SAGE Journals Online
Advertisement
Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.

 

Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Advertisement

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
Scandinavian Journal of Public Health
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Wong, T.-W.
Right arrow Articles by Lloyd, O. L.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow Articles by Wong, T.-W.
Right arrow Articles by Lloyd, O. L.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati  
What's this?

Socioeconomic correlates of infant mortality in Hong Kong, 1979—93

Tze-Wai Wong

Department of Community and Family Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Siu-Lan Wong

Department of Community and Family Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Tak-Sun Yu

Department of Community and Family Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Joseph L. Y. Liu

Department of Community and Family Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Owen L. Lloyd

Department of Community Medicine, United Arab Emirates University, United Arab Emirates

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.

Key Words: Hong Kong • infant mortality • socioeconomic factors.

Scandinavian Journal of Public Health, Vol. 26, No. 4, 281-288 (1998)
DOI: 10.1177/14034948980260040901
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?




Advertisement