BIBLIOGRAPHIC INPUT SHEET TEMPORARY Patterns of mortality ...

72 Pattern oflMortality in Childhood
TABLE 29. Death Rates' Under 5 Years by Age
Group in Two Areas of the Investigation in California,
and Official Rates for California and for the
United States.
-Under_ U_ Under -41__ 1-4
Area 5 years I year years
Investigation
San Francisco ............ 5.4 18.5 . 0.8
Suburban California ..... 4.1 17.2 0.7
Officialldata, 1069
California ............. ..... 18.3 0.8
United States ............ 4.9 20.7b 0.8
*Deaths under 1 year per 1,000 live births; others per
1,000 population.
bProvisional.
The final report of the California study
(University of California, 1972) provided
d ita by ethnic group that revealed higher
death. rates in the Negro population than
TAiLE 30. Infant Death Rates' by Ethnic Group
in the California Project.
Age group Total White Negro Other
Total............. 17.5 15.7 28.8 11.2
Neonatal ......... 12.7 11.0 20.5 3.2
Poatneonatal .... 4.8 4.1 8.2 3.5
1 1 1
a Deaths per 1,000 live births.
Sonrre: Final Report of California Study, University of
California, 1972.
in the white population and the group
termed other, which includes those of
Chinese and Japanese origin (Table 30).
The California State Health Department
provided the distribution of live births by
age of mother, birth order, and birth weight,
and thus the California project has been
especially valuable for the analysis of
mortality taking these variables into account.
. * *
These comparisons of the Investigation
findings with official data indicate several
fields for action:
1. Procedures should be established in
local areas for ensuring registration of each
birth and each death.
2. For an accurate knowledge of mortality
in cities, it is necessary to have data
by place of residence, both for deaths and
for births, since hospital facilities of cities
are used by residents of other urban communities
and rural areas.
3. The excessive death rates found in
rural areas in the Investigation indicate
the need to extend registration systems
to cover such areas, or to obtain data by
alternative methods such as sampling, in
order to make available basic information
required for the solution of serious health
problems.