|
Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz
Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Fiocruz
ISSN: 1678-8060 EISSN: 1678-8060
Vol. 96, Num. 6, 2001, pp. 887
|
Untitled Document
Mem Inst Oswaldo Cruz, Rio de
Janeiro, Vol. 96(6) Aug. 2001, pp. 887
BOOK REVIEW
Health Statistics from the
Americas, 1998 Edition
Iúri da Costa Leite
Escola Nacional de Saúde Pública,
Fiocruz
Code Number: oc01144
Health Statistics from the Americas, 1998
Edition
Publisher: Pan American Health Organization
Scientific Publication No. 567
Washington D.C., 1998, 476 pp.
ISBN 92-75-31567-1
Estimates of mortality are of great importance
as social indicators widely used in the implementation of public policies and
also for the calculation of population projection. As social indicators, these
estimates have a more informative characteristic as they are desegregated not
only by sex and age but principally by mortality causes.
Health Statistics from the Americas, 1998
is the fourth edition of a series that was launched in 1991 by the Pan American
Health Organization (PAHO) with the aim to obtain estimates of mortality desegregated
by sex, age and causes of mortality in the American countries. Initially conceived
as an annual series, Health Statistics from the Americas is currently
published every two years.
This edition is the first to include a special
section, devoted to the topic "Health during Childhood", which makes
up the first chapter of this book. Divided into three parts, this chapter is,
in fact, very enriching. The first part describes the population dynamics in
the 0-4 years group. Although the emphasis is on the transition of the mortality
rate in infancy, the text clearly shows the decline of fecundity which has been
occurring in a marked manner among the developing countries in this region.
In the second part, mortality rates are presented
for eight major groups of death causes, recently proposed by PAHO, in several
periods of childhood (perinatal, early neonatal, late neonatal, post-neonatal
and 1-4 years). This new classification of mortalities in 30 specific cases
and eight major groups is being presented by PAHO as being more adequate for
the study of the mortalities during the first years of life. The use of sub-intervals
of ages is due to the fact that the prevalence of each of the major causes associated
with the first five years of life varies according to each one of the periods
considered. These indices were calculated for the periods elapsed between 1960-1964
and 1990-1994.
The third part presents statistics on the duration
of partial and exclusive breast feeding and also on the nutritional status of
children younger than five years; extremely important subjects to health in
infancy. This information was obtained from several sources, specially the case
studies and research of the Demographic and Health Survey. Death due to respiratory
infection, diarrhea, malnutrition, meningitis, septicemia, vaccine preventable
diseases, malaria, Aids and accidents are also presented. Besides the death
rates due to common childhood diseases, there are also shown death rates due
to cancer among children of 0-4 years of age. This is due to the fact that even
though death due to cancer is low, the amount of money used for its treatment
is large, representing an important part of all the money destined for child
health.
Chapter II is divided in two parts. The first
one deals with the number of deaths, with age intervals for the first five years,
for the 30 specific causes of the eight major groups of causes determined by
PAHO. The statistics are presented for two years: 1980 and the most recent year
in which the necessary information, in order to calculate the death rate in
age groups, was available at the moment of tabulating the data. The second part
presents the total deaths according to six major groups of causes, making use
of previous publications, for three five-year period groups immediately after
childhood (5-9, 10-14 and 15-19). This information allows a comparison with
the previously presented data, even though this is the first time that the 5-19
age group has been desegregated. This break down is very important because it
enables the analysis of the information referring to the health of adolescents.
Chapter III gives continuity to the previous
publications, by issuing the total deaths for the six major groups of causes,
as well as for the 61 specific causes belonging to them. The totals have been
calculated by sex and age for the data that was available after the publication
of the previous edition.
It is important to emphasize that this edition
is a valuable source of information. However the estimates must be very carefully
used because sometimes they are not comparable. In order to make this information
adequate, it is important to read the technical notes, which give the methodology
used and the problems encountered in the data analysis.
Copyright
2001 Fundacao Oswaldo Cruz
|