BIBLIOGRAPHIC INPUT SHEET TEMPORARY Patterns of mortality ...

240 Patternsof Mortalityin Childhood
parents did not report any particular ab- Fia. 117. Mortality from Sudden Death in Inifancy,
by Age of Mother, in Seven Projects Cornpreceding
the
normality during the hours
fatal event.
invoked by
Low birth weight has been
120
various authors (Valdes-Dapena, 1967) as
a factor in sudden death on the basis of ',
comparisons of percentages of low-birth- I
weight infants dying from that cause with V
those in control series or with low-birth- so
weight incidence in the community. Since 0 60
in ninny areas birth weight was found to be ­
low among infants dying in the first year 4
of life, data were obtained for infants dying
in the l)ostneonatal period in whom sudden 20
death (category 795) was assigned as cause.
Of the 215 sudden deaths occurring in that .20 25.29 30.34 35 .,
age period, birth weights were known for AGEOFMOTHER IN YLARs
157, and in 27 of these (17.2 per cent) the
weights were 2,500 grais or less. For areas
with sufficient data regarding birth weights, For seven projects the data by maternal
the comparable percentage for deaths from age were combined to explore any possible
all causes in the 1)ostneonatal period was relationship between sudden death in infancy
and age of mother at birth of child.
25.0. With the three Brazilian projects ex-
The rates per 100,000 live births were as foleluded
(because of their low rates), 23.2 per
cent of all postneonatal deaths were of in- lows:
or
Rate for
fants with birth weights of 2,500 grams
less, and 17.8 per cent of the sudden deaths Maternalage sudden death
In Under 20 years 108.1
occurred in infants in that weight range.
summary, low birth weight did not appear 20-24 years 68.7
25-29 years
to be a factor contributing to sudden death 42.6
35 years and over 45.0
in the postneonatal period in the Investigation.
The data were analyzed also for possible These rates, shown in Figure 117, imply
relationship of sudden death to lack of that the infants of younger mothers are at
breast feeding. Of the 164 postneonatal greater risk of sudden death. This confirms'
deaths from this cause for which the per- the observations made by Steele and Langtinent
information was available, 99 were worth (1966) and Valdes-Dapena (1967),
of infants who had been breast fed for at who fou.id that mothers of affected infants
least one month (59.6 per cent), as corn- were younger at the time of marriage, at the
pared with 52.2 per cent for deaths from all time of first pregnancy, and at the time of
causes. With the three Brazilian projects delivery of the infant studied.
excluded, the percentages were 63.8 and The situation in regard to birth order was
59.3, respectively. There is therefore not not clear owing in part to small numbers
sufficient difference to implicate lack of and tlv. fact that distributions of live births
breast feeding.
were available for only four projects.