BIBLIOGRAPHIC INPUT SHEET TEMPORARY Patterns of mortality ...

ChapterXIV. Socioeconomic and Related Factors 289
even within the group of mothers of infants
dying in the neonatal period.
There are other points that can be made
from the analysis of this material. One is
in reference to neonatal mortality from diseases
of the respiratory system, which shows
a relationship to mother's education similar
to that described for infectious diseases.
Another concerns congenital anomalies.
The causes of such conditions may differ
according to tile specific types, and may or
may not have any relationship to socioeconomic
conditions. In analyzing the data
for El Salvador, however, it was noted that
anomalies of the nervous system occurred
somewhat more frequently in mothers with
no education than in those with education.
This is a clue that can be used in conjunetion
with other clues to undertake further
exploration and research into the causation
of anomalies of this system.
Certain causes of death in the postneonatal
period and at 1-4 years of age in 14
projects also were analyzed using education
of mother as a measure of socioeconomic
conditions. Earlier in this chapter it was
shown that the proportions of deaths among
deceased children of mothers with little or
no education were higher in these age groups
than in the neonatal period.
Of the l)ostneonatal deaths, the percentages
due to infectious diseases as underlying
causes are shown by education of mother
in Table 171 and Figure 145. In general,
the proportions due to these causes were
lower for mothers with secondary or university
education than for those with no schooling.
When high proportions of the postneonatal
deaths were caused by infectious diseases,
as in the El Salvador project, there
was very little difference according to
mother's educational level.
Table 171 provides similar data for children
dying at 1-4 years of age. Though the
numbers become small, differences according
to mother's education are clear. For
these children in the 14 projects combined
the percentages of deaths from infectious
diseases were as follows in the case of
mothers with no schooling and those with
the higher education:
Secondary or uniersity education 34.9
63.4
No eduction
The numbers of deaths from nutritional
deficiency as underlying or associated cause,
in the postneonatal period and at 1-4 years,
are given according to mother's educational
level in Table 172. The proportions of such
deaths were consistently smaller in the case
of mothers with secondary or university
education than for those with less schooling.
The percentages for postneonatal deaths are
shown in Figure 146.
The data for the 13 Latin American projects
are combined in Table 173 and Figure
147. Here it can be seen clearly that the
percentages of children with nutritional deficiency
dying in the postneonatal period
and at 1-4 years were much higher in the
case of mothers with no education (57.0 and
68.3, respectively) than for those with seeondary
or university education (37.2 and
35.3 per cent). The differences arc obviously
significant and they show that education is
a valuable measure to use in differentiating
groups in terms of nutritional deficiency.
Utilization of this measure in studies of living
children is desirable.
* *
To summarize, two measures of socioeconomic
conditions have been utilized in
this study of mortality in childhood-occupation
of father and education of mother.
The second of these measures proved by far
the more useful and valid. In fact, in sev­