1988 Volume 54 Issue 3 Pages 143-152
The purpose of this study was to examine the regional differences in infant mortality rate in relation to socioeconomic conditions. Using the mortality statistics issued by the Kagoshima prefectural government, secular changes in cause-specific infant mortality and the relationships between infant mortality rate and indicators of selected socioeconomic conditions were examined. The following findings were made. 1) Infant mortality rate declined drastically over the period 1968-1985. The decline in the infant mortality rate was mainly due to the decline in infectious disease and premature mortalities. The changes in mortalities due to congenital anomaly and hypoxia made little contribution to the decline in the infant mortality rate. 2) Among the 96 cities, towns and villages, the infant mortality rate negatively correlated with indicators of increase in population, gross income, medical doctors and crude birth rate, while it positively correlated with aging-index and gross fertility rate. 3) When total infant mortality was subdivided into two categories, the infant mortality due to congenital anomaly and hypoxia and that due to the others, the former infant mortality rate negatively correlated with indicator of increase in population and crude birth rate and positively correlated with aging-index, whereas the latter one negatively correlated with indicators of increase in population and medical doctors and positively correlated with gross fertility rate. 4) The findings above-mentioned support the hypothesis that infant mortality rate may be higher among the communities of decreasing population, independently of socioeconomic conditions.
