INFANTILE MORALITY.

Hokitika Guardian, 27 September 1923, Page 4

INFANTILE MORALITY.

X.Z. RATE FOR 1022. WFIJJXGTOX, Sept. 22. In the year 1022 (states the Government Statistician in his report on the vital statistics for that year) the number of deaths of infants under one year of age Mas 121f>, and showed a considerable drop when compared with the

130(1 deaths in 1921. The infantile mortality rate was 1.19-per 100 lire births, and is by far the lowest rate ;is yet recorded. 4..13 in 1919 and 4.78 in .1021 being 'the lowest for any previous year. The rate is invariably higher for male infants than fur females, the figures for 1922 being 4.82 and 3.52 respectively. There is an even greater disparity in the actual numbers for the two sexes (718 males. 97 females), owing to the greater number of male children born. Sixty-five per cent o*( the infantile deaths in 1922. occurred within tlie first month of life. The great improvement which lias taken place in the infantile death rate is ail the more remarkable, adds tlxGovernment Statistician, when, it is considered that the position as regards the first month of life has remained much -the same since the “seventies.’' although the rate for 1922 for the first month of life (27.21 per 1000 births) is slightly lower than the correspond- ] ing figure for the period 1881-83 (29.77). The rate of deaths among infants who survive the first month, has on the other hand, fallen from 02.70 per 1000 in 18S1-85 to 42.05 per 1000 in 1922. .Most of the deaths during the first month are due to pre-natal factors.

Analysing the first month into shorter periods it is found that of the total of 90 deaths no fewer than 234 occurred within the first twenty-four hours, a further 113 on the second day, and 225 more within the next live days, making 592 (or 75 per cent, of the total) for the first week of life. The most frequent cause of death among infants is premature birth', 423 deaths being attributed to this cause in 1922. Other principal causes are congenital debility (165). congenital

ninlformntions (13G) and the class “other causes peculiar to early infancy” (128), which covers 100 deaths in 1922, and diarrhoea and enteritis 79. Of the 1215 infants who died in 1922 before completion! of the first year of life, BG, or 7.08 per cent, were illegitimate. This percentage is over one and a half times that of illegitimate births to total births (4.22).