BIBLIOGRAPHIC INPUT SHEET TEMPORARY Patterns of mortality ...

Chapter Ili. Birth Weight
55
other areas the variation was from 6.1 in
the comunas in Chile to 16.0 in rural departments
of San Juan Province.
Many factors affect these findings, the
basic one being the completeness of the
data, and another the frequency of multiple
births among all live births in the area as
determined by genetic differences in populations.
Also the quality of medical treatment
of products of multiple pregnancies, which
are usually of low birth weight, influences
neonatal mortality,
For the study of neonatal mortality
among products of multiple pregnancies,
the data by birth weight in Table 13 are restricted
to infants born in the hospital. Also
the information is given only for the cities
(including Sherbrooke project as a city),
with the exception of San Juan Province
and the California prloject in which data
are presented for the entire projects.
For these neonatal deaths with weights
stated, the percentages of multiple births
varied from 8.6 in San Salvador to 15.7 in
TABLE 12. Number and Percentage of Multiple Resistencia, 16.3 in San Juan Province,
Births among Infants Dying in Neonatal Period ia and 17.3 in Recife (Figure 31). It is likely
25 Areas of 15 Projects. _ _ _at all known multiple births resulting in
Toted Multiple births neonatal deaths were included in San Salva-
Area neonatal dor and San Juan Province, the areas repdeaths
No. % resenting the very high and low percentages.
Thorough searches were conducted in both
ARGENTINA
Chaeo Province
areas when the rel)roductive history of the
Resltencia ............ 327 40 12.2 mother indicated a multiple birth. Thus
241 31 12.9
Rural departments .....
San Juan Province
there may be real differences in the fre-
San Juan (city) ........ 172 20 11.6
Suburban departments.. 353 53 15.0 quency of low-weight multiple i:irths re-
Rural departments .... 381 81 10.0 suiting in neonatal deaths.
BOLIVIA
La Paz ................ 1,049 84 8.0 Of the low-birth-weight babies (2,500
Viacha ................ 42 5 11.9 grains or less) dying in the neonatal period,
BRAZIl.
Recife ................... 1,073 142 13.2 from 10.7 per cent in San Salvador to 24.8
Ribeirao Preto
per cent in Resistencia were products of
Ribeiraio Preto (city) .... 223 35 15.7
Franca ................ 188 14 7.4 multiple )regnancies. Table 13 allows study
Communities .......... 104 13 12.5 of the weight distributions of neonatal
SAO Paulo ............... 1.958 218 11.1
CANADA
deaths with the exclusion of multiple births,
Sherbrooke .............. 229 25 10.9 which is tile Inetlod used by some authors.
CHILE
Santiago .............. 1,094 102 9.3 For example, Butler and Albernman (1969)
Comunon .............. 66 4 0.1 presented tile data by birth weight for sin-
COLOMBIA
Call .................... 536 44 8.2 gle births in tile British Perinatal Mortality
Cartagena ............... 401 39 9.7
383 49 12.8 Survey. For purposes of national health
Medellln ................
EL SALVADOR
planning, in contrast to research, study of
San Salvador .......... 722 57 7.9
Rural municipios ....... 105 16 8.2 the distributions of all live births and neo-
JAMAICA
natal deaths hy birth weight is advisable.
Metropolitan Kingston., 937 128 13.7
St. Andrew, rural ..... 53 5 04 In tile California project, on the basis of
MEXICO
the distributions of live births in the three
Monterrey............... 1,377 137 9.9
UNITED STATES
counties and San Francisco, 885 of tie esti-
San Francisco.......... 147 17 11.6 mated total would be multiple births. There
California, suburban ... 423 _______ 59 13.9 were 76 neonatal deathls of pr'oducts of mul­