Causal Relationships between Infant Mortality and Fertility in Developedand Less Developed Countries

This paper is a study of the dynamic relationships between two demographic variables--the infant mortality rate and the fertility rate-- using time series methodology. I believe that I have shown that infant mortality and fertility are not independent but rather are jointly determined. Also, i believe that I have shown that a decline in infant mortality that is due to an increase in per capita real income triggers a subsequent decline in fertility.This dynamic nexus between changes in infant mortality and fertilitylies at the heart of the so-called "demographic transition."

Industrialization and Infant Mortality

On average, infant mortality rates are lower in more industrialized nations, yet health and mortality worsened during early industrialization in some nations. This study examines the effects of growing manufacturing employment on infant mortality across 274 Indonesian districts from 1985 to 1995, a time of rapid industrialization. Compared with cross-national studies we have a larger sample size of regions, more consistent data definitions, and better checks for causality and specification. We can also explore the causal mechanisms underlying our correlations. Overall the results suggest manufacturing employment raised living standards, housing quality, and reduced cooking with wood and coal, which helped reduce infant mortality. At the same time, pollution from factories appears quite harmful to infants. The overall effect was slightly higher infant mortality in regions that experienced greater industrialization.Industrialization, infant mortality, Indonesia, pollution, indoor air pollution

The Impact of Public Health Policy: The Case of Community Health Centers

The aim of this paper is to assess the impact of the Community Health Center (CHC) on health levels in the U.S. Using infant mortality as the underlying health indicator, a time series of large counties as the data set, and multivariate regression techniques, we investigate the extent to which the presence of a program in a county affects future mortality. We find that CHCs have negative and statistically significant impacts on white and black infant mortality rates.The centers have larger effects on black infant mortality than on white infant mortality. The reduction in the black infant mortality rate between 1970 and 1978 due to the CHC system amounts to one death per thousand live births or approximately 12 percent of the observed decline.This result is particularly striking in light of the well-known higher infant mortality rate of blacks. A reduction in the excess mortality rate of black babies has been dentfied as a goal of public health policy for a number of years. Our results suggest that community health centers have the potential to make a substantial contribution to the achievement of this goal.

Proceedings of the International Collaborative Effort on Perinatal and Infant Mortality, Volume 1: papers presented at the International Symposium on Perinatal and Infant Mortality, 1984 ; Bethesda, Maryland

On August 6-9, 1984, the International Collaborative Effort (ICD) on Perinatal and Infant Mortality of the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) convened an International Symposium for the purpose of coordinating research activities of NCHS with parallel activities in selected industrialized countries. The results of these activities are expected to provide guidance for Public Health Service programs and activities designed to improve infant health and reduce the disparities that currently exist between racial, ethnic and socioeconomic groups in the United States. The ICE Planning Group is comprised of members from the National Center for Health Statistics, the Center for Environmental Health of the Centers for Disease Control, the Division of Maternal and Child Health of the Health Resources and Services Administration, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development of the National Institutes of Health and the Association of Vital Records and Health Statistics. This group also includes two eminent researchers from each of six countries: the Federal Republic of Germany, Great Britain, Israel, Japan, Norway and Sweden. The participants of the Symposium included as well epidemiologists, physicians, researchers, health statisticians and health planners experienced in the areas of perinatal and infant health and mortality conditions. The Symposium devoted the first 2 days to presentations describing recent trends and levels, health care systems, and current research and developments related to perinatal and infant mortality in each country represented. On the third day, the participants divided into 4 working groups on: . Risk factors affecting pregnancy outcome; Clinical interventions related to fetal health; Clinical interventions related to infant health; Community interventions. Reports were prepared and presented on the fourth and final day. Recommendations for research activities of mutual concern were made. By publishing these Proceedings, it is hoped that the communication and collaboration will continue far beyond this Symposium.sponsored by National Center for Health Statistics.Includes bibliographical references

Interaction of infant mortality and fertility and the effectiveness of health and family planning programs

The interaction of fertility and infant mortality is well established. Lower infant mortality can lead to lower fertility by reducing the need for replacement births. Conversely, birth spacing improves the chances of child survival. To find out how these programs reinforce each other, a study done in Indonesia estimated the effects that family planning programs have on infant mortality and the effects of reduced infant mortality on fertility. The research compared the cost-effectiveness of health and family planning programs and looked at whether the interaction of infant mortality and fertility influenced estimates of the costs of both programs. The results demonstrate a substantial spillover effect, confirming that the interaction does raise the cost-effectiveness of both programs. These findings are sufficiently consistent that policymakers should consider the mortality-fertility interaction as a regular part of the appraisal of health and population projects. Integrated programs offer lower costs and more effective promotion. They also improve efforts to assure infant survival and achieve birth prevention objectives.Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Health Systems Development&Reform,Early Child and Children's Health,Health Economics&Finance,Reproductive Health

DEMOGRAPHIC TRANSITION IN EUROPE

Using panel cointegration analysis, we show that a cointegration relationship exists among fertility choice, infant mortality, real wages and real per capita output. The results suggest that in low mortality economies reductions in infant mortality will decrease fertility.

Stellar Clusters in NGC 1313: Evidence for Infant Mortality

We present evidence that infant mortality of stellar clusters is likely to be a major and very efficient process for the dissolution of young clusters in the spiral galaxy NGC 1313. Performing stellar PSF photometry on archival HST/ACS images of the galaxy, we find that a large fraction of early B-type stars are seen outside of star clusters and well spread within the galactic disk, consistent with the scenario of infant mortality. We also calculate the UV flux produced by the stars in and out the clusters and find that 75 to 90% of the UV flux in NGC 1313 is produced by stars outside the clusters. These results suggest that the infant mortality of star clusters is probably the underlying cause of the diffuse UV emission in starburst galaxies. Infant mortality would also explain the numerous B-type stars observed in the background field of our Galaxy as well. We exclude the possibility that unresolved low-mass star clusters and scaled OB associations might be the main source for the diffuse UV emission.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Letter

The Mortality and Morbidity Transitions in Sub-Saharan Africa: Evidence from Adult Heights

In most developing countries, rising levels of nutrition and improvements in public health have led to declines in infant mortality and rising adult heights. In Sub-Saharan Africa we see a different pattern. Sub-Saharan Africa has seen large reductions in infant mortality over the last fifty years, but without any increase in protein and energy intake and against a background of stagnant, or declining, adult height. Adult height is a sensitive indicator of the nutrition and morbidity prevailing during the childhood of the cohort and can be taken as a measure of health human capital. Declining infant mortality rates in Sub-Saharan Africa appear to be driven by medical interventions that reduce infant mortality, rather than by broad based improvements in nutrition and public health measures, and may not be reflective of broad based health improvements.mortality, Sub-Saharan, morbidity, heights

From Angela's Ashes to the Celtic Tiger: Early Life Conditions and Adult Health in Ireland

We use data from the Irish census and exploit regional and temporal variation in infant mortality rates over the 20th century to examine effects of early life conditions on later life health. Our main identification is public health interventions which eliminated the Irish urban infant mortality penalty. Estimates suggest that a unit decrease in mortality rates at time of birth reduces the probability of being disabled as an adult by between .03 and .05 percentage points. We find that individuals from lower socio economic groups had marginal effects of reduced infant mortality twice as large as those at the top.childhood health, disability

Short and long-term relationship between physician density on infant mortality: a longitudinal econometric analysis

While countries with higher levels of human resources for health typically have better population health, the evidence that increases in the level of human resources for health leads to improvements in population health is limited. We provide estimates of short-run and long-term effects of physician density on infant mortality. We use a dynamic regression model that allows an estimation of both short- and long-run effects of physician density on infant mortality. We also used instrumental variables analysis to identify the causal effect of physician density on health. We estimate that increasing the number of physicians by one per 1,000 population decreases the infant mortality rate by 15% within five years and by 45% in the long-run. We find all countries are moving towards their own steady state at around 3% a year and are only half way there after 15 years. We conclude that the long-run effects of human resources for health are substantially larger than previously estimated. Our results suggest that health sector inputs can play a role in reducing infant mortality. However, meeting the Millennium Development Goal of reducing child mortality rate by two thirds from 1990 to 2015 would have required much earlier action.Physician density, infant mortality, longitudinal, eocnometric