High Infant Mortality Among the Urban Poor

Author(s):  
P Ann Kaupp
2015 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. e0003581 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hubert Barennes ◽  
Khouanheuan Sengkhamyong ◽  
Jean Pascal René ◽  
Maniphet Phimmasane

1995 ◽  
Vol 177 (3) ◽  
pp. 57-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kriste Lindenmeyer

Early in the twentieth century, a growing child welfare movement led to the establishment of the first federal agency in the world, the U.S. Children's Bureau, designated to investigate and report on the circumstances of children. Appointed in 1912, the agency's first director, Julia Lathrop, focused on infant mortality, beginning with a year's study in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. The work stimulated a national effort to “save babies.” The Bureau's efforts led to the Sheppard-Towner Act of 1921, which funded educational and diagnostic work to lower the nation's high infant mortality rate. But this type of effort was short-lived. The article describes the course of the agency's work in the Progressive Era and evaluates its effect on current child welfare policy, a key area in the ongoing controversy over “welfare reform” and the role of the federal government in the provision of human services.


1982 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 215-229 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles H. Wood

After the military took power in Brazil in 1964, the government adopted a wide range of policies designed to stimulate economic growth. A central aspect of the Brazilian model of development was the control of wages. From 1964 to 1975 this strategy caused the purchasing power of the minimum wage in the city of São Paulo to fall. The decline in the real wage index was associated with a rise in infant mortality during the period. When real wages rose after 1974, the death rate dropped off. The infant mortality trend cannot be explained by other factors that affect the actual or the reported death rate, such as changes in cityward migration, shifts in the distribution of income, and improvements in the quality of vital statistics. The findings of this study indicate a causal relationship between the infant mortality trend and changes in the purchasing power of the urban poor. Additional data on nutrition, changes in household behavior, and shifts in the cause structure of mortality support this conclusion.


2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 262-265
Author(s):  
Larisa E. Gorelova ◽  
Vera N. Shelkova

The article is devoted to the important course of the medicine development at the beginning of the 20th century — mother and infant protection. The contribution of pediatricians and obstetricians to prevention of high infant mortality in Moscow is represented. The activities of G.N. Speransky and other doctors in public benevolent institutions are reported.


Author(s):  
Ronald F. Inglehart

Secularization is accelerating. From 1981 to 2007, more than two-thirds of the publics for which we have data became more religious, but then a major shift occurred: from 2007 to 2020, more than four-fifths of these publics became less religious. Up to 2007 the U.S. showed little change, but since then it showed the largest shift of any country away from religion and now ranks among the world’s least religious publics. One generally overlooked reason for accelerating secularization is that, for centuries, most religions encouraged pro-fertility norms that limit women to producing as many children as possible and discourage any sexual behavior not linked with reproduction. These norms were needed when facing high infant mortality and low life expectancy but now are rapidly giving way to individual-choice norms supporting gender equality and tolerance of divorce, abortion, and LGBTQ people. Pro-fertility norms are so strongly linked with religion that abandoning them undermines religiosity.


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