Arizona state miner., 1925-06-20
Data Furnished by $4,000
in Eight American
Cities.

Washington. - Twenty-three thou
zand babies in eight American cities
studied through their first year. or as
much of the first year as the infant
survived, furnishes the data for com
prehensive analysis of infant mortality
In this country, made public by the
Childrens bureau of the United states
Department of Labor. The eight CIT
les studied, in each of which bureau IN
NestigatOrs working in cooperation
with local health authorities VISITED
each mother to whom baby was porn
during the year previous to the stuuy'
are JOhnstown. Pa; Manchester N
H.; BrOckton, Mass; Saginaw. Mich
New Bedford, Mass; Waterbury,
Conn; Akron, Ohio, and Baltimore
Md. The data obtained from the eight
cities is consolidated in this new re-
port, which Is the work of DR.. RoDerI
Morse Woodbury., formerly director OF
statistical research for the children
bureau
Docgor Woodbury. In the summary
of the report emphasizes the impor-
tance of a thorough knowledge OF the
causes of infant mortality:
"a thorough knowledge Of the causes
of infant mortality is the first step
toward their complete control In the
light of such knowledge preventive
measures may be intelligently planned
to produce a maximum of result. 1bese
measures may be aimed to prevent the
spread of specific infectious diseases
for example, vaccination for smallpox
the Shick test and tOXin-antitoXin I'M
munization against diphtherla. disinfec
ton of the eyes to prevent opthalmia
neonatOrum, or the practice of surgical
cleanliness to prevent tetanus and
other infections"
Casual Factors.
Doctor WOOdbury's analysis of the
casual factors in the infant mortality
among the $4,000 babies studied indi
Gates these main facts:
Causes peculiar to early infancy
were first in Importance and respOnsi-
bility for nearly one-third of the deaths
under one year, the rate from these
causes being 36.1 (per 1,000). Gastric
and intestinal diseases gave a rate of
82.4; respiratory diseases, 1876; cpl
demic and other communicable dis
eassS, II.
Tie mortality decreased month by
month during the first year of life,
dropping from 44.8 in the first to 9.3 In
the second month, and to 40 in the
twelfth.
Seasonal conditions Influenced the
mortality rates. August showed the
paximum mortality from gastric and
intestinal diseases January the mini
mum. From respiratory diseases the
maximum mortality occurred in Feb
ruary, the minimum in August. Epi-
demic and other communicable dis
eases were slightly prevalent in the
late winter and early spring.
Mortality was lowest for infants
born in August and highest for those
born in June.
Mortality for male babies was about
One-fourth higher than for females, a
fact apparently explainable only by a
difference in vitality to the disadvan-
tage of the male sex.
Factors relating to the physical con-
dition Of the mother also Influenced the
mortality rate. 1t was found, for in.
stance, that infants Of mothers who
died within a year after confinement
had a mortality from all causes over
four times the rate for those whose
mothers lived. A small group of ba-
bles whose mothers were known to
have tuberculosis had a very high
mortality. High rates were also
found among babies whose mothers
were reported to have had convulsions.