MORTALITY-RATE FOR UNDER-FIVES PROPOSED B Y UNICEF - CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF ITS VALIDITY AS A HEALTH INDICATORS

The relationship between the Mortality Rare for children tinder age 5 as proposed by UNICEF and classical mortality indicators - infant mort ality, mortality rates for children under age 1, far ages 1 to 4, mort ality for children under 5, and the probability of death from birth to 5 years of age, is evaluated. The theoretical equivalence between the rate and (5)q(0) is shown by means of a Lexis diagram. Pratical evalu ation is carried out using data from the 24 areas under analysis in th e Inter-American Investigation of Mortality in Childhood. Kendall's Co rrelation shows high agreement between the rare and classical indicato rs, mainly for the Coefficient for children under 5 and for infant mor tality.