These tools will no longer be maintained as of December 31, 2024. Archived website can be found here. PubMed4Hh GitHub repository can be found here. Contact NLM Customer Service if you have questions.


Pubmed for Handhelds

PUBMED FOR HANDHELDS

Search MEDLINE/PubMed

  • Title: Socioeconomic correlates of infant mortality in Hong Kong, 1979-93.
    Author: Wong TW, Wong SL, Yu TS, Liu JL, Lloyd OL.
    Journal: Scand J Soc Med; 1998 Dec; 26(4):281-8. PubMed ID: 9868753.
    Abstract:
    Although Hong Kong's infant mortality is among the lowest in the world, there may still be subgroups in the population with unusually high and possibly avoidable mortality rates. We conducted an ecological study on the relationship between socioeconomic deprivation and infant mortality in Hong Kong by using government data from three periods: 1979-83, 1984-88 and 1989-93. The study population comprised all infant births in 65 modified districts in Hong Kong in the period 1979-93. Infant, neonatal and post-neonatal mortality rates (IMRs, NMRs and PNMRs) were used as the health indicators. An F score was derived from highly correlated socioeconomic variables by factor analysis and used as a summary index of socioeconomic status. In 1979-83, socioeconomic deprivation was found to be significantly associated with high IMRs and high NMRs in both sexes, while in 1984-88 this association was observed only in baby girls. None of the observed associations were significant in 1989-93. Overall, the territory's infant mortality rates fell from 10.2 per thousand live births in 1979-83 to 5.6 per thousand live births in 1989-93. Individual-based studies are needed to ascertain whether this apparent disappearance of the socioeconomic relationship with infant and neonatal mortality is real. This study determined the relationship between socioeconomic deprivation and infant mortality in Hong Kong by using government data from three periods: 1979-83; 1984-88; 1989-93. The study population comprised all infant births in 65 modified districts in Hong Kong. Infant mortality rates (IMR), neonatal mortality rates (NMR) and postneonatal mortality rates were used as the health indicators. A factor score for each modified district was calculated using factor analysis to provide a summary indicator of the socioeconomic variables. Findings demonstrated that in 1979-83 socioeconomic deprivation was significantly associated with high IMR and high NMR in both sexes, while in 1984-88 this association was observed only for baby girls. None of the observed associations were significant in 1989-93. Overall, the territory's infant mortality rates fell from 10.2/1000 live births in 1979-83 to 5.6/1000 live births in 1989-93. Further studies based on individuals are needed to confirm that the link between socioeconomic factors and infant mortality no longer exists, since a group-based study such as this is potentially vulnerable to the usual problems of confounding and ecologic fallacies.
    [Abstract] [Full Text] [Related] [New Search]