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.
65:20074 Andersen, Lars B.; Vestbo,
Jørgen; Juel, Knud; Bjerg, Anders M.; Keiding, Niels; Jensen,
Gorm; Hein, Hans-Ole; Sørensen, Thorkild I. A. A
comparison of mortality rates in three prospective studies from
Copenhagen with mortality rates in the central part of the city, and
the entire country. European Journal of Epidemiology, Vol. 14, No.
6, Sep 1998. 579-85 pp. Stuttgart, Germany. In Eng.
"The aim
of this study was to describe...three large population studies from
Copenhagen [Denmark] and to examine the mortality in these studies by
comparing observed and expected number of deaths. Furthermore, we
wanted to examine differences in SMR [standardized mortality ratio]
values arising from the use of both local geographic reference rates
and national rates. Finally, we have analysed whether the gender, the
age of the participants at entry and the time of follow-up influenced
SMR values."
Correspondence: L. B. Andersen, Institute
for Physical Education, Nørre Allé 51, 2200 Copenhagen N,
Denmark. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).
65:20075 Avdeev, Alexandre; Blum, Alain;
Zakharov, Sergei; Andreev, Evgeny. The reactions of a
heterogeneous population to perturbation. An interpretative model of
mortality trends in Russia. Population: An English Selection, Vol.
10, No. 2, 1998. 267-302 pp. Paris, France. In Eng. with sum. in Fre;
Spa.
"The rapid increase in mortality in Russia during the
past ten years is perplexing.... In this paper, the authors offer a new
interpretation of these dynamics.... They suggest that recent
developments are the cumulative result of a compensation mechanism
which followed the rapid decrease in mortality which occurred around
1985, and of the continuation of a deterioration movement which began
in the early 1960s.... To prove this and to explain these rapid
fluctuations, the authors have developed a model based on hypotheses
which involve heterogeneous populations. In addition to analysing
mortality in Russia, they provide new models which relate to the
consequences of heterogeneity on the dynamics of
mortality."
For the original French version, see 63:20069.
Correspondence: A. Blum, Institut National d'Etudes
Démographiques, 133 boulevard Davout, 75980 Paris Cedex 20,
France. E-mail: blum@ined.fr. Location: Princeton University
Library (SPR).
65:20076 Bhat, P. N. Mari.
Demographic estimates for post-Independence India: a new
integration. Demography India, Vol. 27, No. 1, Jan-Jun 1998. 23-57
pp. Delhi, India. In Eng.
"The main objective of this paper is
to put forth an integrated set of estimates of fertility and mortality
for [India] as a whole, that are based upon careful weighing of
evidence from diverse sources, and employing methods that are least
susceptible to typical forms of data errors. The period under
consideration is from 1941 to 1991.... Mortality estimates are first
taken up for review as they form inputs in estimating fertility
measures from age-sex distributions of the
population."
Correspondence: P. N. M. Bhat, Institute
of Economic Growth, University Enclave, Delhi 110 007, India.
Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).
65:20077 Dobson, Mary J. Contours
of death and disease in early modern England. Cambridge Studies in
Population, Economy and Society in Past Time, No. 29, ISBN
0-521-40464-9. LC 95-43276. 1997. xix, 647 pp. Cambridge University
Press: New York, New York/Cambridge, England. In Eng.
"This
book provides [an]...account of death and disease in England during the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Using a broad interdisciplinary
perspective, and a wide range of sources for the south-east of England,
[the author] highlights the tremendous variations in levels of
mortality across geographical contours and two centuries of time. A
wide array of demographic data for over five hundred parishes is
presented to show that places, separated by an elevation of little more
than four or five hundred feet and at a distance of less than ten miles
apart, had dramatically different life expectancies and patterns of
mortality.... The author explores the epidemiological causes and
consequences of these striking mortality variations.... One of the most
exciting findings of the book is the significance of malaria in
explaining the exceptionally high death rates found within the
low-lying contours of marshland areas, and the book provides a unique
account of the history of this once endemic
disease."
Correspondence: Cambridge University Press,
Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 1RP, England.
Location: Princeton University Library (FST).
65:20078 Gómez Redondo, Rosa.
Current mortality in Spain. [La mortalidad de la España
actual.] Política y Sociedad, No. 26, Sep-Dec 1997. 41-61, 186-7
pp. Madrid, Spain. In Spa. with sum. in Eng.
"Spain has
reached the last known step of its Health Transition.... The delay in
the moment of death towards older ages [has] lead the elder population
to become the life spring of our age pyramid.... The obvious
consequence is that mortality becomes the [most] important component of
Spanish population ageing, both when it is considered in a short or a
medium term. On the other hand, in the origin of differential mortality
we found diseases that are linked to behavioural factors, which could
be considered as a consequence of diverse life styles. This is
reflected in the observed rise of [sex] differences in human mortality,
that [leads] to a feminization of the
population."
Correspondence: R. Gómez Redondo,
Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Departamento de Sociología
II, Ciudad Universitaria, 28040 Madrid, Spain. Location:
Princeton University Library (PR).
65:20079 Helweg-Larsen, Karin; Knudsen, L. B.;
Petersson, B. Women in Denmark--why do they die so young?
Risk factors for premature death. Scandinavian Journal of Social
Welfare, Vol. 7, No. 4, Oct 1998. 266-76 pp. Oxford, England. In Eng.
"In Denmark the life expectancy of women has been declining
since 1980, and is now the lowest of all OECD countries. Based upon
analyses of the different trends in mortality of 35-64-year-old women
in Denmark compared to women in Norway and Sweden, national
differentials in external determinants of morbidity and premature
mortality are described. The excess mortality of women in Denmark is
linked to lifestyle factors: tobacco smoking, alcohol and drug
consumption. We discuss the possible impact of other external
factors...."
Correspondence: K. Helweg-Larsen, Danish
Institute for Clinical Epidemiology, Svanemøllevej 25, 2100
Copenhagen 0, Denmark. E-mail: dike@dike.dk. Location:
Princeton University Library (SPR).
65:20080 Herring, D. Ann; Hoppa, Robert
D. Changing patterns of mortality seasonality among the
western James Bay Cree. International Journal of Circumpolar
Health, No. 56, 1997. 121-33 pp. Oulu, Finland. In Eng.
"Anglican Church of Canada burial records from 1851-1964 for
the Moose Factory First Nation are analysed for mortality
seasonality.... The results show a clear and statistically significant
pattern of seasonal mortality in the 19th century cohort for all three
age groups.... By the early 20th century, the seasonal pattern
disappears and the risks of death are consistent throughout the annual
cycle.... It is argued that changes in the social and economic fabric
of life, associated with the decline of the fur-trade, stimulated an
epidemiologic transition among the Moose Factory Cree by the early 20th
century...."
Correspondence: D. A. Herring, McMaster
University, Department of Anthropology, 120 Main Street West, Hamilton,
Ontario L8S 4L9, Canada. Location: Princeton University
Library (SPR).
65:20081 Heuveline, Patrick. The
unbearable uncertainty of numbers: estimating the deaths in the Khmer
Rouge period. [L'insoutenable incertitude du nombre: estimations
de décès de la période Khmer rouge.] Population,
Vol. 53, No. 6, Nov-Dec 1998. 1,103-17 pp. Paris, France. In Fre. with
sum. in Eng; Spa.
"This article presents the different methods
used to estimate mortality [in Cambodia] during the Khmer Rouge period.
They are of two main types: the sampling methods and the `residual'
method.... Estimates of the excess mortality in this period are usually
higher with the former method (between 1.5 and 2 million) than with the
second (1 million or less), except for the author's reconstruction.
This article assesses the respective advantages of the two approaches,
and attempts to explain the apparent incompatibility of the existing
estimates while considering the uncertainty that is inherent to any
measurement procedure."
Correspondence: P. Heuveline,
University of Chicago, Population Research Center, 1155 East 60th
Street, Chicago, IL 60637-2799. E-mail: p-heuveline@uchicago.edu.
Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).
65:20082 Hoppa, Robert D.
Mortality in a northern Ontario fur-trade community: Moose Factory,
1851-1964. Canadian Studies in Population, Vol. 25, No. 2, 1998.
175-98 pp. Edmonton, Canada. In Eng. with sum. in Fre.
"This
paper summarizes the results of a historical demographic study of a
Northern Ontario Aboriginal community. Data on 19th and 20th century
mortality for the community of Moose Factory are examined from Anglican
parish records.... Changing patterns of mortality over time and
differential mortality are assessed.... The implications of [the]
results are discussed in relation to changes in the frequency and
intensity of European contact and the changing socio-economic factors
related to the decline of the fur trade from the late 19th to early
20th centuries."
Correspondence: R. D. Hoppa, Max
Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Doberaner Strasse 114, 18057
Rostock, Germany. Location: Princeton University Library
(SPR).
65:20083 Kateb, Kamel. Life
expectancy at birth and excess female mortality in Algeria in
1954. [L'espérance de vie à la naissance et la
surmortalité féminine en Algérie en 1954.]
Population, Vol. 53, No. 6, Nov-Dec 1998. 1,209-26 pp. Paris, France.
In Fre.
An attempt is made to estimate levels of mortality in
colonial Algeria using methods of indirect estimation to solve the
problems posed by lack of complete and accurate vital statistics data
on mortality. The focus is on the extent of excess female
mortality.
Correspondence: K. Kateb, Institut National
d'Etudes Démographiques, 133 boulevard Davout, 75980 Paris Cedex
20, France. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).
65:20084 Lee, Wen-Chung. The
meaning and use of the cumulative rate of potential life lost.
International Journal of Epidemiology, Vol. 27, No. 6, Dec 1998.
1,053-6 pp. Oxford, England. In Eng.
The author proposes a new
index to determine years of potential life lost, "namely the
`cumulative rate of potential life lost' (CRPLL).... It serves the
purpose of between-group comparison. It can also be considered a
projection of future impact under the assumption that the age-specific
mortality rates in the current year prevail. The author uses vital
statistics in Taiwan for demonstration and compares the new index with
existing health-status measures."
Correspondence:
W.-C. Lee, National Taiwan University, Graduate Institute of
Epidemiology, No. 1 Jen-Ai Road, 1st Sec., Taipei, Taiwan.
Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).
65:20085 Royer, Heather; Smith, Gary.
Can the famous really postpone death? Social Biology, Vol. 45,
No. 3-4, Fall-Winter 1998. 302-5 pp. Port Angeles, Washington. In Eng.
"David P. Phillips has reported evidence that famous people
are often able to postpone their deaths until after a birthday. A
reexamination of Phillips' data shows some aspects of his analysis to
be questionable, including the lumping together of deaths that occur
during the birthmonth, which does not distinguish deaths that occurred
before the birthday from those that occurred afterward. A reanalysis of
his data shows that there were actually a relatively large number of
deaths in the month preceding and the months following the
birthday."
Correspondence: H. Royer, Federal Reserve
Bank of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94105. Location:
Princeton University Library (SPR).
65:20086 Thatcher, A. R. The
long-term pattern of adult mortality and the highest attained age.
Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series A: Statistics in
Society, Vol. 162, No. Pt. 1, 1999. 5-43 pp. London, England. In Eng.
"Recent new data on old age mortality point to a particular
model for the way in which the probability of dying increases with age.
The model is found to fit not only modern data but also some widely
spaced historical data for the 19th and 17th centuries, and even some
estimates for the early mediaeval period. The results show a pattern
which calls for explanation. The model can also be used to predict a
probability distribution for the highest age which will be attained in
given circumstances. The results are relevant to the current debate
about whether there is a fixed upper limit to the length of human
life." A discussion of the paper by several researchers and a
reply by the author are included.
Correspondence: A. R.
Thatcher, 129 Thetford Road, New Malden, Surrey KT3 5DS, England.
Location: Princeton University Library (PF).
65:20087 Weiss, Judy E.; Mushinski,
Margaret. International mortality rates and life
expectancy: selected countries. Statistical Bulletin, Vol. 80, No.
1, Jan-Mar 1999. 13-21 pp. Baltimore, Maryland. In Eng.
The authors
present "a comparison of all-cause mortality for selected
industrialized countries. These countries represent those with
historically low death rates and comparable vital statistics
databases." Information is included on U.S. mortality trends,
international comparisons, variations by age, and expectation of life.
"Although life expectancy values are improving in all 15
countries, U.S. longevity continues to fare poorly in comparison to
other developed countries."
Correspondence: J. E.
Weiss, Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, One Madison Avenue, New
York, NY 10010. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).
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.
65:20088 Carlson, Elwood; Hoem, Jan
M. Low-weight neonatal survival paradox in the Czech
Republic. American Journal of Epidemiology, Vol. 149, No. 5, Mar
1, 1999. 447-53 pp. Baltimore, Maryland. In Eng.
"Analysis of
vital statistics for the Czech Republic between 1986 and 1993,
including 3,254 infant deaths from 350,978 first births...revealed a
neonatal survival advantage for low-weight infants born to
disadvantaged (single, less educated) women, particularly for deaths
from congenital anomalies. This advantage largely disappeared after the
neonatal period. The same patterns have been observed for low-weight
infants born to black women in the United States. Since the Czech
Republic had an ethnically homogeneous population, virtually universal
prenatal care, and uniform institutional conditions for delivery, Czech
results must be attributed to social rather than to biologic or medical
circumstances. This strengthens the contention that in the United
States, the black neonatal survival paradox may be due as much to
race-related social stigmatization and consequent disadvantage as to
any hypothesized hereditary influences on birth-weight-specific
survival."
Correspondence: E. Carlson, University of
South Carolina, Department of Sociology, Columbia, SC 29208.
Location: Princeton University Library (SZ).
65:20089 Green, Elna C.
Infanticide and infant abandonment in the New South: Richmond,
Virginia, 1865-1915. Journal of Family History, Vol. 24, No. 2,
Apr 1999. 187-211 pp. Thousand Oaks, California. In Eng.
"This
case study of Richmond, Virginia, examines patterns of abandonment and
neonaticide [from 1865 to 1915] as documented in records of the city
almshouse and the city coroner. It demonstrates that race shaped the
options available to women with problem pregnancies in that African
American women had access to fewer social welfare institutions such as
maternity homes. As a result, unmarried black women kept their
out-of-wedlock babies more often than did whites, but they also
committed infanticide at higher rates than did
whites."
Correspondence: E. C. Green, Florida State
University, Department of History, Tallahassee, FL 32306. Location:
Princeton University Library (SPR).
65:20090 Menezes, Ana M. B.; Barros, Fernando
C.; Victora, Cesar G.; Tomasi, Elaine; Halpern, Ricardo; Oliveira,
André L. B. Risk factors for perinatal mortality in
Pelotas, Rio Grande do Sul, 1993. [Fatores de risco para
mortalidade perinatal em Pelotas, RS, 1993.] Revista de Saúde
Pública/Journal of Public Health, Vol. 32, No. 3, Jun 1998.
209-16 pp. São Paulo, Brazil. In Por. with sum. in Eng.
"Although there was a considerable reduction in infant
mortality in Pelotas, Rio Grande do Sul [Brazil] in the last decade,
its perinatal causes were reduced only by 28%. The associated factors
of these causes were analysed.... Main risk factors for perinatal
mortality [were] low socioeconomic level, maternal age above 35 years
and male sex [of child]. For early neonatal mortality the risk was
significantly increased by a smaller number of antenatal visits than 5
and low birthweight."
Correspondence: A. M. B.
Menezes, Universidade Federal de Pelotas, Faculdade de Medicina,
Departamento de Clínica Medíca, Caixa Postal 464,
96001-970 Pelotas, RS, Brazil. E-mail: anamen@nutnet.com.br.
Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).
65:20091 Wen, Shi Wu; Kramer, Michael
S. A comparison of perinatal mortality between ethnic
Chinese and ethnic whites: why the Chinese rate was lower.
Ethnicity and Health, Vol. 2, No. 3, Aug 1997. 177-82 pp. Abingdon,
England. In Eng.
Based on a review of the published literature, the
authors aim "to confirm the observation that has been occasionally
reported in the literature that perinatal mortality rate is lower in
ethnic Chinese than in ethnic whites, and to assess the reasons for
this lower perinatal mortality rate.... Perinatal mortality rate is
lower in ethnic Chinese than in ethnic whites, and...[this] is probably
caused by their favourable birth weight distribution and lower exposure
to risk factors of perinatal death by their mothers." The
geographical focus is worldwide.
Correspondence: S. W. Wen,
Bureau of Reproductive and Child Health, Laboratory Centre of Disease
Control, Building #6, First Floor P-L, 0601E2, Tunney's Pasture,
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0L2, Canada. Location: Princeton
University Library (SPR).
65:20092 Xu, Baizhuang; Järvelin,
Marjo-Riitta; Rantakallio, Paula. Maternal smoking in
pregnancy and sex differences in perinatal death between boys and
girls. Social Biology, Vol. 45, No. 3-4, Fall-Winter 1998. 273-7
pp. Port Angeles, Washington. In Eng.
"The current study
evaluated the differences in the impact of maternal smoking during
pregnancy on the risk of perinatal death between males and females. The
analysis involved 11,469 and 9,404 newborns derived from two
population-based birth cohorts in Northern Finland, for 1966 and
1985-86, respectively. The perinatal mortality rate was 23 per thousand
in the 1966 cohort and 9 per thousand in the 1985-86 cohort....
Maternal smoking during pregnancy could be an important determinant
accounting for the excess perinatal death for males over
females."
Correspondence: B. Xu, National Public
Health Institute, Unit of Environmental Epidemiology, Neulaniementie 4,
70210 Kuopio, Finland. 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.
65:20093 Alam, M. Fasihul; Islam, S. M.
Shafiqul. Infant and child mortality differentials in
Bangladesh. Journal of Family Welfare, Vol. 44, No. 3, Sep 1998.
18-27 pp. Mumbai, India. In Eng.
"This paper...seeks to
examine infant and child mortality differentials in Bangladesh caused
by selected socio-economic, environmental and demographic factors....
The data used for this study were derived from the Bangladesh Fertility
Survey (BFS)...." Factors considered include parents' educational
status, husband's occupation, religion, contraceptive use, sanitary
facilities, region of residence, and age at first
marriage.
Correspondence: M. F. Alam, University of
Chittagong, Department of Statistics, Chittagong 4331, Bangladesh.
Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).
65:20094 Bird, Sheryl T.; Bauman, Karl
E. State-level infant, neonatal, and postneonatal
mortality: the contribution of selected structural socioeconomic
variables. International Journal of Health Services, Vol. 28, No.
1, 1998. 13-27 pp. Amityville, New York. In Eng.
"The authors
examine the importance of several structural (social, economic, and
political) variables for state-level [U.S.] infant, neonatal, and
postneonatal mortality.... States with proportionately larger black
population had higher infant, neonatal, and postneonatal mortality
rates. States with greater percentages of high school graduates had
lower neonatal mortality rates but higher postneonatal mortality rates.
The findings suggest that a better understanding of the relationship
between states' social structure and infant health outcomes is needed
if state-level infant mortality is to be
reduced."
Correspondence: S. T. Bird, University of
Oregon, Center for the Study of Women in Society, 1201 University of
Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403-1201. E-mail: stbird@oregon.uoregon.edu.
Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).
65:20095 Bolivia. Ministerio de Desarrollo
Humano (La Paz, Bolivia). Estimates of infant and child
mortality in Bolivia using indirect techniques: 1990-1995.
[Estimación de la mortalidad infantil y de la niñez en
Bolivia mediante técnicas indirectas: 1990-1995.] Dec 1995. 127
pp. La Paz, Bolivia. In Spa.
This volume contains geographic
information on infant and child mortality in Bolivia. Tabular data and
maps are provided on trends for the country as a whole, for individual
departments, and for rural and urban areas.
Correspondence:
Ministerio de Desarrollo Humano, La Paz, Bolivia. Location:
Princeton University Library (SPR).
65:20096 Carmichael, Suzan L.; Iyasu, Solomon;
Hatfield-Timajchy, Kendra. Cause-specific trends in
neonatal mortality among black and white infants, United States,
1980-1995. Maternal and Child Health Journal, Vol. 2, No. 2, Jun
1998. 67-76 pp. New York, New York. In Eng.
"This report uses
U.S. vital statistics data to describe national trends in the major
causes of neonatal mortality among black and white infants from 1980 to
1995.... During the study period, neonatal mortality declined 4.0% per
year for white infants and 2.2% per year for black infants, and the
black-white gap increased from 2.0 to 2.4. By 1995, disorders relating
to short gestation and low birth weight were the number one cause of
neonatal death for black infants and the number two cause for white
infants, had the highest black-white disparity..., and accounted for
almost 40% of excess deaths to black
infants...."
Correspondence: S. L. Carmichael,
California Birth Defects Monitoring Program, 1900 Powell Street, Suite
1050, Emeryville, CA 94608. E-mail: slc@a.crl.com. Location:
Princeton University Library (SPR).
65:20097 Deshpande, R. V.
Determinants of child mortality: a district level analysis of major
Indian states. Journal of Family Welfare, Vol. 44, No. 2, Jun
1998. 43-53 pp. Mumbai, India. In Eng.
"This paper seeks to
study the factors determining child mortality in the major states of
India using 1981 data. Specifically, the intention is to study district
level variations in child mortality, as also sex differentials therein,
and factors determining child mortality in the major states of
India."
Correspondence: R. V. Deshpande, J. S. S.
Institute of Economic Research, Population Research Centre, Vidyagiri,
Dharwad 580 004, Karnataka, India. Location: Princeton
University Library (SPR).
65:20098 Fildes, Valerie. Infant
feeding practices and infant mortality in England, 1900-1919.
Continuity and Change, Vol. 13, No. 2, Aug 1998. 251-80 pp. Cambridge,
England. In Eng.
"Studies of infant mortality in both
historical and modern populations from around the world have shown that
the most important single factor affecting the infant mortality rate
(IMR) is the way in which babies are fed.... This article examines
infant feeding practices in England during the first two decades of the
twentieth century, arguably the most important 20 years in the fall in
that nation's IMR between 1870 and 1920. The 1900s and 1910s saw many
major changes in the ways in which infants were fed in all sections of
society. Instigated by government, local Medical Officers of Health and
their staff and voluntary organizations, the effect of the infant
welfare movement in England in this period was that infants and their
mothers were significantly better fed, cared for and able to resist
disease in 1919 than in 1900."
Correspondence: V.
Fildes, Holt View, Lye Hill, Breachwood Green, Hitchen, Hertfordshire
SG4 8PP, England. Location: Princeton University Library
(SPR).
65:20099 Gao, Minwen; He, Yongna; Li, Yan;
Liu, Xiulan; Li, Yizhu. An analysis of the result of life
observation of children under the age of five in Dongcheng District,
Beijing, between 1991 and 1994. Chinese Journal of Population
Science, Vol. 10, No. 1, 1998. 101-5 pp. New York, New York. In Eng.
"A Development Program for Chinese Children in the 1990s
requires that, by year 2000, infant mortality and mortality among
children under the age of five be reduced by one third of the levels in
the 1990s. In order to achieve this goal and obtain accurate statistics
of mortality among children in Dongcheng District in Beijing, the
District Maternal and Child Health Center began life observation in
1991 among children under the age of five. The result of the
observation is discussed below."
Correspondence: M.
Gao, Dongcheng District Maternal and Child Health Center, Beijing,
China. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).
65:20100 Hummer, Robert A.; Biegler, Monique;
De Turk, Peter B.; Forbes, Douglas; Frisbie, W. Parker; Ying, Hong;
Pullum, Starling G. Race/ethnicity, nativity, and infant
mortality in the United States. Social Forces, Vol. 77, No. 3, Mar
1999. 1,083-117 pp. Chapel Hill, North Carolina. In Eng.
"The
overall purpose of this article is to examine population differences in
the risk of infant mortality by race/ethnicity, with special attention
given to the influence of nativity. Data are taken from the [U.S.]
National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) linked birth/infant death
files for 1989-91.... Results show that there is wide variation in the
risk of infant death across racial/ethnic groups, with infants born to
black women suffering the highest risks and infants of Japanese women
experiencing the lowest risks. It is also clear that nativity has a
crucial impact on racial/ethnic differentials in infant mortality. In
fact, the favorable infant survival rates of many racial/ethnic groups
are largely attributable to a high percentage of births to immigrant
women, who are characterized by overall lower infant mortality than
native-born women."
This is a revised version of a paper
originally presented at the 1997 Annual Meeting of the Population
Association of America.
Correspondence: R. A. Hummer,
University of Texas, Population Research Center, 1800 Main Building,
Austin, TX 78712. E-mail: rhummer@prc.utexas.edu. Location:
Princeton University Library (SPR).
65:20101 Koupilová, Ilona; McKee,
Martin; Holcík, Jan. Neonatal mortality in the
Czech Republic during the transition. Health Policy, Vol. 46, No.
1, Oct 1998. 43-52 pp. Limerick, Ireland. In Eng.
"This paper
examines how neonatal mortality has changed in the Czech Republic
during the [1990s], examining trends in the distribution of birth
weights and in birth weight specific neonatal mortality. It examines
how these have varied in different parts of the country and, to
ascertain the scope for further improvement, it compares them with
corresponding values from Sweden, a country with one of the lowest
neonatal mortality rates in Europe."
Correspondence:
I. Koupilová, University of London, London School of
Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, European Centre on Health of Societies
in Transition, Keppel Street, London WC1E 7HT, England. E-mail:
i.koupilova@lshtm.ac.uk. Location: Princeton University
Library (SPR).
65:20102 Morrison, Anita; Stone, David H.;
Redpath, Adam; Campbell, Harry; Norrie, John. Trend
analysis of socioeconomic differentials in deaths from injury in
childhood in Scotland, 1981-95. British Medical Journal, Vol. 318,
No. 7183, Feb 27, 1999. 567-8 pp. London, England. In Eng.
Trends
in child mortality from injury in Scotland are followed over the period
1981-1995 using official data. The results indicate that, in contrast
to the situation in England and Wales, there does not seem to be a
growing mortality difference from this cause by socioeconomic status in
Scotland.
Correspondence: A. Morrison, University of
Glasgow, Paediatric Epidemiology and Community Health Unit, Department
of Child Health, Glasgow G3 8SJ, Scotland. E-mail:
Anita.Morrison@gla.ac.uk. Location: Princeton University
Library (SZ).
65:20103 Pandey, Arvind; Choe, Minja Kim;
Luther, Norman Y.; Sahu, Damodar; Chand, Jagdish. Infant
and child mortality in India. National Family Health Survey
Subject Report, No. 11, Dec 1998. 99 pp. International Institute for
Population Sciences [IIPS]: Mumbai, India. In Eng.
"This
Subject Report examines infant and child mortality and their
determinants for India as a whole and for individual states, using data
from the 1992-93 National Family Health Survey. Neonatal (first month),
postneonatal (age 1-11 months), infant (first year), and child (age 1-4
years) mortality are estimated, as well as the effects of socioeconomic
background characteristics, demographic characteristics, and mother's
health-care behaviour, using information from women's birth histories
pertaining to children born during the 12-year period before the
survey. Infant mortality declined 23 percent in India between 1981 and
1990, and child mortality declined 34 percent during the same
period." The study found substantial variation among states;
evidence for strong son preference in northern states; and substantial
effects of socioeconomic and demographic
characteristics.
Correspondence: International Institute
for Population Sciences, Govandi Station Road, Deonar, Mumbai 400 088,
India. E-mail: iips.nfhs@axcess.net.in. Location: Princeton
University Library (SPR).
65:20104 Reyes, Hortensia; Tomé,
Patricia; Gutiérrez, Gonzalo; Rodríguez, Leticia; Orozco,
Maribel; Guiscafré, Héctor. Mortality due to
diarrhea in Mexico: a problem of accessibility or quality of care?
[La mortalidad por enfermedad diarreica en México: ¿problema de
acceso o de calidad de atención?] Salud Pública de
México, Vol. 40, No. 4, Jul-Aug 1998. 316-23 pp. Morelos,
Mexico. In Spa. with sum. in Eng.
The authors "evaluate the
access to health services and the process of care provided to children
[in Mexico] under five years old who died from acute diarrhea.... The
problem of access to health services in rural communities was
confirmed. However, low quality of care provided by primary level
physicians was found in both rural and urban
areas."
Correspondence: H. Reyes, Instituto Mexicano
del Seguro Social, Unidad de Investigación Epidemiológica
y en Servicios de Salud, Avenida Cuauhtémoc 330, Colonia
Doctores 06725, Mexico, D.F., Mexico. E-mail: reymor@servidor.unam.mx.
Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).
65:20105 Ríos, Ana M.; de la Hoz,
Fernando; Leal, Aura L.; Castillo, Orlando; Castañeda,
Elizabeth. The impact of antimicrobial resistance and
capsular type distribution on the mortality of children under five
years of age with invasive disease caused by Streptococcus
pneumoniae. [Impacto de la resistencia a antimicrobianos y de
serotipos de Streptococcus pneumoniae en la mortalidad de niños
menores de 5 años con enfermedad invasora.] Revista Panamericana
de Salud Pública/Pan American Journal of Public Health, Vol.
149, No. 6, Mar 15, 1999. 69-76 pp. Washington, D.C. In Spa. with sum.
in Eng.
"The aim of this study was to determine the risk
factors associated with mortality in children [in Colombia] with
invasive pneumococcal disease.... Of the 245 patients whose charts were
examined, 29 (11%) died. No significant differences in age, gender,
underlying disease, nor antimicrobial treatment concordance were
found...."
Correspondence: A. M. Ríos,
Instituto Nacional de Salud, Grupo de Microbiología, Avenida El
Dorado, carrera 50, Santa Fe de Bogotá, Colombia. Location:
Princeton University Library (SPR).
65:20106 Rose, Elaina.
Consumption smoothing and excess female mortality in rural
India. Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 81, No. 1, Feb
1999. 41-9 pp. Cambridge, Massachusetts. In Eng.
"This paper
examines the relationship between consumption smoothing and excess
female mortality [in India], by asking if favorable rainfall shocks in
childhood increase the survival probabilities of girls to a greater
extent than they increase boys' survival probabilities for a sample of
rural Indian children. In order to avert the issue of selection bias
due to underreporting of births of girls, a methodology is employed
that does not require data on births by gender. The results indicate
that favorable rainfall shocks increase the ratio of the probability
that a girl survives to the probability that a boy
survives."
Correspondence: E. Rose, University of
Washington, Seattle, WA 98195. Location: Princeton University
Library (PF).
65:20107 Sanz Gimeno, Alberto; Ramiro
Fariñas, Diego. Internal structures of childhood
mortality (0-4 years) in twentieth-century Spain. [Estructuras
internas de la mortalidad de la infancia (0-4 años) en la
España del siglo XX.] Política y Sociedad, No. 26,
Sep-Dec 1997. 125-42, 188-9 pp. Madrid, Spain. In Spa. with sum. in
Eng.
"This work displays the role of childhood mortality (ages
1 to 4) as an essential variable, in addition to infant mortality, to
explain the general mortality decline [in Spain]. The work stresses the
need to study the structure of mortality in [the] earliest ages,
because of differences found in several countries and contexts and its
relation with the demographic transition
process."
Correspondence: A. Sanz Gimeno, Universidad
Complutense de Madrid, Departamento de Sociología II, Ciudad
Universitaria, 28040 Madrid, Spain. Location: Princeton
University Library (PR).
65:20108 Sellen, Daniel W.; Mace,
Ruth. A phylogenetic analysis of the relationship between
sub-adult mortality and mode of subsistence. Journal of Biosocial
Science, Vol. 31, No. 1, Jan 1999. 1-16 pp. Cambridge, England. In Eng.
"The hypothesis that measures of sub-adult mortality rates in
natural fertility populations are associated with subsistence practices
in a selected cross-cultural sample (n=39) was tested.... It was found
that dependence on extractive modes of subsistence (hunting, gathering
and fishing) was a significant positive correlate of total child
mortality.... Both increases in dependence on foraging and permanent
settlement were associated with increases in child mortality between
pairs of historically related cultures. The results indicated little
association between infant mortality...and either dependence on
foraging or settlement."
Correspondence: D. W. Sellen,
Emory University, Department of Anthropology, Atlanta, GA 30324.
Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).
65:20109 Sharma, Ravi K. Causal
pathways to infant mortality: linking social variables to infant
mortality through intermediate variables. Journal of Health and
Social Policy, Vol. 9, No. 3, 1998. 15-28 pp. Binghampton, New York. In
Eng.
"Using a conceptual model that integrates social and
biomedical models of causation, this paper delineates the pathways
through which social factors ultimately influence infant mortality in
the African-American community [in the United States]. Two social
factors, maternal education and marital status, are shown to influence
the risk of infant death through the following intermediate variables:
bio-demographic (maternal age, birth order, birth interval and outcome
of last pregnancy), health care (prenatal care utilization) and
proximate infant health status at birth (preterm delivery and low birth
weight)."
Correspondence: R. K. Sharma, University of
Pittsburgh, Graduate School of Public Health, Division of Behavioral
and Community Health Sciences, 130 Desoto Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15261.
Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).
65:20110 Stoltenberg, Camilla; Magnus, Per;
Skrondal, Anders; Terje Lie, Rolv. Consanguinity and
recurrent risk of stillbirth and infant death. American Journal of
Public Health, Vol. 89, No. 4, Apr 1999. 517-23 pp. Washington, D.C. In
Eng.
The risk of stillbirth and infant death in marriages between
first cousins is explored using data on all single births in Norway
between 1967 and 1994, including 3,466 births to parents who were first
cousins. "For unrelated parents, the risk of early death
(stillbirth plus infant death) for the subsequent sibling was 17 of
1,000 if the previous child survived and 67 of 1,000 if the previous
child died before 1 year of age. For parents who were first cousins,
the risk of early death for the subsequent sibling was 29 of 1,000 if
the previous child survived and 116 of 1,000 if the previous child
died."
Correspondence: C. Stoltenberg, National
Institute of Public Health, Department of Population Health Sciences,
Section of Epidemiology, P.O. Box 4404, Torshov, 0403 Oslo, Norway.
Location: Princeton University Library (SZ).
65:20111 Whitehead, Margaret; Drever,
Frances. Narrowing social inequalities in health? Analysis
of trends in mortality among babies of lone mothers. British
Medical Journal, Vol. 318, No. 7188, Apr 3, 1999. 908-14 pp. London,
England. In Eng.
Two short versions of a paper are provided on
trends in mortality among babies of single mothers in England and Wales
compared with mortality among babies registered by couples and couple
registrations subdivided by social class. Data are from the national
linked infant mortality file for all infant births and deaths for the
period 1975-1996. The results indicate that, although infant mortality
for children of single mothers has declined significantly over time,
the differential in infant mortality among social classes persists.
However, the differential in infant mortality between sole and couple
registrations has also decreased. "As the reduction in the
differential was confined to the neonatal period these improvements may
be more a reflection of healthcare factors than of factors associated
with lone mothers' social and economic circumstances." The full
version of this paper is available on the Internet at
www.bmj.com.
Correspondence: M. Whitehead, The Old School,
Ash Magna, Whitchurch, Shropshire SY13 4DR, England. E-mail:
margaret@ashmagna.demon.co.uk. Location: Princeton University
Library (SZ).
65:20112 Woldemicael, Gebremariam.
The effects of water supply and sanitation on childhood mortality
in urban Eritrea. Stockholm Research Reports in Demography, No.
127, ISBN 91-7820-123-3. Oct 1998. 23 pp. Stockholm University,
Demography Unit: Stockholm, Sweden. In Eng.
"The central
question in this study is whether access to piped water and a flush
toilet affects the survival chance of children under five in urban
areas of Eritrea. The study uses data collected by the Demographic and
Health Survey (DHS) project in Eritrea in 1995. The results show that
while the unadjusted effect of household environment (water supply and
toilet facility) is large and statistically significant during the
post-neonatal and childhood periods, it is relatively small and
statistically insignificant during the neonatal
period."
Correspondence: Stockholm University,
Demography Unit, 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden. Location: Princeton
University Library (SPR).
65:20113 Wong, Tze-Wai; Wong, Siu-Lan; Yu,
Tak-Sun; Liu, Joseph L. Y.; Lloyd, Owen L. Socioeconomic
correlates of infant mortality in Hong Kong, 1979-93. Scandinavian
Journal of Social Medicine, Vol. 26, No. 4, Dec 1998. 281-8 pp. Oslo,
Norway. In Eng.
"We conducted a...study on the relationship
between socioeconomic deprivation and infant mortality in Hong Kong by
using government data from three periods: 1979-83, 1984-88 and
1989-93.... In 1979-83, socioeconomic deprivation was found to be
significantly associated with high IMRs [infant mortality rates] and
high NMRs [neonatal mortality rates] in both sexes, while in 1984-88
this association was observed only in baby girls. Non of the observed
associations were significant in 1989-93. Overall, the territory's
infant mortality rates fell from 10.2 per thousand live births in
1979-83 to 5.6 per thousand live births in
1989-93."
Correspondence: T.-W. Wong, Chinese
University of Hong Kong, Department of Community and Family Medicine,
Lek Yuen Health Centre 4/F, Shatin, New Territories, Hong Kong, China.
Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).
Studies of age-specific mortality and of mortality in special groups defined by age.
65:20114 Gan, Jianping; Zheng, Zhongmei; Li,
Guoguang. Age-specific mortality among advanced-age
Chinese citizens and its difference between the two genders.
Chinese Journal of Population Science, Vol. 10, No. 1, 1998. 89-100 pp.
New York, New York. In Eng.
"Due to the limited amount of data
concerning the mortality of advanced-age people, this study is based on
the relatively reliable age-specific and gender-specific raw data
obtained from the censuses conducted in China. The study is a
preliminary analysis of the mortality and gender difference of each age
cohort of the advanced-age group during the intervals between censuses,
and of the change in the age-specific sex ratio of advanced-age
groups...."
Correspondence: J. Gan, Huanggang
Teachers' College, Hubei Province, Wuhan, China. Location:
Princeton University Library (SPR).
65:20115 Helmer, Catherine; Barberger-Gateau,
Pascale; Letenneur, Luc; Dartigues, Jean-François.
Subjective health and mortality in French elderly women and
men. Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and
Social Sciences, Vol. 54, No. 2, Mar 1999. 84-92 pp. Washington, D.C.
In Eng.
Data from the PAQUID (Personnes Agées QUID) cohort,
a representative sample of 3,660 community residents aged 65 or older
living in France, are used to examine the relationship between
subjective health and mortality. The results indicate that "in
men, subjective health was a predictor of mortality, independent of
sociodemographic characteristics, physical health status, depressive
symptomatology, cognitive function, and disability, particularly in the
middle-range categories of subjective health. In women, the
relationship between subjective health and mortality was explained by
physical health status and disability."
Correspondence:
C. Helmer, Université de Bordeaux II, Institut National de
la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale, Unité 330,
Bordeaux, France. Location: Princeton University Library (SW).
65:20116 Leveille, Suzanne G.; Guralnik, Jack
M.; Ferrucci, Luigi; Langlois, Jean A. Aging successfully
until death in old age: opportunities for increasing active life
expectancy. American Journal of Epidemiology, Vol. 149, No. 7, Apr
1, 1999. 654-64 pp. Baltimore, Maryland. In Eng.
Data from the
Established Populations for Epidemiologic Studies of the Elderly are
used to estimate the factors associated with having no disability in
the year prior to death in very old age. The data concern 1,097 men and
women aged 65 or over from three communities in Connecticut, Iowa, and
Massachusetts who were followed over the period 1981-1991 and who had
no known disability in the 15 months prior to death. The results show
that physical activity was a key factor in predicting nondisability
before death. "There was nearly a twofold increased likelihood of
dying without disability among the most physically active group
compared with sedentary adults (adjusted odds ratio=1.86, 95%
confidence interval 1.24-2.79). These findings provide encouraging
evidence that disability prior to death is not an inevitable part of a
long life but may be prevented by moderate physical
activity."
Correspondence: S. G. Leveille, National
Institute on Aging, Gateway Building, Suite 3C-309, 7201 Wisconsin
Avenue, Bethesda, MD 20892. Location: Princeton University
Library (SZ).
65:20117 Welon, Zygmunt; Bielicki, Tadeusz;
Rogucka, Elzbieta; Malina, Robert M. Effect of education
and marital status on premature mortality among urban adults in Poland,
1988-1989. American Journal of Human Biology, Vol. 11, No. 3,
1999. 397-403 pp. New York, New York. In Eng.
"Mortality rates
among adults 25-64 years of age (premature mortality) in 1988 and 1989
were compared by educational status (a four-level scale) and marital
status (married vs. nonmarried) in three Polish cities situated in
ecologically different regions of Poland. Each of the two social
factors has a significant influence on mortality after the effect of
the other is controlled statistically. The risk of premature death
increases regularly with an individual's decreasing position on the
educational scale; also, the risk is higher among nonmarried than among
married persons. This is true in all three urban populations, at all
age levels considered, and in both genders. However, the effects of
education and of marital status on premature mortality are more
dramatic in males than in females. At middle age, the condition of
having no spouse and of being poorly educated each expose males to a
greater risk of premature mortality than
females."
Correspondence: E. Rogucka, Polish Academy
of Sciences, Institute of Anthropology, Kuznicza 35, 50-951 Wroclaw,
Poland. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).
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.
65:20118 India. Office of the Registrar
General (New Delhi, India). SRS based abridged life tables
1989-93. SRS Analytical Studies Report, No. 1 of 1996, Apr 1996.
33 pp. New Delhi, India. In Eng.
"Based on SRS data, life
tables have been prepared for the periods 1970-75, 1976-80, 1981-85,
1986-90, 1987-91 and 1988-92. The present report contains abridged life
tables [for India] for the 5-year period 1989-93 by sex and residence
for India and major States. It is proposed to bring out such life
tables for subsequent 5-year periods regularly and also for the decades
1971-80 and 1981-90 using the age specific mortality rates obtained
from the SRS."
Correspondence: Office of the Registrar
General, V. S. Division, West Block, R. K. Puram, New Delhi 110 066,
India. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).
65:20119 Shavelle, Robert; Strauss,
David. A long period multistate life table using micro
data. Mathematical Population Studies, Vol. 7, No. 2, 1999. 161-77
pp. Amsterdam, Netherlands. In Eng. with sum. in Fre.
"The
multistate life table (MLT) has been widely used by demographers for
the past twenty years. However, the pivotal Markov condition upon which
the entire methodology rests is rarely satisfied in practice. We lessen
reliance upon the assumption by computing transition probabilities for
longer periods of time than was previously practical. An extended
Kaplan-Meier estimator accomplishes this task, simultaneously
addressing the issue of censoring.... We provide an illustrative
example of a 10-year period MLT, with comparison to a 1-year period
MLT." The data for California are used as an
illustration.
Correspondence: R. Shavelle, University of
California, Department of Statistics, Riverside, CA 92521. E-mail:
shavelle@citrus.ucr.edu. 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.
65:20120 Bah, Sulaiman M.
Assessing the contribution of age-sex differentials in causes of
death due to infectious and parasitic diseases to the trends in age-sex
differentials in life expectancy in Mauritius. Social Biology,
Vol. 45, No. 3-4, Fall-Winter 1998. 260-72 pp. Port Angeles,
Washington. In Eng.
"This study applies two methodologies to
Mauritian life tables and cause-of-death data.... The findings in this
paper support earlier findings about the importance of the period
1969-1976 in the mortality transition in Mauritius, a period in which
sex differentials in life expectancies reached a peak level. The
results suggest that the driving force behind those sex differentials
in life expectancy was the sex differential in mortality in infectious
and parasitic diseases, first among the young (ages below 10 years) and
second among the older population (ages above 50 years)."
This
is a revised version of a paper originally presented at the 1997 Annual
Meeting of the Population Association of
America.
Correspondence: S. M. Bah, Central Statistical
Service, Private Bag X44, 0001 Pretoria, South Africa. Location:
Princeton University Library (SPR).
65:20121 Barrow, Susan M.; Herman, Daniel B.;
Córdova, Pilar; Struening, Elmer L. Mortality among
homeless shelter residents in New York City. American Journal of
Public Health, Vol. 89, No. 4, Apr 1999. 529-34 pp. Washington, D.C. In
Eng.
Mortality among the homeless in New York City is analyzed
using data from a representative sample of shelter residents surveyed
in 1987 and matched against national mortality records for the period
1987-1994 and logistic regression analysis. "Age adjusted death
rates of homeless men and women were 4 times those of the general U.S.
population and 2 to 3 times those of the general population of New York
City. Among homeless men, prior use of injectable drugs, incarceration,
and chronic homelessness increased the likelihood of
death."
Correspondence: S. M. Barrow, New York State
Psychiatric Institute, Epidemiology of Mental Disorders Research
Department, 100 Haven Avenue, #31F, New York, NY 10032. E-mail:
barrows@pi.cpmc.columbia.edu. Location: Princeton University
Library (SZ).
65:20122 Blane, D.; Harding, S.; Rosato,
M. Does social mobility affect the size of the
socioeconomic mortality differential?: evidence from the Office for
National Statistics Longitudinal Study. Journal of the Royal
Statistical Society, Series A: Statistics in Society, Vol. 162, No. Pt.
1, 1999. 59-70 pp. London, England. In Eng.
"The effect of
social mobility on the socioeconomic differential in mortality is
examined with data from the Office for National Statistics Longitudinal
Study. The analyses involve 46,980 men aged 45-64 years in 1981. The
mortality risk of the socially mobile is compared with the mortality
risk of the socially stable after adjustment for their class of origin
(their social class in 1971) and class of destination (their social
class in 1981) separately. Among those in employment there is some
evidence that movement out of their class of origin is in the direction
predicted by the idea of health-related social mobility. This evidence,
however, seems strongest for causes of death which are least likely to
have been preceded by prolonged incapacity. Movement into the class of
destination, however, shows the opposite relationship with
mortality."
Correspondence: D. Blane, University of
London, Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine,
Department of Behavioral and Cognitive Science, Charing Cross Hospital,
St. Dunstan's Road, London W6 8RP, England. E-mail:
d.blane@cxwms.ac.uk. Location: Princeton University Library
(PF).
65:20123 Blane, David; Bartley, Mel; Davey
Smith, George. Disease aetiology and materialist
explanations of socioeconomic mortality differentials. European
Journal of Public Health, Vol. 7, No. 4, Dec 1997. 385-91 pp. Oxford,
England. In Eng.
"The social structure can affect health by
distributing exposure to environmental hazards and by conditioning
behaviours which damage or promote health. The present paper
concentrates on the former route, which the Black Report described as
the structural or materialist type of explanation of health
inequalities. The contribution of materialist factors is assessed by
examining socioeconomic mortality differentials as a form of relative
deprivation and by presenting evidence of the sensitivity of these
differentials to multiple indicators of social position.... An apparent
discrepancy is identified between the lesser importance attributed to
materialist factors in the aetiological literature and that suggested
by the evidence initially presented." The geographical focus is on
England and Wales.
Correspondence: D. Blane, Charing Cross
and Westminster Medical School, Academic Department of Psychiatry,
London W6 8RP, England. Location: U.S. National Library of
Medicine, Bethesda, MD.
65:20124 Borrell, Carme; Regidor, Enrique;
Arias, Luís-Carlos; Navarro, Pedro; Puigpinós, Rosa;
Domínguez, Vicente; Plasència, Antoni.
Inequalities in mortality according to educational level in two
large southern European cities. International Journal of
Epidemiology, Vol. 28, No. 1, Feb 1999. 58-63 pp. Oxford, England. In
Eng.
"This study looks at the differences in mortality [in
Spain] according to educational level.... The study populations were
residents of Madrid and Barcelona aged [greater than] 24 years, who
died in 1993 and 1994.... The mortality rate was lower among
individuals with higher educational levels, while life expectancy at 25
years was higher. In both cities men and women with no education showed
the highest mortality in all age groups, with very high [relative risk]
in the youngest age group.... In Barcelona the greater part of the
overall mortality difference for the group aged 25-34 years was due to
AIDS...."
Correspondence: C. Borrell, Municipal
Institute of Health, Pl. Lesseps 1, 08023 Barcelona, Spain.
Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).
65:20125 Corti, Maria-Chiara; Guralnik, Jack
M.; Ferrucci, Luigi; Izmirlian, Grant; Leveille, Suzanne G.; Pahor,
Marco; Cohen, Harvey J.; Pieper, Carl; Havlik, Richard J.
Evidence for a black-white crossover in all-cause and coronary
heart disease mortality in an older population: the North Carolina
EPESE. American Journal of Public Health, Vol. 89, No. 3, Mar
1999. 308-14 pp. Washington, D.C. In Eng.
Differences in mortality
between blacks and whites aged 65 years and older are analyzed using
data on 4,136 men and women living in North Carolina in 1986 and
followed until 1994. The results show that blacks had higher mortality
than whites at ages 65-80, but significantly lower mortality after age
80. "Racial differences in mortality are modified by age. This
mortality crossover could be attributed to selective survival of the
healthiest oldest Blacks or to other biomedical factors affecting
longevity after age 80. Because the crossover was observed for CHD
deaths only, age overreporting by Black older persons seems an unlikely
explanation of the mortality differences."
Correspondence:
J. M. Guralnik, National Institute on Aging, Epidemiology,
Demography, and Biometry Program, 7201 Wisconsin Avenue, Room 3C-309,
Bethesda, MD 20892-9205. E-mail: guralnij@gw.nia.nih.gov. Location:
Princeton University Library (SZ).
65:20126 Erikssen, Gunnar; Liestøl,
Knut; Bjørnholt, Jørgen; Thaulow, Erik; Sandvik, Leiv;
Erikssen, Jan. Changes in physical fitness and changes in
mortality. Lancet, Vol. 352, No. 9130, Sep 5, 1998. 759-62 pp. New
York, New York/London, England. In Eng.
The relationship between
changes in physical fitness and mortality is analyzed using data on
2,014 healthy men in Norway who were followed over 22 years starting in
the period 1972-1975. The results indicate that "change in
physical fitness in healthy middle-aged men is a strong predictor of
mortality. Even small improvements in physical fitness are associated
with a significantly lowered risk of
death."
Correspondence: G. Erikssen, Central Hospital
of Akershus, Medical Department, 1474 Nordbyhagen, Norway.
Location: Princeton University Library (SZ).
65:20127 Ferrucci, Luigi; Izmirlian, Grant;
Leveille, Suzanne; Phillips, Caroline L.; Corti, Maria-Chiara; Brock,
Dwight B.; Guralnik, Jack M. Smoking, physical activity,
and active life expectancy. American Journal of Epidemiology, Vol.
149, No. 7, Apr 1, 1999. 645-53 pp. Baltimore, Maryland. In Eng.
The effect of smoking and physical activity on active and disabled
life expectancy is examined using data from the Established Populations
for Epidemiologic Studies of the Elderly. The data concern 8,604
individuals aged 65 or over living in New England or Iowa who were
originally assessed between 1981 and 1983 and then followed over a
six-year period. "Compared with smokers, men and women nonsmokers
survived 1.6-3.9 and 1.6-3.6 years longer, respectively, depending on
level of physical activity. When smokers were disabled and close to
death, most nonsmokers were still nondisabled. Physical activity, from
low to moderate to high, was significantly associated with more years
of life expectancy in both smokers...and nonsmokers.... Higher physical
activity was associated with fewer years of disability prior to death.
These findings provide strong and explicit evidence that refraining
from smoking and doing regular physical activity predict a long and
healthy life."
Correspondence: L. Ferrucci, National
Institute on Aging, Epidemiology, Demography, and Biometry Program,
7201 Wisconsin Avenue, Gateway Building, Suite 3C-309, Bethesda, MD
20892. Location: Princeton University Library (SZ).
65:20128 French, Simone A.; Folsom, Aaron R.;
Jeffery, Robert W.; Williamson, David F. Prospective study
of intentionality of weight loss and mortality in older women: the Iowa
Women's Health Study. American Journal of Epidemiology, Vol. 149,
No. 6, Mar 15, 1999. 504-16, 519-20 pp. Baltimore, Maryland. In Eng.
The extent to which the association between weight loss and
mortality is associated with whether the weight loss was voluntary or
involuntary is examined using data from the Iowa Women's Health Study.
This study involved 41,836 women aged 55-69 who completed a mailed
survey in 1992 and were followed through 1995. The results suggest that
the association between weight loss and increased mortality risk
observed in epidemiologic studies may be due to unintentional weight
loss that reflects existing disease and not to intentional weight loss.
A comment is included by Lewis H. Kuller (pp. 515-6), as is a response
from the authors (pp. 519-20).
Correspondence: S. A.
French, University of Minnesota, School of Public Health, Division of
Epidemiology, 130 South 2nd Street, Suite 300, Minneapolis, MN
55454-1015. Location: Princeton University Library (SZ).
65:20129 Gubéran, Etienne; Usel,
Massimo. Permanent work incapacity, mortality and survival
without work incapacity among occupations and social classes: a cohort
study of ageing men in Geneva. International Journal of
Epidemiology, Vol. 27, No. 6, Dec 1998. 1,026-32 pp. Oxford, England.
In Eng.
"The objective of this retrospective cohort study was
to investigate the burden of disability and death in men, from middle
age to age of retirement, among occupational groups and classes in
Geneva [Switzerland].... There was a steep upward trend in incidence of
permanent work incapacity with lower social class for all causes as
well as for the seven causes of disability studied.... The social class
gradient in mortality was in the same direction as that in work
incapacity although much less steep...."
Correspondence:
E. Gubéran, Institute of Occupational Health Sciences, IST,
rue du Bugnon 19, 1005 Lausanne, Switzerland. Location:
Princeton University Library (SPR).
65:20130 Hayward, Mark D.; Heron,
Melonie. Racial inequality in active life among adult
Americans. Demography, Vol. 36, No. 1, Feb 1999. 77-91 pp. Silver
Spring, Maryland. In Eng.
"Based on the 1990 5% Public Use
Microdata Survey, we develop life table models of healthy (or active)
life for the major racial groups, by sex, in the United States. The
analysis underscores the complexity of the relationship between
morbidity and mortality in the population. For Asians, longer life is
associated with fewer years lived in poor health. In contrast, Native
Americans' relatively longer lives are accompanied by extended periods
of chronic health problems. Of all racial groups, blacks live the
fewest years, and they live a high proportion of those years with a
chronic health problem. Hispanics also live substantially fewer years,
yet the period of life they spend with a health problem is relatively
compressed."
Correspondence: M. D. Hayward,
Pennsylvania State University, Department of Sociology, Population
Research Institute, University Park, PA 16802. E-mail:
hayward@pop.psu.edu. Location: Princeton University Library
(SPR).
65:20131 Hummer, Robert A.; Rogers, Richard
G.; Nam, Charles B.; LeClere, Felicia B. Race/ethnicity,
nativity, and U.S. adult mortality. Social Science Quarterly, Vol.
80, No. 1, Mar 1999. 136-53 pp. Austin, Texas. In Eng.
The impact
of race and/or ethnicity on mortality among U.S. adults is analyzed
using data from the National Health Interview Survey/National Death
Index linked data set, and taking into account whether the individual
concerned was born in the United States or abroad. "Native-born
blacks exhibit the highest odds of death among all age groups of
adults, while foreign-born blacks and Asian Americans display
especially low odds of death, particularly among older adults. Mexican
Americans and other Hispanics display intermediate risks of mortality
similar to non-Hispanic white. Race/ethnic differences in mortality are
influenced by nativity, with the groups having the highest percentages
of foreign-born individuals experiencing lower mortality risks than
might otherwise be the case. Foreign-born persons also exhibit lower
mortality than native-born persons across nearly all age groups, with
the magnitude of the advantage varying by
race/ethnicity."
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 (PR).
65:20132 Hummer, Robert A.; Rogers, Richard
G.; Nam, Charles B.; Ellison, Christopher G. Religious
involvement and U.S. adult mortality. Demography, Vol. 36, No. 2,
May 1999. 273-85 pp. Silver Spring, Maryland. In Eng.
"We use
recently released, nationally representative data from the National
Health Interview Survey-Multiple Cause of Death linked file to model
the association of religious attendance and sociodemographic, health,
and behavioral correlates with overall and cause-specific mortality.
Religious attendance is associated with U.S. adult mortality in a
graded fashion: People who never attend exhibit 1.87 times the risk of
death in the follow-up period compared with people who attend more than
once a week. This translates into a seven-year difference in life
expectancy at age 20 between those who never attend and those who
attend more than once a week.... People who do not attend church or
religious services are also more likely to be unhealthy and,
consequently, to die. However, religious attendance also works through
increased social ties and behavioral factors to decrease the risks of
death. And although the magnitude of the association between religious
attendance and mortality varies by cause of death, the direction of the
association is consistent across causes."
Correspondence:
R. A. Hummer, University of Texas, Population Research Center,
1800 Main Building, Austin, TX 78712-1088. E-mail:
rhummer@prc.utexas.edu. Location: Princeton University Library
(SPR).
65:20133 Jacobs, David R.; Meyer, Katie A.;
Kushi, Lawrence H.; Folsom, Aaron R. Is whole grain intake
associated with reduced total and cause-specific death rates in older
women? The Iowa Women's Health Study. American Journal of Public
Health, Vol. 89, No. 3, Mar 1999. 322-9 pp. Washington, D.C. In Eng.
This study analyzes whether nutrient-rich whole grains reduce
mortality risk, using data on 38,740 women aged 55 to 69 from the 1986
Iowa Women's Health Study. The results indicate that "total
mortality risk was inversely associated with whole grain intake and
positively associated with refined grain intake. Refined grains
contributed more than 20% of energy intake, and whole grains
contributed 1%. Substitution of whole for refined grain may reduce
chronic disease risk in the United States."
Correspondence:
D. R. Jacobs, University of Minnesota, School of Public Health,
Division of Epidemiology, 1300 South 2nd Street, Suite 300,
Minneapolis, MN 55454. E-mail: jacobs@epivax.epi.umn.edu. Location:
Princeton University Library (SZ).
65:20134 Józan, P.; Forster, D.
P. Social inequalities and health: ecological study of
mortality in Budapest, 1980-3 and 1990-3. British Medical Journal,
Vol. 318, No. 7188, Apr 3, 1999. 914-5 pp. London, England. In Eng.
Comparisons in mortality in Hungary are made for the periods
1980-1983, when the health system was based on the Soviet principle of
providing equal treatment to all, and 1990-1993, when the health system
was based on a health insurance approach adopted in 1990. The results
indicate a significant increase in inequality in mortality over time
between the disadvantaged population living in Budapest and the
affluent population.
Correspondence: D. P. Forster, 11
Ashdale, Ponteland, Northumberland NE30 9DR, England. E-mail:
donforster@the-forsters.demon.co.uk. Location: Princeton
University Library (SZ).
65:20135 Kunst, Anton E.; del Rios, Marina;
Groenhof, Feikje; Mackenbach, Johan P. Socioeconomic
inequalities in stroke mortality among middle-aged men: an
international overview. Stroke, Vol. 29, No. 11, Nov 1998.
2,285-91 pp. Dallas, Texas. In Eng.
"This report...presents an
international overview of socioeconomic differences in stroke
mortality.... In all countries, manual classes had higher stroke
mortality rates than nonmanual classes.... In most countries,
inequalities were much larger for stroke mortality than for ischemic
heart disease mortality.... There are probably large variations...in
the contribution that different risk factors, such as tobacco and
alcohol consumption, make to the stroke mortality excess of lower
socioeconomic groups."
Correspondence: A. E. Kunst,
Erasmus University, Department of Public Health, P.O. Box 1738, 3000 DR
Rotterdam, Netherlands. E-mail: kunst@mgz.fgg.eur.nl. Location:
Princeton University Library (SPR).
65:20136 LeClere, Felicia B.; Rogers, Richard
G.; Peters, Kimberley. Neighborhood social context and
racial differences in women's heart disease mortality. Journal of
Health and Social Behavior, Vol. 39, No. 2, Jun 1998. 91-107 pp.
Washington, D.C. In Eng.
"In this analysis, we examine the
effect of...neighborhood characteristics on the risk of death from
heart disease for women using data from five years (1986-1990) of the
[U.S.] National Health Interview Survey linked to death certificate
information from the National Death Index.... The main objective of the
study is to describe the structural mechanisms that create race
differentials in mortality. In the conclusion, we discuss, in depth,
the possible etiologic pathways between female-headship rates in
neighborhoods and heart disease mortality."
This paper was
originally presented at the 1996 Annual Meeting of the Population
Association of America.
Correspondence: F. B. LeClere,
University of Notre Dame, Laboratory for Social Research, G126 Hesburgh
Library, Notre Dame, IN 46556. E-mail: leclere.1@nd.edu. Location:
Princeton University Library (SW).
65:20137 Meslé, France; Vallin,
Jacques. Evolution and geographical variations in excess
male mortality: from the French paradox to the Russian logic.
[Evolution et variations géographiques de la surmortalité
masculine: du paradoxe français à la logique russe.]
Population, Vol. 53, No. 6, Nov-Dec 1998. 1,079-101 pp. Paris, France.
In Fre. with sum. in Eng; Spa.
"The last century...has seen a
considerable rise in excess male mortality in western countries at the
same time as an increase in life expectancy.... Throughout this period,
however, an apparently contradictory phenomenon has been observed in
the geographical variations--namely, the higher the life expectancy,
the smaller the gender difference in mortality. This
paradox--especially strong in France--is due to the fact that the
causes of death which dominate the geography of mortality are not the
same as those responsible for most of the increase in life
expectancy.... By contrast, in the Eastern European countries, and
especially Russia, where mortality has risen during the last thirty
years, the geography of mortality is entirely consistent with the
evolution in life expectancy."
Correspondence: F.
Meslé, Institut National d'Etudes Démographiques, 133
boulevard Davout, 75980 Paris Cedex 20, France. E-mail: mesle@ined.fr.
Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).
65:20138 Nelissen, Jan H. M.
Differential mortality and the reshuffling effect of the social
security system. [Differentiële sterfte en de herverdelende
werking van het sociale zekerheidsstelsel.] Bevolking en Gezin, Vol.
27, No. 1, 1998. 1-16 pp. Brussels, Belgium. In Dut. with sum. in Eng.
"Research on the progressivity of social security generally
does not take into account the existence of differences in mortality
rates between socioeconomic groups. These differences result for the
Netherlands in a difference in life expectancy between low and high
educated men of about 4.5 years. On a lifetime basis this results in a
loss of about Dfl. 90,000 [about $45,000 U.S.] for the [less] educated
group in comparison with the high educated group. As a consequence the
return from various social security schemes does not appear to be
anymore the highest for [less] educated persons. The middle group now
gains in particular from the system."
Correspondence:
J. H. M. Nelissen, Katholieke Universiteit Brabant, WORC,
Faculteit Sociale Wetenschappen, Postbus 90153, 5000 LE Tilburg,
Netherlands. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).
65:20139 Rosengren, Annika; Orth-Gomér,
Kristina; Wilhemsen, Lars. Socioeconomic differences in
health indices, social networks and mortality among Swedish men. A
study of men born in 1933. Scandinavian Journal of Social
Medicine, Vol. 26, No. 1, Dec 1998. 1-19 pp. Oslo, Norway. In Eng.
"In a previous survey we found large socioeconomic differences
in mortality among urban Swedish men.... In the present study we
investigate in more detail socioeconomic differences with regard to
health, psychosocial factors and cardiovascular risk factors in
another, younger sample of Göteborg men. One aim was to
investigate whether our previous findings with regard to mortality
could be reproduced in the present cohort of men. In addition, if class
differences in health are to be diminished, we must know more about
what causes them. Accordingly, a second aim was to investigate possible
explanatory factors with regard to health-related factors, lifestyle,
and social network factors."
Correspondence: A.
Rosengren, University of Göteburg, Östra Hospital, Department
of Medicine, Section of Preventive Cardiology, 416 85 Göteburg,
Sweden. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).
65:20140 Schrijvers, Carola T. M.; Stronks,
Karien; van de Mheen, H. Dike; Mackenbach, Johan P.
Explaining educational differences in mortality: the role of
behavioral and material factors. American Journal of Public
Health, Vol. 89, No. 4, Apr 1999. 535-40 pp. Washington, D.C. In Eng.
The role of behavioral factors (such as alcohol drinking, smoking,
body weight, physical activity, and diet) and material factors
(financial problems, neighborhood conditions, housing, crowding,
employment status, and income) in explaining differential mortality by
educational status is explored. The data concern 15,451 participants in
the Longitudinal Study on Socioeconomic Health Differences carried out
in the Netherlands between 1991 and 1996. "Mortality was higher in
lower educational groups. Four behavioral factors (alcohol, smoking,
body mass index, physical activity) and 3 material factors (financial
problems, employment status, income proxy) explained part of the
educational differences in mortality. With the overlap between both
types of factors accounted for, material factors were more important
than behavioral factors in explaining mortality differences by
educational level."
Correspondence: C. T. M.
Schrijvers, Erasmus University Medical School, Department of Public
Health, P.O. Box 1738, 3000 DR Rotterdam, Netherlands. E-mail:
schrijvers@mgz.fgg.eur.nl. Location: Princeton University
Library (SZ).
65:20141 Smith, Ken R.; Waitzman, Norman
J. Effects of marital status on the risk of mortality in
poor and non-poor neighborhoods. Annals of Epidemiology, Vol. 7,
No. 5, Jul 1997. 343-9 pp. New York, New York. In Eng.
"The
purpose of this paper is to consider whether the mortality risks
associated with marital status are conditioned by the socioeconomic
quality of [U.S.] neighborhoods.... The interaction between
neighborhood poverty and marital status is suggested for non-elderly
men, particularly for cancer mortality and for men in urban areas.
Interaction effects are evident among older women residing in urban
areas."
Correspondence: K. R. Smith, University of
Utah, Department of Family Consumer Studies, 228 AEB, Salt Lake City,
UT 84112. Location: U.S. National Library of Medicine,
Bethesda, MD.
65:20142 Tietze, Marek.
Differential mortality by sex in the Baltic Basin.
[Diferencní úmrtnost podle pohlaví v
Pobaltí.] Demografie, Vol. 41, No. 1, 1999. 38-49 pp. Prague,
Czech Republic. In Cze. with sum. in Eng.
"The article
describes [the] demographic situation from the point of view of
mortality and its differences by sex in Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia,
Finland and Sweden. These countries were chosen...as the
representatives of two mortality models, which occur in contemporary
Europe: `western' and `eastern' models. Countries of [Eastern] Europe
reach higher values of mortality probabilities in all age groups with
corresponding attained lower medium life span at birth." The
author also considers life expectancy at older ages, male excess
mortality, and causes of death.
Location: Princeton
University Library (SPR).
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.
65:20143 Bleyen, L.; De Bacquer, D.; Myny, K.;
Brochez, L.; Naeyaert, J. M.; De Backer, G. Trends in
mortality from cutaneous malignant melanoma in Belgium.
International Journal of Epidemiology, Vol. 28, No. 1, Feb 1999. 40-5
pp. Oxford, England. In Eng.
"Changes over time of mortality
rates from cutaneous malignant melanoma (CMM) in Belgium were analysed,
based on people (n=3,695) aged 25-84 years, who died of CMM from 1954
to 1992.... The risk of dying from CMM increased in men and women
continuously over the whole period, irrespective of birth cohort. In
both men and women, there was approximately a 20% increase in CMM
mortality per 5-year period."
Correspondence: L.
Bleyen, University Hospital, Department of Public Health, De Pintelaan
185, Block A, 9000 Ghent, Belgium. Location: Princeton
University Library (SPR).
65:20144 Burr, Jeffrey A.; Hartman, John T.;
Matteson, Donald W. Black suicide in U.S. metropolitan
areas: an examination of the racial inequality and social
integration-regulation hypotheses. Social Forces, Vol. 77, No. 3,
Mar 1999. 1,049-80 pp. Chapel Hill, North Carolina. In Eng.
"In addition to examining the social integration-regulation
suicide thesis, we develop and test a racial inequality suicide thesis
to explain how socioeconomic status inequities between blacks and
whites influence suicide risk among black males. Negative binomial
regression techniques are employed to model black male suicide counts
for U.S. metropolitan areas in 1980. Our findings demonstrate that the
risk of black male suicide is higher in areas where occupational and
income inequalities between blacks and whites are greater. We also find
detrimental effects associated with marital disruption and certain
types of family living arrangements. In light of our findings, we
revisit our theory and make suggestions for additional
research."
Correspondence: J. A. Burr, State
University of New York, Department of Sociology, 430 Park Hall,
Buffalo, NY 14260. E-mail: jburr@acsu.buffalo.edu. Location:
Princeton University Library (SPR).
65:20145 Clapp, Richard W. The
decline in U.S. cancer mortality from 1991 to 1995: what's behind the
numbers? International Journal of Health Services, Vol. 28, No. 4,
1998. 747-55 pp. Amityville, New York. In Eng.
"In 1996, a
series of articles and news stories about cancer mortality in the
United States proclaimed a `turning point in the 25-year war on
cancer'. While these articles and stories pointed to a recent decline
in overall cancer mortality, they missed some important points about
increases in specific types. They also ignored the politics behind the
emphasis on smoking and diet as the main contributors to the cancer
rates and the racial disparities in the U.S. data. In addition, recent
articles on the decline in cancer mortality fail to note the much
sharper decline in heart disease
mortality."
Correspondence: R. W. Clapp, Boston
University, School of Public Health, 715 Albany Street, Boston, MA
02118. Location: Princeton University Library (FST).
65:20146 Cutchin, Malcolm P.; Churchill,
Robert R. Scale, context, and causes of suicide in the
United States. Social Science Quarterly, Vol. 80, No. 1, Mar 1999.
97-114 pp. Austin, Texas. In Eng.
The role of geographical scale
and context on the ecology of suicide is examined. The three scales
examined are the United States as a whole, counties in New England, and
townships in Vermont. "After computing bivariate correlations with
suicide rates, we consolidated the socioeconomic variables from each
scale into orthogonal principal components. Subsequently, we used
components from each scale in a stepwise regression to estimate
explanatory models of suicide rates.... Bivariate correlations show
little consistency across scales. Principal components analysis
generated unique sets of components at each scale, and distinct models
were derived at each geographic level. Explanatory power decreased with
scale." The authors conclude that it is important to take scale
and context into account when studying variations in suicide
rates.
Correspondence: M. P. Cutchin, Middlebury College,
Department of Geography, Middlebury, VT 05753. Location:
Princeton University Library (PR).
65:20147 De Angelis, R.; Capocaccia, R.;
Hakulinen, T.; Soderman, B.; Verdecchia, A. Mixture models
for cancer survival analysis: application to population-based data with
covariates. Statistics in Medicine, Vol. 18, No. 4, Feb 28, 1999.
441-54 pp. Chichester, England. In Eng.
"In this paper we
propose an application of a parametric mixture model to relative
survival rates of colon cancer patients from the Finnish
population-based cancer registry, and including major survival
determinants as explicative covariates. Disentangling survival into two
different components greatly facilitates the analysis and the
interpretation of the role of prognostic factors on survival patterns.
For example, age plays a different role in determining, from one side,
the probability of cure, and, from the other side, the life expectancy
of fatal cases. The results support the hypothesis that observed
survival trends are really due to a real prognostic gain for more
recently diagnosed patients."
Correspondence: R.
Capocaccia, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Laboratorio di
Epidemiologia e Biostatistica, Viale Regina Elena 299, 00161 Rome,
Italy. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).
65:20148 Ganatra, B. R.; Coyaji, K. J.; Rao,
V. N. Too far, too little, too late: a community-based
case-control study of maternal mortality in rural west Maharashtra,
India. Bulletin of the World Health Organization/Bulletin de
l'Organisation Mondiale de la Santé, Vol. 76, No. 6, 1998. 591-8
pp. Geneva, Switzerland. In Eng.
"A total of 121 maternal
deaths, identified through multiple-source surveillance in 400 villages
in Maharashtra, [India], were prospectively enrolled during 1993-95 in
a population-based case-control study, which compared deaths with the
survivors of similar pregnancy complications. The cases took
significantly longer to seek care and to make the first health contact
after the decision to seek care was taken. They also travelled
significantly greater distances through a greater number of health
facilities before appropriate treatment was started....This study
points to the need for information-education-communication (IEC)
efforts to increase family (especially male) preparedness for
emergencies, decentralized obstetric management with effective triage,
and a restructuring of the referral
system."
Correspondence: B. R. Ganatra, KEM Hospital
Research Centre, Sardar Moodliar Road, Rasta Peth, Pune 411 011, India.
Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).
65:20149 Høj, Lars; Stensballe, Jakob;
Aaby, Peter. Maternal mortality in Guinea-Bissau: the use
of verbal autopsy in a multi-ethnic population. International
Journal of Epidemiology, Vol. 28, No. 1, Feb 1999. 70-6 pp. Oxford,
England. In Eng.
"We have attempted to develop standard
criteria which, after being tested and adapted to conditions in
multi-ethnic, rural populations, could be applied by medical assistants
(nurse, midwife) with a basic training to ascertain the cause of
[maternal] death as a necessary element in the national programme for
reproductive health." Using data collected in Guinea-Bissau, the
authors find that "the [verbal autopsy] described in the present
paper left 30% of the maternal deaths unclassified without a specific
diagnosis. Had all interviews been with husbands, only 14% would have
remained unclassified."
Correspondence: L. Høj,
Statens Serum Institut, Department of Epidemiology Research,
Artillerivej 5, 2000 Copenhagen S, Denmark. Location:
Princeton University Library (SPR).
65:20150 Le Coeur, Sophie; Pictet, Gabriel;
M'Pele, Pierre; Lallemant, Marc. Direct estimation of
maternal mortality in Africa. Lancet, Vol. 352, No. 9139, Nov 7,
1998. 1,525-6 pp. New York, New York/London, England. In Eng.
"We investigated maternal mortality in Brazaville, Congo,
where law requires the delivery of all bodies to a mortuary before
burial.... We estimated the rate of maternal mortality to be 645 per
100,000 and the lifetime risk of maternal death to be one in 25
women.... Maternal mortality is...unlikely to decrease in African
cities until obstetric care and promotion of safe reproductive choices
are improved."
Correspondence: S. Le Coeur, Institut
National d'Etudes Démographiques, 133 boulevard Davout, 75980
Paris Cedex 20, France. Location: Princeton University Library
(SZ).
65:20151 Lozada Dávalos,
Patricio. Variations in causes of death in Ecuador.
[Variaciones de las causas de mortalidad en el Ecuador.] Correo
Poblacional y de la Salud, Vol. 6, No. 3, Sep 1998. 37-41 pp. Quito,
Ecuador. In Spa.
The author examines trends in causes of death in
Ecuador. Principal causes are provided for 1980, 1990, 1993, and
1996.
Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).
65:20152 Mackenbach, J. P.; Kunst, A. E.;
Lautenbach, H.; Oei, Y. B.; Bijlsma, F. Competing causes
of death: a death certificate study. Journal of Clinical
Epidemiology, Vol. 50, No. 10, Oct 1997. 1,069-77 pp. New York, New
York. In Eng.
"We have used death certificate information to
estimate the prevalence of competing causes of death at the moment of
dying from specific underlying causes of death. [Data used are for] a
stratified sample of 5,975 deaths occurring in The Netherlands in
1990.... Although it cannot be excluded that some of the variation in
prevalence of competing causes by underlying cause is due to selective
underregistration of coexisting diseases on death certificates, the
results of this study suggest that conventional estimates of gains in
life expectancy after elimination of neoplasms are much less biased by
the effect of competing causes than the corresponding estimates for
cardiovascular diseases and particularly respiratory
diseases."
Correspondence: J. P. Mackenbach, Erasmus
University, Department of Public Health, P.O. Box 1738, 3000 DR
Rotterdam, Netherlands. Location: U.S. National Library of
Medicine, Bethesda, MD.
65:20153 Mackenbach, J. P.; Kunst, A. E.;
Lautenbach, H.; Oei, Y. B.; Bijlsma, F. Gains in life
expectancy after elimination of major causes of death: revised
estimates taking into account the effect of competing causes.
Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, Vol. 53, No. 1, Jan 1999.
32-7 pp. London, England. In Eng.
"In the study reported in
this paper we have coded a sample of death certificates from the
Netherlands for the presence of competing causes of death, and used
this information to adjust conventional estimates of gains in life
expectancy for the presence of these competing causes. The main purpose
was to assess the extent to which conventional estimates of differences
in life years to be gained between four main groups of underlying
causes of death (neoplasms, cardiovascular diseases, respiratory
diseases, and all other diseases) are biased by differences between
these underlying causes in prevalence at death of competing
causes." Data are from "a sample of 5,975 death certificates
from the Netherlands, 1990...."
Correspondence: J. P.
Mackenbach, Erasmus University, Department of Public Health, P.O. Box
1738, 3000 DR Rotterdam, Netherlands. Location: Princeton
University Library (SPR).
65:20154 Makimoto, Kiyoko; Higuchi,
Susumu. Alcohol consumption as a major risk factor for the
rise in liver cancer mortality rates in Japanese men.
International Journal of Epidemiology, Vol. 28, No. 1, Feb 1999. 30-4
pp. Oxford, England. In Eng.
"The purpose of this study is (1)
to examine the pattern of liver cancer mortality [in Japan] by gender
and birth year to compare those with the pattern of other
alcohol-related mortality and (2) to estimate the attributable risk per
cent of heavy alcohol consumption for liver cancer deaths in Japanese
men.... Male-to-female liver cancer mortality rate ratios by birth
cohort correspond well with those rate ratios for liver cirrhosis and
oesophageal cancer mortality. The attributable risk per cent of alcohol
consumption for liver cancer deaths in Japanese men was
70%."
Correspondence: K. Makimoto, Kanazawa
University, Division of Health Sciences, Department of Nursing,
Kodatsuno 5-11-80, Kanazawa 920-0942, Japan. Location:
Princeton University Library (SPR).
65:20155 Marcopito, Luis F.; Berlin, Jesse
A. A method for calculating age-weighted death proportions
for comparison purposes. International Journal of Epidemiology,
Vol. 27, No. 6, Dec 1998. 1,044-52 pp. Oxford, England. In Eng.
The
authors "introduce a method for calculating age-weighted death
proportions (wDP) for comparison purposes...using secondary data from
the municipality of São Paulo, Brazil (1980-1994)....
Populations in which deaths from a particular cause occur at older ages
exhibit lower wDP than those in which deaths occur at younger ages. The
sum of all cause-specific wDP equals one only when the test population
has exactly the same age distribution of deaths for all causes as that
of the standard population."
Correspondence: L. F.
Marcopito, Escola Paulista de Medicina, Division of Epidemiology,
UNIFESP, Rua Pedro de Toledo 675, 04039-032 São Paulo, SP,
Brazil. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).
65:20156 Neeleman, Jan; Lewis, Glyn.
Suicide, religion, and socioeconomic conditions. An ecological
study in 26 countries, 1990. Journal of Epidemiology and Community
Health, Vol. 53, No. 4, Apr 1999. 204-10 pp. London, England. In Eng.
"Relative risks are frequently assumed to be stable across
populations but this may not apply in psychiatric epidemiology where
sociocultural context may modify them. Such ecological effect
modification will give curved associations between aggregated risk
factor and outcome. This was examined in connection with the ecological
association between suicide rates and an aggregate index of
religiosity...[using data for] 26 European and American countries....
The bent ecological association was apparent only after adjustment for
socioeconomic variation suggesting that, rather than confounding,
ecological modification of individual level links between religion and
male (but not female) suicide risk is the responsible
mechanism."
Correspondence: J. Neeleman, University of
Groningen, Department of Social Psychiatry, P.O. Box 30001, 9700 RB
Groningen, Netherlands. Location: Princeton University Library
(SPR).
65:20157 Pick, James B.; Butler, Edgar
W. Demographic, social, and economic effects on Mexican
causes of death in 1990. Social Biology, Vol. 45, No. 3-4,
Fall-Winter 1998. 151-71 pp. Port Angeles, Washington. In Eng.
"Demographic, social, and economic influences on cause of
death are analyzed for Mexico in 1990. The paper draws on epidemiologic
transition theory and empirical studies as a framework to examine
effects of 28 independent variables in four groups--demographic,
socio-cultural, economic, and housing/health/crime--on standardized
mortality by cause.... The principal causes of death reveal distinctive
geographical patterns.... Overall, the most important predictors are
crowding, housing characteristics, marriage and divorce, and
manufacturing workforce. By variable group, there are effects for
specific causes of death."
Correspondence: J. B. Pick,
University of Redlands, Department of Management and Business,
Redlands, CA 92373. Location: Princeton University Library
(SPR).
65:20158 Pönkä, Antti; Savela, Mari;
Virtanen, Mikko. Mortality and air pollution in
Helsinki. Archives of Environmental Health, Vol. 53, No. 4,
Jul-Aug 1998. 281-6 pp. Helsinki, Finland. In Eng.
"In
Helsinki, Finland, from 1987 to 1993, the authors studied the
associations between daily concentrations of sulphur dioxide, nitrogen
dioxide, ozone, total suspended particulates, and [other]
particulates...and the daily number of deaths from all causes and from
cardiovascular causes.... Findings suggest that (a) even low levels of
particulates are related to an increase in cardiovascular mortality;
(b) ozone--even in low concentrations--is associated, independently,
with cardiovascular mortality; and (c) [particulates], ozone, and
nitrogen dioxide...have harmful interactions at high
concentrations."
Correspondence: A. Pönkä,
Helsinki City Centre of the Environment, Helsinginkatu 24, 00530
Helsinki, Finland. Location: Princeton University Library
(SPR).
65:20159 Poole, Carol A.; Byers, Tim; Calle,
Eugenia E.; Bondy, Jessica; Fain, Pam; Rodriguez, Carmen.
Influence of a family history of cancer within and across multiple
sites on patterns of cancer mortality risk for women. American
Journal of Epidemiology, Vol. 149, No. 5, Mar 1, 1999. 454-62 pp.
Baltimore, Maryland. In Eng.
"A case-control study nested
within a large cohort, the American Cancer Society Cancer Prevention
Study-1, was conducted to test associations between a family history of
cancer and cancer mortality in women. By using logistic regression, the
authors analyzed family history, as reported by 429,483 women enrolled
in 1959, relative to subsequent mortality through 1972 from cancer
within and across multiple sites. The associations between family
history and cancer mortality were generally stronger within cancer
sites than across cancer sites [but some across-site associations were
also observed].... These findings support the growing body of evidence
from cancer genetics suggesting that inherited cancer-susceptibility
genes increase the risk for cancer at many sites and are not specific
to cancer risk within a single site."
Correspondence:
C. A. Poole, University of Colorado, Health Sciences Center,
Denver, CO 80217-3364. Location: Princeton University Library
(SZ).
65:20160 Ranjan, Alok. Components
of mortality change by cause in developing countries during 1980s.
Demography India, Vol. 27, No. 1, Jan-Jun 1998. 229-43 pp. Delhi,
India. In Eng.
"In this paper, we present and analyze
information on mortality by cause in selected developing countries of
the world for which detailed statistics of death by cause [have] been
made available by the World Health Organization.... The
analysis...reveals that in all but one of the countries included in
this analysis, mortality has declined during the 1980s although the
rate of decline has varied from country to country.... [It] also
reveals that in a number of countries of the sample, sex difference in
mortality has widened over time...."
Correspondence:
A. Ranjan, Shyam Institute, Mudian Ka Kuan, Datia, Madhya Pradesh
475 661, India. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).
65:20161 Rodríguez Artalejo, Fernando;
Guallar-Castillón, Pilar; Banegas Banegas, José R.; de
Andrés Manzano, Belén; del Rey Calero, Juan.
Consumption of fruit and wine and the decline in cerebrovascular
disease mortality in Spain (1975-1993). Stroke, Vol. 29, No. 8,
Aug 1998. 1,556-61 pp. Dallas, Texas. In Eng.
"This study
examines the changes in provincial distribution of cerebrovascular
disease (CVD) mortality and its socioeconomic and lifestyle risk
factors to identify those factors that have most greatly contributed to
the decline in CVD mortality in Spain during the period 1975-1993....
Changes in fruit, wine, and fish intake accounted for 22% of the
variation in the decline in CVD mortality. The increase in fruit
consumption and decrease in wine consumption showed a statistically
significant relationship...with the decline in CVD
mortality."
Correspondence: F. Rodríguez
Artalejo, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Departamento de
Medicina Preventiva y Salud Pública, Avenida Arzobispo Morcillo
s/n, 28029 Madrid, Spain. E-mail: osproarf@vc.ehu.es. Location:
Princeton University Library (SPR).
65:20162 Rosengren, Annika; Wilhelmsen,
L. Respiratory symptoms and long-term risk of death from
cardiovascular disease, cancer and other causes in Swedish men.
International Journal of Epidemiology, Vol. 27, No. 6, Dec 1998. 962-9
pp. Oxford, England. In Eng.
"The present study was undertaken
to assess the relation between respiratory symptoms and mortality from
cardiovascular causes, cancer and all causes in a large population of
middle-aged men [in Sweden. Data are from a] prospective population
study of 6,442 men aged 51-59 at baseline.... Men with effort-related
breathlessness had increased risk of dying from all of the examined
diseases.... An independent effect of breathlessness...was found in
life-time non-smokers, and also if men with chest pain not considered
to be angina were excluded."
Correspondence: A.
Rosengren, Östra University Hospital, Department of Medicine, 416
85 Göteborg, Sweden. Location: Princeton University
Library (SPR).
65:20163 Ruzicka, Lado T. Suicide
in countries and areas of the ESCAP region. Asia-Pacific
Population Journal, Vol. 13, No. 4, Dec 1998. 55-74 pp. Bangkok,
Thailand. In Eng.
"In the ESCAP [Economic and Social
Commission for Asia and the Pacific] region each year more than half a
million people die by suicide and over 5 million attempt to kill
themselves. This article collates available evidence about the
incidence, age and sex patterns of suicide mortality in selected
countries and areas of the region. It discusses cultural and legal
attitudes towards suicide, as well as the social and health
implications of the problem. It concludes by outlining some of the
attempts that could be made at prevention both by governments and civil
society."
Correspondence: L. T. Ruzicka, Major's
Creek, Braidwood, NSW 2622, Australia. Location: Princeton
University Library (SPR).
65:20164 Salanave, Benoît;
Bouvier-Colle, Marie-Hélène; Varnoux, Noelle; Alexander,
Sophie; Macfarlane, Alison. Classification differences and
maternal mortality: a European study. International Journal of
Epidemiology, Vol. 28, No. 1, Feb 1999. 64-9 pp. Oxford, England. In
Eng.
The authors "compare the ways maternal deaths are
classified in national statistical offices in Europe and to evaluate
the ways classification affects published rates [using] data on
pregnancy-associated deaths...in 13 European countries. Cases were
classified by a European panel of experts into obstetric or
non-obstetric causes.... Compared with the statistical offices, the
European panel attributed more deaths to obstetric causes.... According
to official published data, the aggregated maternal mortality rate for
participating countries was 7.7 per 100,000 live births, but it
increased to 8.7 after classification by the European
panel...."
Correspondence: B. Salanave, Institut
National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale, U149,
123 Boulevard de Port-Royal, 75014 Paris, France. Location:
Princeton University Library (SPR).
65:20165 Shkolnikov, Vladimir M.; McKee,
Martin; Vallin, Jacques; Aksel, Eugenia; Leon, David; Chenet, Laurent;
Meslé, France. Cancer mortality in Russia and
Ukraine: validity, competing risks and cohort effects.
International Journal of Epidemiology, Vol. 28, No. 1, Feb 1999. 19-29
pp. Oxford, England. In Eng.
"This paper presents an analysis
of trends and patterns in cancer mortality [in Russia and Ukraine] and
examines four possible explanations for its recent fall: changes in
data collection; cohort effects; competing mortality from other causes
of death; and improvements in health care.... All contribute to some
extent to the observed changes, with each affecting predominantly
different age groups.... Competing mortality from cardiovascular
diseases and accidents can explain some reduction in male deaths from
cancer in middle age. Birth cohort effects can explain some reduction
among males after early middle age and among females at all
ages."
Correspondence: V. M. Shkolnikov, Institute for
Economic Forecasting, Center of Demographic and Human Ecology, 32
Krasikova, 117418 Moscow, Russia. Location: Princeton
University Library (SPR).
65:20166 Single, Eric; Robson, Lynda; Rehm,
Jürgen; Xi, Xiaodi. Morbidity and mortality
attributable to alcohol, tobacco, and illicit drug use in Canada.
American Journal of Public Health, Vol. 89, No. 3, Mar 1999. 385-90 pp.
Washington, D.C. In Eng.
"This study estimated morbidity and
mortality attributable to substance abuse in Canada. Pooled estimates
of relative risk were used to calculate etiologic fractions by age,
gender, and province for 91 causes of disease or death attributable to
alcohol, tobacco, or illicit drugs. There were 33,498 deaths and
208,095 hospitalizations attributed to tobacco, 6,701 deaths and 86,076
hospitalizations due to alcohol, and 732 deaths and 7,095
hospitalizations due to illicit drugs in 1992. Substance abuse exacts a
considerable toll on Canadian society in terms of morbidity and
mortality, accounting for 21% of deaths, 23% of years of potential life
lost, and 8% of hospitalizations."
Correspondence: E.
Single, University of Toronto, Department of Public Health Sciences, 6
Mervyn Avenue, Toronto, Ontario M9B 1M6, Canada. Location:
Princeton University Library (SZ).
65:20167 Smith, Catherine L.; Kricker, Anne;
Armstrong, Bruce K. Breast cancer mortality trends in
Australia: 1921 to 1994. Medical Journal of Australia, Vol. 168,
No. 1, Jan 5, 1998. 11-4 pp. Sydney, Australia. In Eng.
The authors
"analyse breast cancer mortality trends in Australia...to see if
mammographic screening has yet led to a reduction in mortality....
Changes in breast cancer mortality in Australian women could not be
explained by chance variation alone.... Trends in breast cancer
mortality have probably been influenced by changing fertility,
nutrition and body-size increases among Australian women. Improvements
in stage at diagnosis and treatment have probably moderated the upwards
pressure on mortality caused by an increasing
incidence."
Correspondence: A. Kricker, National
Health and Medical Research Council National Breast Cancer Centre, P.O.
Box 572, Kings Cross, NSW 2011, Australia. No reprints available.
Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).
65:20168 Urassa, Ernest; Massawe, Siriel;
Lindmark, Gunilla; Nyström, Lennarth. Operational
factors affecting maternal mortality in Tanzania. Health Policy
and Planning, Vol. 12, No. 1, Mar 1997. 50-7 pp. Oxford, England. In
Eng.
"In this study, a follow-up was done of all 117 cases of
maternal deaths in llala district, Dar es Salaam [Tanzania], 1991-1993,
at all levels of care.... For each case the major operational factors
and all health care interventions were defined through interviews with
family members and health care staff and from hospital records, and the
avoidability of each case was determined. In the health institutions
where the women had consulted, the available resources were
assessed.... It is concluded that although community education on
danger signs in pregnancy and labour is important, provision of the
core resources and supplies for emergency obstetric interventions, as
well as clear protocols for management and referral, are absolutely
necessary for improvement of maternal
survival."
Correspondence: L. Nyström, Umeå
University, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, 901 85
Umeå, Sweden. Location: U.S. National Library of
Medicine, Bethesda, MD.
65:20169 Williamson, David F.; Pamuk, Elsie;
Thun, Michael; Flanders, Dana; Byers, Tim; Heath, Clark.
Prospective study of intentional weight loss and mortality in
overweight white men aged 40-64 years. American Journal of
Epidemiology, Vol. 149, No. 6, Mar 15, 1999. 491-503, 515-8 pp.
Baltimore, Maryland. In Eng.
The association between intentional
weight loss and mortality is examined using data on 49,337 overweight
white men aged 40-64 from the American Cancer Society's Cancer
Prevention Study I. These data were originally collected in 1959-1960,
and vital status was reassessed in 1972. The results, along with an
earlier study on women, suggest that intentional weight loss may reduce
the risk of dying from diabetes, but not from cardiovascular effects.
The difficulty of distinguishing between intentional and unintentional
weight loss in such studies is stressed. Comments on the paper by Lewis
H. Kuller are included (pp. 515-6), as is a response from the principal
author (pp. 517-8).
Correspondence: D. F. Williamson,
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Division of Diabetes
Translation (K-68), 4770 Buford Highway NE, Atlanta, GA 30341-3724.
Location: Princeton University Library (SZ).
