An investigation of child mortality in Kingston and St. Andrew, Jamaica - abstract

ABSTRACT

This study was carried out as one of the thirteen field projects in the Inter-American Investigation of Mortality in Childhood, which was sponsored by PAHO/WHO. The objective of the study was to investigate causes of death in infancy and early childhood, taking into account nutritional, sociological and other environmental factors. This preliminary report is for the year 1969. An attempt was made to get complete data on all deaths of children under five years of age in the parishes of Kingston and St. Andrew, Jamaica - an area with total mean population of 547,500 in 1969. The investigation was carried out through interviews in homes, hospitals and clinics and with physicians so as to obtain complete records of the fatal illness, results of laboratory and other examinations and autopsy findings. The study area was sub-divided into urban and rural. The total number of deaths under five years of age for the year was 906, 835 of which were from the urban area. The demographic (provisional) of the Registrar General for 1969 reported 803 infant deaths, thus giving an infant mortality rate of 35.4, while the study had 763 infant deaths with an infant mortality rate of 33.8. There were 836 deaths (92 percent) under two years of age, with 469 (51.6 percent) in the neonatal period and 294 (32.5 percent) in the post neonatal period. In 1-4 years age group, 73 deaths occurred among the one-year olds and this represents 52.5 percent of deaths in this age group. Thus there were four times as many deaths in the post-neonatal period as there were in the second year of life and those in the second year of life were more than half of those deaths occurring in the 1-4 year old group. The geographic distribution was analysed according to postal zones for the urban area. Out of 835 urban deaths occurring in 21 postal zones, 445 (53.2 percent) occurred in zones 0, 11, 12 and 13 which accounted individually for the highest numbers of death. Hence establishing priorities in developing a maternal and child health programme to improve health services and reduce child mortality, emphasis must necessarily be given to children under two years old, and special attention to certain geographic areas (AU)