Premature birth and the changing composition of newborn infectious disease mortality: Reconsidering “exogenous” mortality | Zendy

Kathryn A. Sowards | Zendy

Open Access

Premature birth and the changing composition of newborn infectious disease mortality: Reconsidering “exogenous” mortality

Author(s) -

Kathryn A. Sowards

Publication year - 1997

Publication title -

demography

Language(s) - English

Resource type - Journals

SCImago Journal Rank - 2.099

H-Index - 129

eISSN - 1533-7790

pISSN - 0070-3370

DOI - 10.2307/3038292

Subject(s) - infant mortality , medicine , low birth weight , infectious disease (medical specialty) , birth weight , neonatal mortality , population , demography , pediatrics , disease , pregnancy , environmental health , biology , pathology , sociology , genetics

Linked death and birth records from San Antonio, Texas reveal that infectious infant mortality is increasingly a function of premature birth and low birth weight. Between 1935 and 1944, 4% of infectious infant deaths had associated causes involving prematurity and related conditions; by 1980, 25% of infectious infant deaths involved prematurity and more than 40% of those infants weighed less than 2,500 grams. The shift in birth-weight composition results almost entirely from an increase in very low-weight births. Under conditions of advanced perinatal technology, infectious infant mortality should no longer be viewed as wholly exogenous. These findings further undermine the contemporary relevance of the exogenous-endogenous distinction.

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