PERINATAL HEALTH - METHODOLOGY AND SOME C HARACTERISTICS OF THE POPULATION STUDIED

Objective To describe the methodological procedures and some sociodemo graphic and medical care characteristics of the population studies in a research project on perinatal health developed in the Ribeirao Preto county, SP, in 1994, in order to make historical comparisons with the indicators of mother-child health of a similar study conducted 15 yea rs before in the same municipality. Material and method All the hospit al births that occurred in Ribeirao Preto from June 1978 to May 1979 w ere studied by interviewing the mothers and obtaining data about mater nal and paternal habits, social situation of the family, medical care during pregnancy and delivery, duration of pregnancy, and anthropometr ic and mortality data about the newborn children. A new study was cond ucted in 1994 using the same methodology to collect data about a sampl e of 1/3 of the births that had occurred in the municipality in that y ear (all the hospital births observed during a period of 4 months), an d also about the mortality of this group up to one year after the term ination of birth data collection. The interviews were held after deliv ery and infant weight and length were measured immediately after birth . Infant mortality was evaluated by surveying the data referring to al l deaths of infants born during the year of the study and up to 1 year after its termination. The data were obtained from the Municipal Heal th Secretariat to which copies of all death certificates emitted in th e registry offices of the county are sent obligatorily. Results An inv estigation was made into 3,663 births, 3,579 of which were singletons; of these, 2,846 were from the municipality. Comparison with the data obtained in the previous study showed an increase in the frequency of some indicators such as adolescent mothers, prematurity, low birth wei ght and cesarian section; on the other hand, there was a 50% decrease in the mortality rate and its components.