Saturday, May 22, 2010

Canada's infant mortality rank declines but why?

The Globe calls it a "stunning decline" but then has this paragraph:

"The main causes cited by researchers are poverty, isolation, premature births and to some degree, the way the data are collected. For example, in Canada, infant mortality includes the death of any breathing infant, even very early births and terminations due to congenital abnormalities after 20 weeks gestation, but other countries have different measures."

Is the reason for the decline poverty or isolation? If so we need immediate and urgent action.

But if the decline is because Canada is coming closing to saving babies who other countries would not even count as "born alive" then we are actually going the right way -- infant mortality in such a case would suggest an excellent health system working towards an even better one.

The loss of an infant is a family tragedy and I don't minimise it at all. But let's find out what's going on before taking action.

Link here: http://tinyurl.com/3a8wmm7

1 comment:

The Rat said...

Read Dan Gardner's book on stats and how they are easily manipulated and you'll see why I'm not concerned about this. For instance, and in addition to your perfectly valid point, is there a correlation between later life pregnancies and infant mortality? Canadian women put children off until quite late.