PROBABILITY OF DYING IN THE 1ST YEAR OF L IFE IN AN URBAN AREA OF BRAZIL

A birth-cohort of 4,876 children born alive in hospital were selected and followed through up to the age of one year with a view to estimati ng the risk of dying,in the first year of life. All of them were born in 1989, in one of the the seven hospitals of an urban area of Souther n Brazil and the only requirement for belonging to die cohort was that of residence on the area. The selected variables were: sex. birthweig ht, age at moment of death, underlying cause of death, and maternal ag e. The estimated probability of dying in the first year was of 19.9 pe r 1,000 (77.3% of the deaths occurred during the neonatal period). Per inatal causes and congenital malformations contributed to 80% of the d eaths, and infectious diseases were the underlying cause of death in o nly 1.1% of the losses. The risk of dying in the first year of life du e to afections arising during the perinatal period was higher among va ginally delivered babies (20.3 per 1,000) than it was for those born b y caesarian section (9 per 1,000). A higher probability of death was p resent among infants born to adolescent mothers, and those with low bi rthweight (less than 2,500g). The results brought out the need for imp roving the quality of prenatal and infant care. They also suggested th e hypothesis of a possible association between higher infant mortality and lower socio-economic level.