The epidemiology of infant deaths in the Armenian parish records of Lebanon.

ABSTRACT

It is difficult to study time trends in mortality from most developing countries due to the lack of an appropriate data base. The present investigation is based on data from parish records of the Armenian Apostolic churches in Lebanon. Death and baptismal registers have been regularly maintained in these churches from 1863. Infant deaths were identified in the registers of the 13 churches. Available data on these deaths were abstracted, coded and analysed. Denominators for the different periods of study and for the various churches were calculated from baptismal records. The study shows that there has been a constant drop in the infant deaths over the review period. Infant mortality rates were higher in the parishes located in refugee camp areas. The most important recorded causes of death included diarrhoea and pneumonia. A study of clustering of deaths by time and place revealed a major epidemic of measles with high fatality in 1926. This epidemic had been previously unrecorded. The present study demonstrates the use of non-traditional data sources to assess long-term secular trends of mortality.