The decline in child mortality: a reappraisal
TLDR
The present paper examines, describes and documents country-specific trends in under-five mortality rates (i.e., mortality among children under five years of age) in the 1990s, and identifies countries and WHO regions where sustained improvement has occurred and those where setbacks are evident.Abstract:
The present paper examines, describes and documents country-specific trends in under-five mortality rates (i.e., mortality among children under five years of age) in the 1990s. Our analysis updates previous studies by UNICEF, the World Bank and the United Nations. It identifies countries and WHO regions where sustained improvement has occurred and those where setbacks are evident. A consistent series of estimates of under-five mortality rate is provided and an indication is given of historical trends during the period 1950-2000 for both developed and developing countries. It is estimated that 10.5 million children aged 0-4 years died in 1999, about 2.2 million or 17.5% fewer than a decade earlier. On average about 15% of newborn children in Africa are expected to die before reaching their fifth birthday. The corresponding figures for many other parts of the developing world are in the range 3-8% and that for Europe is under 2%. During the 1990s the decline in child mortality decelerated in all the WHO regions except the Western Pacific but there is no widespread evidence of rising child mortality rates. At the country level there are exceptions in southern Africa where the prevalence of HIV is extremely high and in Asia where a few countries are beset by economic difficulties. The slowdown in the rate of decline is of particular concern in Africa and South-East Asia because it is occurring at relatively high levels of mortality, and in countries experiencing severe economic dislocation. As the HIV/AIDS epidemic continues in Africa, particularly southern Africa, and in parts of Asia, further reductions in child mortality become increasingly unlikely until substantial progress in controlling the spread of HIV is achieved.read more
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Projections of Global Mortality and Burden of Disease from 2002 to 2030
Colin Mathers,Dejan Loncar +1 more
TL;DR: These projections represent a set of three visions of the future for population health, based on certain explicit assumptions, which enable us to appreciate better the implications for health and health policy of currently observed trends, and the likely impact of fairly certain future trends.
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4 million neonatal deaths: When? Where? Why?
TL;DR: The proportion of child deaths that occurs in the neonatal period (38% in 2000) is increasing, and the Millennium Development Goal for child survival cannot be met without substantial reductions in neonatal mortality.
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Where and why are 10 million children dying every year
TL;DR: The importance of undernutrition as an underlying cause of child deaths associated with infectious diseases, the effects of multiple concurrent illnesses, and recognition that pneumonia and diarrhoea remain the diseases that are most often associated with child deaths as mentioned in this paper.
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The global burden of diarrhoeal disease, as estimated from studies published between 1992 and 2000
TL;DR: Current estimates of the global burden of disease for diarrhoea are reported and compared with previous estimates made using data collected in 1954-79 and 1980-89, finding that the total morbidity component of the disease burden is greater than previously.
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The Determinants of Mortality
TL;DR: In this article, the authors identify the application of scientific advance and technical progress (some of which is induced by income and facilitated by education) as the ultimate determinant of health.
References
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Uwe E. Reinhardt,Tsung-mei Cheng +1 more
TL;DR: The chief virtue of the WHO report lies in the challenges it poses for its critics within the health services research community, and it is fair to query whether, on balance, so precarious an undertaking does more good than harm.
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Regional model life tables and stable populations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a set of model life tables and stable populations with a variety of associated parameters including the age distributions of deaths, which are used for a wide range of demographic analysis and estimation of population statistics.