Infant mortality in Pelotas, Brazil: a comparison of risk factors in two birth cohorts La mortalidad de menores de un año en Pelotas, Brasil: comparación de factores de riesgo en dos cohortes de nacimiento

• Main Authors: Ana Maria Baptista Menezes, Pedro Curi Hallal, Iná Silva dos Santos, Cesar Gomes Victora, Fernando Celso Barros
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English; Spanish; Portuguese
• Published: Pan American Health Organization 2005
• Subjects: Mortalidad infantil; desigualdad; estudios de cohortes; estudios prospectivos; países en desarrollo; Infant mortality; nequalities; cohort studies; prospective studies; developing countries; Medicine; R; Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine; RC955-962; Public aspects of medicine; RA1-1270; Arctic
• Online Access: https://doaj.org/article/6cb1debad93c4530a4400f17a16b1e04

OBJECTIVES: To compare two population-based birth cohorts to assess trends in infant mortality rates and the distribution of relevant risk factors, and how these changed after an 11-year period. METHODS: Data from two population-based prospective birth cohorts (1982 and 1993) were analyzed. Both studies included all children born in a hospital (> 99% of all births) in the city of Pelotas, Southern Brazil. Infant mortality was monitored through surveillance of all maternity hospitals, mortality registries and cemeteries. RESULTS: There were 5 914 live-born children in 1982 and 5 249 in 1993. The infant mortality rate decreased by 41%, from 36.0 per 1 000 live births in 1982 to 21.1 per 1 000 in 1993. Socioeconomic and maternal factors tended to become more favorable during the study period, but there were unfavorable changes in birthweight and gestational age. Poverty, high parity, low birthweight, preterm delivery, and intrauterine growth restriction were the main risk factors for infant mortality in both cohorts. The 41% reduction in infant mortality between 1982 and 1993 would have been even greater had the prevalence of risk factors remained constant during the period studied here. CONCLUSIONS: There were impressive declines in infant mortality which were not due to changes in the risk factors we studied. Because no reduction was seen in the large social inequalities documented in the 1982 cohort, it is likely that the reduction in infant mortality resulted largely from improvements in health care. OBJETIVOS: Comparar dos cohortes de nacimiento tomadas de la población en general a fin de evaluar las tendencias observadas en las tasas de mortalidad de menores de un año y la distribución de los factores de riesgo asociados con ella, así como los cambios sufridos por ambas cosas al cabo de un período de 11 años. MÉTODOS: Se analizaron los datos procedentes de dos cohortes de nacimiento prospectivas (1982 y 1993) tomadas de la población en general. En ambos estudios se abarcó a todos los niños que nacieron en ...