Slowly, a gap closes.Maternal and child health disparities between the poorest neighborhoods and others in four metropolitan areas narrowed in the 1990s, but key indicators remain far from ideal levels. (1) Analysts used vital statistics vital statistics, primarily records of the number of births and deaths in a population. Other factors, such as number of marriages and causes of death, by age groups, are regularly included. From these records can be computed birthrates and death (or mortality) rates from which trends are determined. The earliest known system of vital statistics was in China. In England the clergy was required as early as the 16th cent. and census data to compare rates of teenage births, late prenatal care, low birth weight and infant mortality (hardware) infant mortality - It is common lore among hackers (and in the electronics industry at large) that the chances of sudden hardware failure drop off exponentially with a machine's time since first use (that is, until the relatively distant time at which enough mechanical wear in I/O devices and thermal-cycling stress in components has accumulated for the machine to start going senile). in "high-poverty" neighborhoods (those in which 30% or more of residents were below the poverty line in 1990) and others in Cuyahoga County, Ohio; Denver; Marion County, Indiana; and Oakland. In all four areas, trends from 1990 to 2000 were most favorable in the poorest neighborhoods, but substantial disparities remain. For example, high-poverty neighborhoods in Marion County saw a greater decline than others in the teenage birthrate birth·rate or birth rate (bûrth  r t )n. , but they still had the higher rate at the end of the decade (12 vs. six births per 100 women aged 15-19). Furthermore, in the high-poverty neighborhoods in each metropolitan area, all four rates were considerably higher than the Healthy People 2010 goals. The analysts conjecture that the observed gains were due partly to demographic shifts and partly to the effects of intensive interventions and improved social conditions. (1.) Howell EM, Pettit KLS KLS - Kernel Lockdown Scripts KLS - Kit Letter Designator and Kingsley GT, Trends in maternal and infant health in poor urban neighborhoods: good news from the 1990s, but challenges remain, Public Health Reports, 2005, 120(4):409-417. FYI is compiled and written by Dore Hollander, executive editor of Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health. |
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