoorthy,
S. Refined estimates of person years lived at infant and
childhood ages of model life tables. Demography India, Vol. 26,
No. 2, Jul-Dec 1997. 287-96 pp. Delhi, India. In Eng.
"In this
paper improved approximations for the person years lived at infant and
childhood ages are obtained for the most commonly used model life
tables, namely Regional Model Life Tables (Coale and Demeny, 1983) and
Model Life Tables For Developing Countries (United Nations, 1982).
Using Weibull parameterisation, the refined estimates are arrived at
and compared with [the originals]."
Correspondence: A.
C. Mathew, Bharathiar University, Department of Statistics, Coimbatore
641 046, India. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).
Studies on the ratio of mortality in different subgroups of a population, classified according to certain criteria, such as sex, social class, occupation, and marital status. Also includes studies on excess mortality and comparative mortality.
64:40157 Daly, Mary C.; Duncan, Greg J.;
Kaplan, George A.; Lynch, John W. Macro-to-micro links in
the relation between income inequality and mortality. Milbank
Quarterly, Vol. 76, No. 3, 1998. 315-39 pp. Cambridge, Massachusetts.
In Eng.
The authors apply "a variety of inequality measures,
including one that accounts separately for inequality in the top and
bottom halves of the income distribution, and [use] longitudinal data
from the [U.S.] Panel Study of Income Dynamics covering the years 1978
to 1982 and 1988 to 1992, to relate state-level income inequality to
the five-year, age-adjusted mortality risk of individuals. Our findings
suggest that inequality is not a simple, unidimensional factor and that
the significant links between inequality and mortality found at the
aggregate level do not always carry over to the individual
level."
Correspondence: G. J. Duncan, Northwestern
University, Institute for Policy Research, 2040 Sheridan Road,
Evanston, IL 60208. E-mail: greg-duncan@nwu.edu. Location:
Princeton University Library (SPR).
64:40158 Dickman, Paul W.; Auvinen, Anssi;
Voutilainen, Esko T.; Hakulinen, Timo. Measuring social
class differences in cancer patient survival: is it necessary to
control for social class differences in general population mortality? A
Finnish population-based study. Journal of Epidemiology and
Community Health, Vol. 52, No. 11, Nov 1998. 727-34 pp. London,
England. In Eng.
"This study determined the degree to which
the choice of survival measure affects the estimation of social class
differences in cancer patient survival [in Finland].... The degree of
variation in relative survival resulting from social class decreased,
although did not disappear, after controlling for social class
differences in general mortality. The results obtained using corrected
survival were close to those obtained using relative survival with a
social class correction. The differences between the three measures
were largest when the proportion of deaths from other causes was
large...."
Correspondence: P. W. Dickman, Karolinska
University Hospital, Department of Cancer Epidemiology, Radiumhemmet,
171 76 Stockholm, Sweden. Location: Princeton University
Library (SPR).
64:40159 Dontas, A. S.; Menotti, A.; Aravanis,
C.; Ioannidis, P.; Seccareccia, F. Comparative total
mortality in 25 years in Italian and Greek middle aged rural men.
Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, Vol. 52, No. 10, Oct
1998. 638-44 pp. London, England. In Eng.
"Mortality over 25
years has been low in the Italian and very low in the Greek cohorts of
the Seven Countries Study; factors responsible for this particularity
were studied in detail.... Higher mortality in Italian men is related
to stronger positive effects of entry SBP [systolic blood pressure] and
weaker negative (protective) effects of FEV [forced expiratory volume];
in addition 10 year increases in SBP are higher and 10 year decreases
in FEV are larger in Italy. Unaccounted factors, however, related to,
for example, differences in the diet, may also have contributed to the
differential mortality of these two Mediterranean
populations."
Correspondence: A. S. Dontas, Centre of
Studies of Age-Related Changes in Man, 137 Kifissias Avenue, Athens,
Greece. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).
64:40160 Elo, Irma T. Adult
mortality among Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders: a review of the
evidence. In: Minorities, aging, and health, edited by Kyriakos S.
Markides and Manuel R. Miranda. 1997. 41-78 pp. Sage Publications:
Thousand Oaks, California/London, England. In Eng.
"This
chapter reviews and evaluates recent evidence on mortality estimates
among Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the United States by
age, sex, and ethnic origin. The emphasis is on mortality at adult ages
in the 1989-1991 period in comparison to White Americans.... I begin by
discussing the ethnic and demographic composition of the Asian and
Pacific Islander population in the United States and the availability
of national-level data for the study of health and mortality among this
population subgroup.... I then examine mortality differentials at adult
ages among Chinese, Japanese, Filipinos, Other Asians and Pacific
Islanders, and all Asian and Pacific Islanders combined with reference
to White Americans.... In the discussion of mortality among Asians and
Pacific Islanders, I also review issues related to data quality. Here I
examine evidence of studies that investigated the consistency of
reporting of race in vital statistics and census data.... The focus
then shifts to an analysis of mortality among Asians and Pacific
Islanders based on linked data files, and I end with a discussion of
cause-specific mortality differentials."
Correspondence:
I. T. Elo, University of Pennsylvania, Population Studies Center,
3718 Locust Walk, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6298. Location:
Princeton University Library (FST).
64:40161 Hummer, Robert A.; Rogers, Richard
G.; Eberstein, Isaac W. Sociodemographic differentials in
adult mortality: a review of analytic approaches. Population and
Development Review, Vol. 24, No. 3, Sep 1998. 553-78, 669, 671 pp. New
York, New York. In Eng. with sum. in Fre; Spa.
"Following a
discussion of the conventional approaches used to analyze differentials
in adult mortality, the authors pose a series of questions aimed at
encouraging research on differential mortally along new, causally
pertinent directions. These include the modeling of differential
mortality in a proximate determinants perspective, the incorporation of
time into differential mortality models, the inclusion of more refined
outcome measures, and the use of a macro-level perspective to better
understand mortality differentials. Examples of recent [U.S.] studies
expanding in these directions are briefly described."
This
paper was originally presented at the 1996 Annual Meeting of the
Population Association of America.
Correspondence: R. A.
Hummer, University of Texas, Population Research Center, 1800 Main,
Austin, TX 78712-1088. E-mail: rhummer@prc.utexas.edu. Location:
Princeton University Library (SPR).
64:40162 John, Robert. Aging and
mortality among American Indians: concerns about the reliability of a
crucial indicator of health status. In: Minorities, aging, and
health, edited by Kyriakos S. Markides and Manuel R. Miranda. 1997.
79-104 pp. Sage Publications: Thousand Oaks, California/London,
England. In Eng.
This study examines the three main factors that
complicate the analysis of mortality trends among elderly American
Indians in the United States. "A first major problem is a
misclassification in the underlying cause of death. A second major
problem is the misidentification of the race of the decedent. Finally,
mortality figures are influenced by the accuracy of the American Indian
population estimates." The author concludes that "because of
what we know about the problems with American Indian mortality data,
our current understanding of American Indian mortality and other
indicators of health status, such as life expectancy, must be
interpreted with caution."
Correspondence: R. John,
University of North Texas, Department of Applied Gerontology, Denton,
TX 76203-3826. Location: Princeton University Library (FST).
64:40163 Manton, Kenneth G.; Stallard,
Eric. Non-white and white age trajectories of mortality:
evidence from extinct cohort analyses, 1950 to 1992. In:
Minorities, aging, and health, edited by Kyriakos S. Markides and
Manuel R. Miranda. 1997. 15-40 pp. Sage Publications: Thousand Oaks,
California/London, England. In Eng.
The authors analyze total and
cause-specific mortality patters for whites and non-whites in the
United States for the period 1950-1992. "In those data, we saw
clear evidence of a Black/White mortality crossover for the three
oldest cohorts in terms of the overall age pattern of decline in each
of the cohort mortality rates. The absolute levels of mortality
crossover at about age 76 for males and between ages 65 and 75 for
females in 1970 in the two older cohorts. The crossovers were manifest
in the same two cohorts, to a greater degree, in 1980. In contrast to
total mortality, total cancer mortality showed no evidence of a trend
toward crossover in any of the five cohorts." The authors conclude
that this crossover effect is unlikely to be due primarily to age
misreporting, but that "the patterns observed seemed to be
consistent with a number of insights from the genetic and molecular
epidemiology of cancer risks and their differences by both gender and
race."
Correspondence: K. G. Manton, Duke University,
Center for Demographic Studies, 2117 Campus Drive, Durham, NC 27706.
Location: Princeton University Library (FST).
64:40164 Michalek, Joel E.; Ketchum, Norma S.;
Akhtar, Fatema Z. Postservice mortality of U.S. Air Force
veterans occupationally exposed to herbicides in Vietnam: 15-year
follow-up. American Journal of Epidemiology, Vol. 148, No. 8, Oct
15, 1998. 786-92 pp. Baltimore, Maryland. In Eng.
Results are
presented from an ongoing study into the mortality of U.S. veterans of
Operation Ranch Hand, the unit responsible for the aerial spraying of
herbicides during the Vietnam War. Some 19,080 veterans are included in
the study. The results indicate that the cumulative all-cause mortality
experience of these veterans was not different from that for veterans
in general. "Overall, cause-specific mortality did not differ from
that expected regarding deaths from accidents, cancer, or circulatory
system diseases, but the authors found that there was an increased
number of deaths due to digestive diseases.... When analyzing by
military occupation, they found an increase in the number of deaths
caused by circulatory system diseases...among enlisted ground
personnel, the subgroup with the highest dioxin
levels."
Correspondence: J. E. Michalek, AFRL/HEDB,
2606 Doolittle Road, Building 807, Brooks Air Force Base, TX
78235-5250. Location: Princeton University Library (SZ).
64:40165 Preston, Samuel H.; Hill, Mark E.;
Drevenstedt, Greg L. Childhood conditions that predict
survival to advanced ages among African-Americans. Social Science
and Medicine, Vol. 47, No. 9, Nov 1998. 1,231-46 pp. Exeter, England.
In Eng.
"This paper investigates the social and economic
circumstances of childhood that predict the probability of survival to
age 85 among African-Americans. It uses a unique study design in which
survivors are linked to their records in U.S. Censuses of 1900 and
1910. A control group of age and race-matched children is drawn from
Public Use Samples for these censuses. It concludes that the factors
most predictive of survival are farm background, having literate
parents, and living in a two-parent household. Results support the
interpretation that death risks are positively correlated over the life
cycle."
Correspondence: S. H. Preston, University of
Pennsylvania, Population Studies Center, 3718 Locust Walk,
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6298. Location: Princeton University
Library (PR).
64:40166 Tickle, Leonie. The sex
differential in mortality rates and underlying factors. Actuarial
Studies and Demography Research Paper, No. 006/97, ISBN 1-86408-360-3.
Mar 1997. 42, [9] pp. Macquarie University, School of Economic and
Financial Studies: Sydney, Australia. In Eng.
"This paper
examines the sex differential in population mortality in Australia, and
the possible factors underlying this differential. The five main cause
of death groups which contribute to the current sex differential in
mortality in Australia are ischaemic heart disease, lung and related
cancers, respiratory disease, cancers except lung and related cancers,
and accidents and suicide. For each of these causes of death, the sex
differential in mortality in different countries and over time in
Australia has been presented. Research on the various
genetic/biological and lifestyle environmental factors which are
thought to be associated with each of these causes of death is also
presented. The overall conclusion is that the data and research suggest
that environmental and lifestyle factors make an important contribution
to the sex differential in mortality in
Australia."
Correspondence: Macquarie University,
School of Economic and Financial Studies, Sydney, NSW 2109, Australia.
Author's E-mail: ltickle@efs.mq.edu.au. Location: University
of Pennsylvania, Demography Library, Philadelphia, PA.
64:40167 Waitzman, Norman J.; Smith, Ken
R. Separate but lethal: the effects of economic
segregation on mortality in metropolitan America. Milbank
Quarterly, Vol. 76, No. 3, 1998. 341-73 pp. Cambridge, Massachusetts.
In Eng.
"This study both theoretically extends and empirically
refines the burgeoning literature that links socioeconomic disparities
to mortality. Its major theoretical extension rests with the formal
consideration of the emerging areal configuration of socioeconomic
inequalities and the potential relation of this pattern to mortality
risk.... We focus our analysis on the issues of the relevant unit of
space for the analysis and how the socioeconomic configuration of
residence within that unit relates to health." The geographical
focus is on the United States.
Correspondence: N. J.
Waitzman, University of Utah, Department of Economics, 1645 East
Central Campus Drive Front, Salt Lake City, UT 84112-9300.
Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).
64:40168 Wannamethee, S. Goya; Shaper, A.
Gerald; Walker, Mary. Changes in physical activity,
mortality, and incidence of coronary heart disease in older men.
Lancet, Vol. 351, No. 9116, May 30, 1998. 1,603-8 pp. New York, New
York/London, England. In Eng.
"In 1978-80 (Q1), 7,735 men aged
40-59 were...enrolled in a prospective study of cardiovascular disease,
which included physical activity data. In 1992 (Q92), 12-14 years
later, 5,934 of the men...gave further information on physical activity
and were then followed up for a further 4 years. The main endpoints
were all-cause mortality during 4 years of follow-up from Q92, and
major fatal and non-fatal coronary-heart-disease events during 3 years
of follow-up from Q92." The study found that maintaining or taking
up light physical activity reduced mortality and heart attacks in older
men, even after adjusting for confounding
factors.
Correspondence: S. G. Wannamethee, Royal Free
Hospital School of Medicine, Department of Primary Care and Population
Sciences, London NW3 2PF, England. Location: Princeton
University Library (SZ).
64:40169 Yaari, Shlomit; Goldbourt,
Uri. Voluntary and involuntary weight loss: associations
with long term mortality in 9,228 middle-aged and elderly men.
American Journal of Epidemiology, Vol. 148, No. 6, Sep 15, 1998. 546-55
pp. Baltimore, Maryland. In Eng.
The association between changes in
body weight and subsequent mortality is explored using data from the
Israeli Ischemic Heart Disease Study on 9,228 men aged 40-65 who were
observed over the period 1963-1968. "Being on a slimming diet as
reported in 1963, was associated with an approximate doubling of excess
mortality in men with extreme weight loss. Weight loss in 1963-1968
coincided with an increased incidence of coronary heart disease and
diabetes mellitus and a declining level of serum total cholesterol.
This and other studies indicate that both voluntary and involuntary
weight loss might be associated with a small increase in the risk of
all-cause mortality."
Correspondence: S. Yaari,
Bar-Ilan University, Computing Center, 52 900 Ramat-Gan, Israel.
Location: Princeton University Library (SZ).
Studies of demographic relevance on causes of death. Studies of morbidity and of public health measures are included only if they relate specifically to mortality. Also included are maternal mortality and comparisons of causes.
64:40170 Akopyan, A.; Mishiev, V.; Kharchenko,
V.; Dudaev, V.; Ioffina, O. Changes in levels of morbidity
and mortality from "socially marked" (sociopathological)
diseases in present-day Russia. [Dinamika urovnei zabolevaemosti i
smertnosti ot boleznei, imeyushchikh "sotsial'nuyu okrasku"
(sotsiopatii) v sovremennoi Rossii.] Voprosy Statistiki, No. 3, 1998.
87-92 pp. Moscow, Russia. In Rus.
Trends in mortality and morbidity
from causes defined as sociopathological in contemporary Russia are
analyzed. Causes of death coming under this definition include deaths
from suicide, drug abuse, alcohol abuse, sexually transmitted diseases,
tuberculosis, and AIDS.
Location: Princeton University
Library (SPR).
64:40171 Anandalakshmy, P. N.; Buckshee,
K. Maternal mortality in a referral hospital of northern
India: a sixteen-year review. Journal of Family Welfare, Vol. 43,
No. 3, Sep 1997. 1-4 pp. Mumbai, India. In Eng.
"In this
paper, maternal mortality is reviewed retrospectively during the
sixteen-year period beginning 1st April 1979 to 31st March 1995 in the
AIIMS (All India Institute of Medical Sciences) Hospital, New Delhi,
which is a teaching and referral hospital and caters to high risk
pregnancies. The paper is expected to throw some light on the major
causes of maternal death and how they could be prevented in developing
countries like India."
Correspondence: P. N.
Anandalakshmy, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Department of
Obstetrics and Gynaecology, New Delhi 110 029, India. Location:
Princeton University Library (SPR).
64:40172 Ashmore, J. P.; Krewski, D.;
Zielinski, J. M.; Jiang, H.; Semenciw, R.; Band, P. R.
First analysis of mortality and occupational radiation exposure
based on the National Dose Registry of Canada. American Journal of
Epidemiology, Vol. 148, No. 6, Sep 15, 1998. 564-74 pp. Baltimore,
Maryland. In Eng.
"A cohort mortality study of occupational
radiation exposure was conduced using the records of the National Dose
Registry of Canada. The cohort consisted of 206,620 individuals
monitored for radiation exposure between 1951 and 1983 with mortality
follow-up through December 31, 1987. A total of 5,426 deaths were
identified by computerized record linkage with the Canadian Mortality
Data Base. The standardized mortality ratio for all causes of death was
0.61 for both sexes combined. However, trends of increasing mortality
with cumulative exposure to whole body radiation were noted for all
causes of death in both males and females. In males, cancer mortality
appeared to increase with cumulative exposure to radiation, without any
clear relation to specific cancers. Unexplained trends of increasing
mortality due to cardiovascular diseases (males and females) and
accidents (males only) were also noted. The excess relative risk for
both sexes...is within the range of risk estimates previously reported
in the literature."
Correspondence: J. P. Ashmore,
Health Canada, Radiation Protection Bureau, 775 Brookfield Road,
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 1C1, Canada. Location: Princeton
University Library (SZ).
64:40173 Breart, Gérard.
Delayed childbearing. European Journal of Obstetrics and
Gynecology and Reproductive Biology, Vol. 75, No. 1, Dec 1997. 71-3 pp.
Limerick, Ireland. In Eng.
"Since around 1980, in countries
belonging to [the] European Union the mean maternal age at birth
increased by 1.5 [years] (from 27.1 to 28.6). This demographic change
has important consequences on the health of the mother and of the
neonate. Maternal mortality rates, stillbirth rates and frequency of
congenital anomalies are affected. Without improvement in care those
rates would have increased by 15 to 35% because of the increase of the
mean age at birth. Nevertheless it should be noted that they continue
to decrease."
Correspondence: G. Breart, INSERM,
Epidemiology Research Unit on Women and Children's Health, 123
boulevard de Port-Royal, 75014 Paris, France. E-mail:
breart@cochin.inserm.fr. Location: Princeton University
Library (SPR).
64:40174 Burnley, I. H.
Inequalities in the transition of ischaemic heart disease mortality
in New South Wales, Australia, 1969-1994. Social Science and
Medicine, Vol. 47, No. 9, Nov 1998. 1,209-22 pp. Exeter, England. In
Eng.
"This paper examines changes in ischaemic heart disease
mortality in New South Wales between 1969 and 1994.... Mortality from
ischaemic heart disease declined in all marital status and occupational
status groups, and in all geographical areas, but it declined more
slowly among never married and divorced males, among manual workers,
and in lower income areas. Whereas ischaemic heart disease mortality
was lower in most rural areas than in metropolitan Sydney at the
beginning of the period, in the 1990s it was significantly more
elevated in inland small towns and rural areas than in the metropolis.
Differentials increased over time, more especially with
males."
Correspondence: I. H. Burnley, University of
New South Wales, School of Geography, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia.
Location: Princeton University Library (PR).
64:40175 Cascioli, Raffaella; Capocaccia,
Riccardo; Simonetti, Andrea. Temporal analysis of
mortality by cause in the Campania region. [Analisi temporale
della mortalità per causa nella regione Campania.] Rapporti
ISTISAN, No. 98/14, 1998. iii, 113 pp. Istituto Superiore di
Sanità [ISTISAN]: Rome, Italy. In Ita. with sum. in Eng.
"A temporal analysis of mortality from 1970 to 1994 in the
Campania region [of Italy] articulated on a provincial level is
presented. The absolute number of deaths and standardised age rates,
calculated over quinquennial periods, for 49 causes of death and the
relative graphs on the temporal tendencies of the rates are presented.
Alongside these results, the corresponding tendencies on a national
level are reported for comparison."
Correspondence:
Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Viale Regina Elena 299, 00161
Rome, Italy. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).
64:40176 Davey Smith, George; Shipley, Martin;
Leon, David A. Height and mortality from cancer among men:
prospective observational study. British Medical Journal, Vol.
317, No. 7169, Nov 14, 1998. 1,351-6 pp. London, England. In Eng.
This study examines the relation between height and mortality from
cancer in a large cohort of men for whom data on smoking and
socioeconomic status were available. "In the Whitehall study of
London civil servants, data on employment grade, height, and smoking
behaviour were available for 17,378 men aged 40-64 who were examined
between 1967 and 1969. During follow up until 31 January 1995, 2,226 of
these men died of cancer: 725 from cancers unrelated to smoking and
1,501 from cancers related to smoking. To adjust for the potential
confounding effects of other variables proportional hazards analyses
were carried out with height as a continuous variable and age (in age
bands of five years), employment grade...and smoking behaviour...as
covariates."
Correspondence: G. Davey Smith,
University of Bristol, Department of Social Medicine, Canynge Hall,
Whiteladies Road, Bristol BS8 2PR, England. E-mail:
zetkin@bristol.ac.uk. Location: Princeton University Library
(SZ).
64:40177 Fingerhut, Lois A.; Cox, Christine
S.; Warner, Margaret. International comparative analysis
of injury mortality: findings from the ICE on injury statistics.
Advance Data from Vital and Health Statistics, No. 303, Pub. Order No.
DHHS (PHS) 98-1250. Oct 7, 1998. 20 pp. U.S. National Center for Health
Statistics [NCHS]: Hyattsville, Maryland. In Eng.
"This report
investigates international differences in injury mortality rates among
11 of the countries participating in the International Collaborative
Effort on Injury Statistics.... The cause, intent, and age-specific
injury mortality rates are calculated and presented from Australia,
Canada, Denmark, England and Wales, France, Israel, New Zealand, the
Netherlands, Norway, Scotland, and the United States. Data are
presented by cause (or mechanism) and intent (or manner of
death)...."
Correspondence: U.S. National Center for
Health Statistics, 6525 Belcrest Road, Hyattsville, MD 20782-2003.
E-mail: nchsquery@cdc.gov. Location: Princeton University
Library (SPR).
64:40178 Hallqvist, Johan; Lundberg, Michael;
Diderichsen, Finn; Ahlbom, Anders. Socioeconomic
differences in risk of myocardial infarction 1971-1994 in Sweden: time
trends, relative risks and population attributable risks.
International Journal of Epidemiology, Vol. 27, No. 3, Jun 1998. 410-5
pp. Oxford, England. In Eng.
"The general trend in incidence
of myocardial infarction (MI) in the Stockholm area changed from
increasing to decreasing around 1980. The objective of this study is to
examine time trends in incidence in major socioeconomic strata,
relative risk between socioeconomic groups and population risk
attributable to socioeconomic differences during this period.... The
increase over time of relative and population attributable risks of MI
from low socioeconomic status add to the public health importance of
social inequity."
Correspondence: J. Hallqvist,
Karolinska Institute, Department of Public Health Sciences, Division of
Social Medicine, 171 76 Stockholm, Sweden. Location: Princeton
University Library (SPR).
64:40179 Heath, Katherine V.; Frank, Odile;
Montaner, Julio S. G.; O'Shaughnessy, Michael V.; Schechter, Martin T.;
Hogg, Robert S. Human immunodeficiency virus
(HIV)/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) mortality in
industrialized nations, 1987-1991. International Journal of
Epidemiology, Vol. 27, No. 4, Aug 1998. 685-90 pp. Oxford, England. In
Eng.
The authors "compare patterns of human immunodeficiency
virus (HIV)/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) mortality in 11
selected industrialized countries with highly developed death
registration systems and a broad range of cumulative AIDS incidence
rates.... A total of 141,534 deaths were attributed to HIV/AIDS
(126,224 in men and 15,310 in women) in the 11 countries from 1987 to
1991.... This historical demographic analysis indicates that mortality
resulting from HIV infection and AIDS among men and women varies
considerable by country. Rates of death were highest in the U.S. and
lowest in Australia, the Netherlands, and New
Zealand."
Correspondence: R. S. Hogg, BC Centre for
Excellence in HIV/AIDS, 608-1081 Burrard Street, Vancouver, British
Columbia V6Z 1Y6, Canada. Location: Princeton University
Library (SPR).
64:40180 Hummer, Robert A.; Nam, Charles B.;
Rogers, Richard G. Adult mortality differentials
associated with cigarette smoking in the USA. Population Research
and Policy Review, Vol. 17, No. 3, Jun 1998. 285-304 pp. Dordrecht,
Netherlands. In Eng.
"Data from the 1986 [U.S.] National
Mortality Followback Survey are related to data from the 1985 and 1987
National Health Interview Survey supplements to assess the
smoking-related mortality differentials. We find that cigarette smoking
is associated with higher mortality for all population categories
studied, that the smoking mortality differentials vary across the
different smoking status categories and by demographic group, and that
mortality differentials vary according to whether underlying cause or
multiple cause patterns of death are examined. Moreover, the multiple
cause analysis highlights otherwise obscured smoking-mortality
relations and points to the importance of respiratory diseases and
cancers other than lung cancer for cigarette smoking
research."
Correspondence: R. A. Hummer, University of
Texas, Population Research Center, 1800 Main, Austin, TX 78712-1088.
E-mail: rhummer@prc.utexas.edu. Location: Princeton University
Library (SPR).
64:40181 Hussey, Jon M. The
effects of race, socioeconomic status, and household structure on
injury mortality in children and young adults. Maternal and Child
Health Journal, Vol. 1, No. 4, Dec 1997. 217-27 pp. New York, New York.
In Eng.
"Injuries are the leading killer of young persons in
the United States, yet significant gaps in our understanding of this
cause of death remain. By examining the independent influences of race,
education, income, household structure, and residential location on
injury mortality in young persons, this study addresses these gaps....
Using data from the National Longitudinal Mortality Study, survival
analysis is used to examine the injury mortality risk faced by 0 to 17
year olds over a nine-year follow-up period. Separate models are
estimated for homicide, suicide, unintentional injury deaths, and all
injury deaths. [Results indicate that] household head's education has
an independent effect on youth homicide and unintentional injury
mortality risk. By contrast, family income and household structure do
not have independent effects on any of the injury outcomes. Finally,
much of the excess homicide risk faced by young African-Americans is
explained by underlying racial differentials in socioeconomic status,
household structure, and residential
location."
Correspondence: J. M. Hussey, University of
North Carolina, School of Public Health, Department of Maternal and
Child Health, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7400. E-mail: jhussey@sph.unc.edu.
Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).
64:40182 Imaizumi, Yoko.
Mortality study of ten neurological diseases in Japan,
1950-1994. Jinko Mondai Kenkyu/Journal of Population Problems,
Vol. 53, No. 1, 1997. 21-44 pp. Tokyo, Japan. In Jpn. with sum. in Eng.
"The present study deals with the secular changes in the death
rates from ten neurological diseases [in Japan] using data on vital
statistics during the period from 1950 to 1994." Aspects
considered include age-adjusted mortality rates, sex factors, and
marital status.
Location: Princeton University Library
(SPR).
64:40183 Jee, Sun Ha; Kim, Il Soon; Suh, Il;
Shin, Dongchun; Appel, Lawrence J. Projected mortality
from lung cancer in South Korea, 1980-2004. International Journal
of Epidemiology, Vol. 27, No. 3, Jun 1998. 365-9 pp. Oxford, England.
In Eng.
"In recent years, mortality from lung cancer has
increased rapidly in [South] Korea, a South East Asian country with a
high prevalence of smoking. The objectives of this study are to examine
how age, period, and birth cohort effects contributed to trends in lung
cancer mortality in Korea 1980-1994, and to predict lung cancer
mortality rates for 1995-2004.... [The] results, in conjunction with
trends in tobacco consumption, indicate that mortality from lung cancer
in both men and women will increase substantially through the early
part of the 21st century in Korea."
Correspondence: S.
H. Jee, Yonsei University Graduate School of Health Science and
Management, Department of Epidemiology and Disease Control, P.O. Box
8044, Seoul, Republic of Korea. Location: Princeton University
Library (SPR).
64:40184 Jejeebhoy, Shireen J.
Maternal mortality and morbidity in India: priorities for social
science research. Journal of Family Welfare, Vol. 43, No. 2, Jun
1997. 31-52 pp. Mumbai, India. In Eng.
"The objective of this
paper is to review what we know about maternal health and mortality in
India, its levels and patterns, and to identify substantive social
science research gaps in this area." Aspects considered include
women's autonomy, socioeconomic status, accessibility and quality of
health services, and community-level indicators.
Correspondence:
S. J. Jejeebhoy, 16-A Seth Minar, G. Deshmukh Marg, Mumbai 400
026, India. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).
64:40185 Johnson, Nan E.; Christenson, Bruce
A. Socio-demographic correlates of multiple causes of
death: real or artifactual? Population Research and Policy Review,
Vol. 17, No. 3, Jun 1998. 261-74 pp. Dordrecht, Netherlands. In Eng.
"The socio-demographic and epidemiological correlates of the
total number of causes of death (TC) reported on death certificates
were examined with multiple classification analysis (MCA). The data
were all death certificates on white and black adult residents of
Michigan who died at ages 25 or older in 1989 to 1991 (n=222,763). TC
was the sum of every morbid condition named as an underlying,
intermediate, or immediate cause of death, or other medical condition
contributing to death but not to its underlying cause.... While sex
differences were generally not significant within racial groups,
somewhat higher average TCs were found for blacks than whites and for
lesser educated than for more educated decedents. These patterns of TC
by race and education may reflect lifetime disadvantages faced by
blacks and the less educated to health care or information about health
practices."
Correspondence: N. E. Johnson, Michigan
State University, Department of Sociology, Berkey Hall, East Lansing,
MI 48824-1111. E-mail: nan.johnson@ssc.msu.edu. Location:
Princeton University Library (SPR).
64:40186 Kelly, Sue; Bunting, Julia.
Trend in suicide in England and Wales, 1982-96. Statistical
News, No. 119, Spring 1998. 8-22 pp. London, England. In Eng.
Trends in suicide in England and Wales for the period 1982-1986 are
analyzed by age, sex, method of suicide, and occupation. The authors
also consider trends in factors associated with an increased risk of
suicide, such as marital status, drug and alcohol misuse, imprisonment,
and AIDS.
Correspondence: S. Kelly, Office for National
Statistics, Demography and Health Division, 1 Drummond Gate, London
SW1V 2QQ, England. Location: Princeton University Library
(PR).
64:40187 Liu, Bo-Qi; Peto, Richard; Chen,
Zheng-Ming; Boreham, Jillian; Wu, Ya-Ping; Li, Jun-Yao; Campbell, T.
Colin; Chen, Jun-Shi. Emerging tobacco hazards in China:
1. Retrospective proportional mortality study of one million
deaths. British Medical Journal, Vol. 317, No. 7170, Nov 21, 1998.
1,411-22 pp. London, England. In Eng.
An attempt is made to assess
the growing epidemic of tobacco-related mortality in China. Data are
from interviews with the surviving relatives of the one million or so
individuals who died from this cause during the period 1986-1988. The
authors conclude that "at current age specific death rates in
smokers and non-smokers one in four smokers would be killed by tobacco,
but as the epidemic grows this proportion will roughly double. If
current smoking uptake rates persist in China (where about two thirds
of men but few women become smokers) tobacco will kill about 100
million of the 0.3 billion males now aged 0-29, with half these deaths
in middle age and half in old age."
For Part 2, by Shi-Ru Niu
et al., see elsewhere in this issue.
Correspondence: B.-Q.
Liu, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, National Cancer Institute,
Department of Epidemiology, Panjiayuan, Chaoyang District, Beijing
100021, China. E-mail: gale.mead@ctsu.ox.ac.uk. Location:
Princeton University Library (SZ).
64:40188 McMichael, Anthony J.; Anderson, H.
Ross; Brunekreef, Bert; Cohen, Aaron J. Inappropriate use
of daily mortality analyses to estimate longer-term mortality effects
of air pollution. International Journal of Epidemiology, Vol. 27,
No. 3, Jun 1998. 450-3 pp. Oxford, England. In Eng.
The authors
critically examine the use of daily time-series mortality analyses to
estimate the long-term effects of air pollution. "Such
calculations are inappropriate. Since daily time-series data provide no
simple direct information about the degree of life-shortening
associated with the excess daily deaths (many of which are thought to
be due to exacerbation of well-advanced disease, especially
cardiovascular disease), such data cannot contribute to the estimation
of the effects of air pollution upon chronic disease incidence and
long-term death rates."
Correspondence: A. J.
McMichael, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Department
of Epidemiology and Population Health, Keppel Street, London WC1E 7HT,
England. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).
64:40189 Molineaux, L. Malaria
and mortality: some epidemiological considerations. Annals of
Tropical Medicine and Parasitology, Vol. 91, No. 7, Oct 1997. 811-25
pp. Abingdon, England. In Eng.
"Malaria can, a priori, kill on
its own (`direct' malaria mortality) or in conjunction with some other
cause(s) (`indirect' malaria mortality).... There is currently a
controversy about the long-term impact on mortality of reducing the
intensity of malaria transmission from `high' to `intermediate', given
the expected loss of immunity.... A tentative numerical exploration of
the problem, using a simple demographic model, indicates that, if
indirect malaria mortality is important and the other causes of death
are concentrated in early life, the long-term impact on all-cause
mortality of reducing exposure (although less than the short-term) will
probably always be beneficial, even if there is some increase in direct
malaria mortality."
Correspondence: L. Molineaux,
Peney-dessus, 1242 Satigny, Geneva, Switzerland. Location:
Princeton University Library (SPR).
64:40190 Motashaw, Nergesh D.
Root causes of maternal mortality: infancy to motherhood.
Journal of Family Welfare, Vol. 43, No. 2, Jun 1997. 4-7 pp. Mumbai,
India. In Eng.
The author discusses the primary causes of maternal
mortality in India. The impact of inequalities between men and women on
maternal mortality is considered.
Correspondence: N. D.
Motashaw, Family Planning Association of India, Bajaj Bhavan, Nariman
Point, Mumbai 400 021, India. Location: Princeton University
Library (SPR).
64:40191 Niu, Shi-Ru; Yang, Gong-Huang; Chen,
Zheng-Ming; Wang, Jun-Ling; Wang, Gong-Hao; He, Xing-Zhou; Schoepff,
Helen; Boreham, Jillian; Pan, Hong-Chao; Peto, Richard.
Emerging tobacco hazards in China: 2. Early mortality results from
a prospective study. British Medical Journal, Vol. 317, No. 7170,
Nov 21, 1998. 1,423-4 pp. London, England. In Eng.
Preliminary
results are presented from a prospective study of smoking and mortality
in China involving 224,500 men over 40 in 1991 who will be followed up
over several decades. The study will provide estimates of
cause-specific mortality for both smokers and non-smokers standardized
for area, age, and use of alcohol. "This prospective study and the
accompanying retrospective study show that by 1990 smoking was already
causing about 12% of Chinese male mortality in middle age. This
proportion is predicted to rise to about 33% by 2030. Long term
continuation of the prospective study (with periodic resurveys) can
monitor the evolution of this epidemic."
For Part 1, by Bo-Qi
Liu et al., see elsewhere in this issue.
Correspondence:
S.-R. Niu, Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine, 29 Nan Wei Lu,
Beijing 100050, China. Location: Princeton University Library
(SZ).
64:40192 Pérez, G.; Pena, A.; Sala, J.;
Roset, P.; Masiá, R.; Marrugat, J. Acute myocardial
infarction case fatality, incidence and mortality rates in a population
registry in Gerona, Spain, 1990-1992. International Journal of
Epidemiology, Vol. 27, No. 4, Aug 1998. 599-604 pp. Oxford, England. In
Eng.
"The objective of the present study was to determine MI
[myocardial infarction] mortality, incidence, attack rate and 28-day
case fatality in the province of Gerona, Spain from 1990 to 1992....
Myocardial infarction, incidence, mortality rates and case fatality in
Gerona are among the lowest in the world. Age-adjusted case fatality
within 28 days is only marginally higher in women than in men, but
fatal cases occur later within this period in
women."
Correspondence: J. Marrugat, Institut
Municipal d'Investigació Mèdica, Unitat de Lipids i
Epidemiologia Cardiovascular, Carrer Dr. Aiguader 80, 08003 Barcelona,
Spain. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).
64:40193 Ronsmans, Carine; Vanneste, Anne M.;
Chakraborty, Jyotshamoy; Van Ginneken, Jeroen. A
comparison of three verbal autopsy methods to ascertain levels and
causes of maternal deaths in Matlab, Bangladesh. International
Journal of Epidemiology, Vol. 27, No. 4, Aug 1998. 660-6 pp. Oxford,
England. In Eng.
"We compared the levels and causes of
maternal mortality in three data sources from Matlab, Bangladesh: (1)
maternal deaths identified through a unique demographic surveillance
system (DSS); (2) maternal deaths identified as a result of a previous
detailed investigation into the levels and causes of maternal
mortality; and (3) maternal deaths identified in the current special
study.... There were substantial disagreements between the routine
reporting and the special studies.... This study confirms the known
difficulties in the ascertainment of the levels and causes of maternal
mortality."
Correspondence: C. Ronsmans, Institute of
Tropical Medicine, Epidemiology Unit, Department of Clinical Sciences,
155 Nationalestraat, 2000 Antwerp, Belgium. Location:
Princeton University Library (SPR).
64:40194 Ronsmans, Carine; Campbell,
Oona. Short birth intervals don't kill women: evidence
from Matlab, Bangladesh. Studies in Family Planning, Vol. 29, No.
3, Sep 1998. 282-90 pp. New York, New York. In Eng.
"This
study reviews the literature for evidence supporting an association
between short birth intervals and maternal mortality and presents
empirical evidence to address the question of whether short
birth-to-conception intervals alter the risk of maternal death. In this
nested case-control study selected from a cohort of women under
demographic surveillance in Matlab, Bangladesh, the length of the
preceding birth-to-conception interval is found not to affect the risk
of maternal mortality. These results do not support the claim that
births that are too close increase the risk of maternal
death."
Correspondence: C. Ronsmans, London School of
Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Maternal and Child Epidemiology Unit,
Keppel Street, London WC1E 7HT, England. Location: Princeton
University Library (SPR).
64:40195 Rooney, Cleone; McMichael, Anthony
J.; Kovats, R. Sari; Coleman, Michel P. Excess mortality
in England and Wales, and in Greater London, during the 1995
heatwave. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, Vol. 52,
No. 8, Aug 1998. 482-6 pp. London, England. In Eng.
The authors set
out "to assess the impact on mortality of the heatwave in England
and Wales during July and August 1995 and to describe any difference in
mortality impact between the Greater London urban population and the
national population.... An estimated 619 extra deaths...were observed
during this heatwave in England and Wales, relative to the expected
number of deaths based on the 31-day moving average for that period.
Excess deaths were apparent in all age groups, most noticeably in women
and for deaths from respiratory and cerebrovascular
disease."
Correspondence: C. Rooney, Office for
National Statistics, 1 Drummond Gate, London SW1V 2QQ, England.
Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).
64:40196 Rosamond, Wayne D.; Chambless, Lloyd
E.; Folsom, Aaron R.; Cooper, Lawton S.; Conwill, David E.; Clegg,
Limin; Wang, Chin-Hua; Heiss, Gerardo. Trends in the
incidence of myocardial infarction and in mortality due to coronary
heart disease, 1987 to 1994. New England Journal of Medicine, Vol.
339, No. 13, Sep 24, 1998. 861-7 pp. Boston, Massachusetts. In Eng.
Trends in mortality from coronary heart disease (CHD) in the United
States are analyzed using hospital admission data for 35-74 year-olds
from four different communities, representing a total of 352,481
persons in 1994. "From 1987 to 1994, we observed a stable or
slightly increasing incidence of hospitalization for myocardial
infarction. Nevertheless, there were significant annual decreases in
mortality from CHD. The decline in mortality in the four communities we
studied may be due largely to improvements in the treatment and
secondary prevention of myocardial
infarction."
Correspondence: W. D. Rosamond,
University of North Carolina, Department of Epidemiology, CB 7400,
McGavran-Greenberg Hall, Chapel Hill, NC 27599. Location:
Princeton University Library (SZ).
64:40197 Rosenbaum, Wilfred L.; Sterling,
Theodor D.; Weinkam, James J. Use of multiple surveys to
estimate mortality among never, current, and former smokers: changes
over a 20-year interval. American Journal of Public Health, Vol.
88, No. 11, Nov 1998. 1,664-8 pp. Washington, D.C. In Eng.
"This study sought to demonstrate how data from publicly
available large-scale cross-sectional health surveys can be combined to
analyze changes in mortality risks among never, current, and former
smokers.... Data from the 1966/68 and 1986 National Mortality
Follow-back Surveys and the 1970 and 1987 National Health Interview
Surveys were used to estimate the distribution of never, current, and
former smokers among the U.S. population at risk and decedents.
Standardized mortality ratios and quotients of standardized mortality
ratios were used to estimate mortality risks.... Generally, during the
period from 1966 through 1986, mortality rates in the United States for
most causes of death declined among all smoking groups. However,
mortality rates from respiratory diseases increased for current and
former smokers."
Correspondence: W. L. Rosenbaum,
Simon Fraser University, Department of Computing Science, Computational
Epidemiology Laboratory, Burnaby, British Columbia V5A 1S6, Canada.
E-mail: rosen@sfu.ca. Location: Princeton University Library
(SZ).
64:40198 Simonato, Lorenzo; Ballard, Terri;
Bellini, Pierantonio; Winkelmann, Regina. Avoidable
mortality in Europe 1955-1994: a plea for prevention. Journal of
Epidemiology and Community Health, Vol. 52, No. 10, Oct 1998. 624-30
pp. London, England. In Eng.
The authors "analyse trends of
avoidable mortality in Europe, emphasising causes of death amenable to
primary prevention through reduction of exposures, secondary prevention
through early detection and treatment, and tertiary prevention through
improved treatment and medical care. [They present a] descriptive study
of mortality from avoidable causes for the years 1955 through 1994, for
ages 5-64 at time of death.... Between 1955-59 and 1990-94, the
reduction in mortality was somewhat greater for avoidable causes than
for all causes.... Reductions in mortality were greater for causes
amenable to improved medical care.... From a geographical point of
view, there were slight differences in trends between European regions,
but overall the patterns were similar."
Correspondence:
L. Simonato, Venetian Tumour Registry, via Gattamelata 64, 35128
Padua, Italy. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).
64:40199 Spree, Reinhard. The
retreat of death: the epidemiological transition in Germany during the
nineteenth and twentieth centuries. [Der Rückzug des Todes.
Der epidemiologische Übergang in Deutschland während des 19.
und 20. Jahrhunderts.] Historical Social Research/Historische
Sozialforschung, Vol. 23, No. 1-2, 1998. 4-43 pp. Cologne, Germany. In
Ger. with sum. in Eng.
"Using the concept of the epidemiologic
transition, this paper examines the long-term changes in morbidity and
mortality in Germany during the nineteenth and twentieth century. It
focuses on the duration of the transitional phases and their main
characteristics by investigating age specific mortality rates and
causes-of-death. Applying epidemiological methods such as mean age of
death and potential years of life lost will contribute to understand
better the epidemiologic transition and its causes from the late
nineteenth century onwards. These methods have so far hardly been
applied in historical research. They will be related to the causes of
death which have been grouped together in 15
categories."
Correspondence: R. Spree,
Universität München, Seminar für Sozial- und
Wirtschaftsgeschichte, Ludwigstraße 33/III, 80539 Munich,
Germany. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).
64:40200 Sunyer, Jordi; Lamarca, Rosa; Alonso,
Jordi. Smoking after age 65 years and mortality in
Barcelona, Spain. American Journal of Epidemiology, Vol. 148, No.
6, Sep 15, 1998. 575-80 pp. Baltimore, Maryland. In Eng.
The risk
of dying associated with smoking after age 65 as well as the benefits
of giving up smoking in later life are explored using data on 477 men
in Barcelona, Spain, who were followed over the period 1986-1994. The
results confirm "that the effects of smoking extend to later life
in this elderly general population, with a magnitude as great as that
seen in previous studies with different populations. In addition, it
indicates that stopping smoking after age 65 reduces the risk of
dying."
Correspondence: J. Sunyer, Institut Municipal
d'Investigació Mèdica, Unitat de Recerca
Respiratòria i Ambiental, Barcelona, Spain. Location:
Princeton University Library (SZ).
64:40201 Szwarcwald, Célia L.;
Castilho, Euclides A. de. Mortality caused by firearms in
the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: a spatial analysis.
[Mortalidade por armas de fogo no estado do Rio de Janeiro, Brasil: uma
análise espacial.] Revista Panamericana de Salud
Pública/Pan American Journal of Public Health, Vol. 4, No. 3,
Sep 1998. 161-70 pp. Washington, D.C. In Por. with sum. in Eng.
"This study analyzes the gradual evolution of firearm
mortality rates in [the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil] from 1979 to
1992, according to sex, age, and area of residence...and uses spatial
statistical techniques to describe the propagation of this firearm
mortality epidemic in time and space. During the period analyzed,
mortality due to firearms showed the greatest increase among 15- to
19-year-old male adolescents, with yearly rates ranging from 13 to 16%,
according to area of residence.... Empirical confirmation of a general
expansion of firearm wound mortality contradicts the usual claim that
violence is concentrated in areas of extreme poverty within Brazil's
largest cities."
Correspondence: C. L. Szwarcwald,
Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Departamento de
Informações para a Saúde, Avenida Brasil 4365, CEP
21045-900, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil. E-mail:
celia@malaria.procc.fiocruz.br. Location: Princeton University
Library (SPR).
64:40202 Trevisan, Maurizio; Liu, Jian;
Bahsas, Fadlalla B.; Menotti, Alessandro. Syndrome X and
mortality: a population-based study. American Journal of
Epidemiology, Vol. 148, No. 10, Nov 15, 1998. 958-66 pp. Baltimore,
Maryland. In Eng.
"The present report analyzes the prevalence
of the cluster of metabolic abnormalities defined as syndrome X (high
blood glucose, high blood pressure, low high density lipoprotein [HDL]
cholesterol, and high triglycerides) and its impact on cardiovascular
disease mortality in a large cohort of men and women (22,561 men and
18,495 women). These individuals were participants in a series of
epidemiologic investigations of cardiovascular disease conducted in
Italy between 1978 and 1987. They were followed for an average of 7
years, during which time a total of 1,218 deaths occurred (1,003 in men
and 215 in women).... These data from a large population-based
epidemiologic investigation indicate that the presence of a full
cluster of metabolic abnormalities from syndrome X is an important risk
factor for cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality in both men
and women, but that the low prevalence of such a cluster in the
population reduces the public health impact of syndrome X. The majority
of individuals who die from cardiovascular disease present elevations
in any one, two, or three of the metabolic abnormalities. The notion of
the cluster of metabolic abnormalities (syndrome X) should not distract
our attention from established individual risk factors that have been
proven to be major causes of cardiovascular disease death and
disability in our society."
Correspondence: M.
Trevisan, University at Buffalo, Department of Social and Preventive
Medicine, 270 Farber Hall, Buffalo, NY 14214. Location:
Princeton University Library (SZ).
64:40203 United States. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention [CDC] (Atlanta, Georgia). Changes
in mortality from heart failure--United States, 1980-1995.
Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, Vol. 47, No. 30, Aug 7, 1998.
633-7 pp. Atlanta, Georgia. In Eng.
"This report summarizes
trends in mortality from heart failure in the United States for
1980-1995 and presents state-specific death rates for 1995 (the most
recent year for which such data are available). National mortality
statistics are based on information from death certificates filed in
state vital statistics offices and are compiled by
CDC."
Correspondence: U.S. Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Road NE, Atlanta, GA 30333. Location:
Princeton University Library (SPR).
64:40204 United States. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention [CDC] (Atlanta, Georgia). Maternal
mortality--United States, 1982-1996. Morbidity and Mortality
Weekly Report, Vol. 47, No. 34, Sep 4, 1998. 705-7 pp. Atlanta,
Georgia. In Eng.
"This report presents data from death
certificates compiled by CDC's National Center for Health Statistics,
which indicate that in the United States, the annual maternal mortality
ratio remained approximately 7.5 maternal deaths per 100,000 live
births during 1982-1996.... During that time, trends by race were
similar to the overall ratio, and no reductions were observed for
either black or white women. Maternal mortality ratios remained higher
for black women than for white women."
Correspondence:
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for
Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Division of
Reproductive Health (C06), Atlanta, GA 30333. Location:
Princeton University Library (SPR).
64:40205 van Beeck, Eduard F.; Looman, Caspar
W. N.; Mackenbach, Johan P. Mortality due to unintentional
injuries in the Netherlands, 1950-1995. Public Health Reports,
Vol. 113, No. 5, Sep-Oct 1998. 427-39 pp. Boston, Massachusetts. In
Eng.
The authors aim to "detect and explain changing trends in
incidence, case fatality rates, and mortality for unintentional
injuries in the Netherlands for the years 1950 through 1995.... Using
national registry data, the authors analyzed trends in traffic
injuries, occupational injuries, and home and leisure injuries....
Between 1950 and 1970, mortality from unintentional injuries rose,
reflecting an increasing incidence of injuries. This was followed by a
sharp decline in mortality due to a decreasing incidence combined with
a rapidly falling case fatality rate. Starting in the second half of
the 1980s, the decline in mortality leveled off as the incidence of
several injury subclasses once again rose."
Correspondence:
E. F. van Beeck, Erasmus University Medical School, Department of
Public Health and Social Medicine, P.O. Box 1738, 3000 DR Rotterdam,
Netherlands. E-mail: vanbeeck@mgz.fgg.eur.nl. Location:
Princeton University Library (SPR).
