DECLINE AND EPIDEMILOGICAL TRANSITION OF INFANT MORTALITY

In recent decades there has been a significant progress in child mortality decline around the world and this has been accompanied by important changes in the profile of causes of death. On one hand the levels of infant mortality rate (IMR) have fallen to 100 per thousand or less, and in some others cases these figures are similar to those observed in the developed world. On the other hand, there have been changes in the profile of causes: intestinal and respiratory infections have lost ground to perinatal conditions and congenital anomalies.
Despite these important advances there are still some outstanding issues in the effort to consolidate the decline in infant mortality. In particular, there are three points of interest:

1. Is infant mortality measured accurately?
2. Are vital statistics (VS) a reliable source for estimating IMR, or there is still a need to use the Brass technique to have reliable estimates?
3. How useful are the VS to ascertain the epidemiological profile of infant mortality?

This paper analyzes the situation (level and epidemiological profile) of infant mortality in several countries around the world using data from vital statistics and census information from the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS).