Women and Men in the Caribbean Community

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Women and Men in the Caribbean CommunityCHILD MORTALITY RATE isdefined as the number ofdeaths to children 1-4-yearsold per 1,000 population aged1-4 years. Child mortality isgenerally defined as deathsoccurring among childrenbefore they reach age 5 years.It is important to calculate therates for infants separatelyfrom the rates for children 1-4years, due to the disproportionatelyhigh mortality experiencedby infants.Health Situation of ChildrenChild Mortality Equally Low for Girls and BoysChild mortality is low for both girls and boys, and with only slight differencesbetween the mortality of girls and of boys. In the latest years for which there aredata, rates range from zero in St. Kitts and Nevis to 1.6 per 1,000 live births inBelize for girls, and from 0.2 per 1,000 live births in Barbados andSt. Vincent and the Grenadines to 1.7 in Belize, for boys, in the latest years forwhich there are data. The rates show a slight decline in child mortality for bothgirls and boys for at least three countries (Saint Lucia, St. Kitts and Nevis andTrinidad and Tobago), with Belize and Dominica recording slight increases forboth boys and girls (table 3.4).Table 3.4 Child mortality rate by sex(Annual deaths among children aged 0-4 years per 1000 population aged 0-4 years)Source: Women's Indicators and Statistics DatabaseVersion 4, CD-ROM, United Nations; and Pan AmericanHealth Organisation, Basic Indicators 2000.Child mortality rate1990 Latest available yearCountry Girls Boys Girls BoysAntigua and Barbuda 2.1 0.8 0.4 1.2The Bahamas … … 0.5 0.3Barbados 0.5 0.4 0.5 0.2Belize 1.5 1.2 1.6 1.7Dominica 0.3 0.7 0.4 1.0Guyana 1.7 2.3 … …Jamaica 1.4 1.7 … …Montserrat 0 0 … …Saint Lucia 1.3 1.8 0.6 1.0St.Kitts and Nevis 1.1 2.5 0 1.0St.Vincent and the Grenadines … … 0.5 0.2Suriname 1.1 1.6 … …Trinidad & Tobago 0.7 1.0 0.6 0.7More Girl Children Die from Acute Respiratory InfectionThe leading cause of death among children aged one to four years old for selectedcountries in the Region was acute respiratory infection, according to the latest informationavailable for 1995 (table 3.5). This caused more deaths among girls thanboys, with girls experiencing almost twice as many deaths as boys. AIDS, the fifthleading cause of death among children one to four years old, accounted for approximatelyfive per cent of the total number of reported deaths in this age group forboys, and 6 per cent for girls. Congenital anomalies represented the fourth leadingcause of death for children of these ages, but combined with diseases of the nervoussystem, became the leading cause of death for girls. Diseases of the nervous systemwere the second leading cause of death for boys, with more deaths for boys in thiscategory and in congenital anomalies than for girls.34
Chapter 3: HEALTHTable 3.5 Top five leading causes of mortality among children aged 1-4 years, by sex andfemale/male ratio, 1995Cause of deathNumberof femaledeathsNumberof maledeathsRatio offemale tomale deathsAcute respiratory infection 9 5 1.8Diseases of the nervous system 5 7 0.7Intestinal infectious diseases 5 5 1.0Congenital anomalies 3 5 0.6AIDS 4 3 1.3Total number of deaths 69 76 0.9Source: Mortality data reportedto CAREC by Member States.Note: Data are combined for Anguilla, Antiguaand Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize,Dominica, St. Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia,St.Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidadand Tobago.Levels of Child Malnutrition Vary Widely among CountriesThe impact of adequate nutrition on the physical and mental developmentof children cannot be over-emphasised. Commonly used indicatorsof malnutrition are the proportions of children underweight, stuntedand wasted. Statistics available for reporting countries reveal that, ingeneral, more girls than boys are found to be underweight. In somecountries about twice the proportion of boys as girls are underweight.The proportions underweight are higher for girls than for boys or almostequal in most Member States for which data are available: (Antigua andBarbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Haiti and Saint Lucia and Trinidad andTobago). For Jamaica, it is higher for boys than for girls, with 9 per centand 6 per cent, respectively, reported to be underweight. In contrast, theproportion of girls that are in the stunted or wasted categories is generallylower than or about the same as the proportion of boys. The proportionswasted are about equal for girls and boys in most MemberStates, with a difference of less than 2 percentage points except inAntigua and Barbuda, with 11 per cent of girls compared to 9 per centof boys considered wasted.There are wide variations among countries in the prevalence of malnutrition.For example, 6 per cent (Dominica and Jamaica) to 28 per cent(Haiti) of girls are underweight, and 4 per cent (Barbados) to 27 per cent(Haiti) of boys are underweight, while 4 per cent of girls and five percent of boys (in Dominica and Trinidad and Tobago) to 32 per cent ofgirls and boys (in Haiti) and 20 per cent of boys and 22 per cent of girls(Guyana) are stunted. For the wasted, one to 11 per cent of girls comparedto two to 9 per cent of boys (in Dominica and Antigua andBarbuda, respectively) are affected (table 3.6).CHILD MALNUTRITIONINDICATORS The three indicatorsof malnutrition representdifferent aspects of malnutrition.“Underweight” or low weight forage is a “measure of a child’sweight for age in relation to themedian value of a standard referencepopulation.“Stunting” or low height for agerelates the child’s height toher/his age in reference to themedian value of a standard referencepopulation.“Wasting” measures the child’sweight according to height in relationto the median value of astandard reference population.Women’s Indicators and StatisticsDatabase version 4, CD-ROM,Department of Economic andSocial Affairs, United Nations.The source of data for these indicatorsis mainly from the UNICEFMalnutrition country Databases.35
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