BIBLIOGRAPHIC INPUT SHEET TEMPORARY Patterns of mortality ...

44
Patterns of Mortalitiiin'Childhood
Health authorities (Department of yond internal hospital procedures to prob-
Health) in New York City have regularly lems of registration practices and the cornparability
of vital statistics. Not only are
published data by birth weight. Also, for
many years they have collected data on local, state, and national statistics affected
fetal deaths, taking that term to signify by these basic definitional considerations,
early as well as late fetal deaths (Erhardt, but international statistical comparisons
1952). Thus live births and fetal deaths are also influenced."
usually registered in that city in ac- In the present Investigation the efforts of
are
on searches for
cordance with the WHO definitions, the field staff were centered
An investigation conducted in five hospitals
in New York City in 1967 (Chase definition of a live birth. However, intro­
all deaths in accordance with the WHO
et at., 1972) revealed that of 2,565 live duction of a recording form (Appendix I
births classed by vital signs in accordance of the report by Chase et al., 1972) for
with the WHO definition, all except four routine use in delivery rooms would have
(or 0.16 per cent) were registered officially facilitated provision of the basic informaas
live births. Of the 2,565 jive births, 299 tion for determination of the live births.
(11.7 per cent) were of 2,500 grams or less. Its use is recommended for future studies.
This percentage was higher than the 8.2 per Distinct differences in the frequencies of
cent recorded for the United States in 1967. low-weight births have been noted in three
. The research program carried out in New ethnic groups in New York City. Figure 24
York City on vital signs present at birth shows the percentages of births in four
has important implications for this Inves- weight groups for white, Puerto Rican, and
tigation and for all future studies of perinatal,
neonatal, and infant mortality. One Fir. 24. Percentage of Live Births in Four
of the objectives was "to determine the Weight Groups, by Ethnic Group. New York City,
quantitative effect of using different combi- 1966.
nations of vital signs to define live births." 12
The study documented the vital signs ob-
NONWHITE
served at birth and found that heartbeat 0i
was present in every instance but one, and
that mortality rates based on data using /,UTo.,CAN
this sign alone yielded virtually the same
P R
result as the WHO definition which includes
any of the four vital signs (breathing, beat-
ITE
ing of the heart, pulsation of the umbilical M 6
cord, or definite movement of voluntary
muscles). Also the authors state: "If applied
properly, the WHO definitions of live"
birth and fetal deah tend to promote more
.......
uniform statistics than any of the other
.............
definitions which were considered here. . . . _ 1000 0ON 1001.l$O0 , _ _2001.2300
The study emphasizes the importance of
LISS
WEIGHT INGRAMS
basic information in vital registration and
1I97l-.
vital statistics. Its relevance extends be-
source, De from Joe