MORTALITY RATE

'Mortality rate' is a measure of the number of deaths (in general, or due to a specific cause) in some population, scaled to the size of that population, per unit time. Mortality rate is typically expressed in units of deaths per 1000 individuals per year; thus, a mortality rate of 9.5 in a population of 100,000 would mean 950 deaths per year in that entire population. It is distinct from morbidity rate, which refers to the number of individuals who have contracted a disease during a given time period (the incidence rate) or the number who currently have that disease (the prevalence rate), scaled to the size of the population.
One distinguishes:
# The 'crude death rate', the total number of deaths per 1000 people.
# The 'perinatal mortality rate', the sum of neonatal deaths and fetal deaths (stillbirths) per 1,000 births.
# The 'maternal mortality rate', the number of maternal deaths due to childbearing per 100,000 live births.
# The 'infant mortality rate', the number of deaths of children less than 1 year old per thousand live births.
# The 'child mortality rate', the number of deaths of children less than 5 year old per thousand live births.
# The 'standardised mortality rate' (SMR) or 'age-specific mortality rate' (ASMR) - This refers to the total number of deaths per 1000 people of a given age (e.g. 16-65 or 65+).
In regard to the success or failure of medical treatment or procedures, one would also distinguish:
# The 'early mortality rate', the total number of deaths in the early stages of an ongoing treatment, or in the period immediately following an treatment.
# The 'late mortality rate', the total number of deaths in the late stages of an ongoing treatment, or a significant length of time after an acute treatment.
Note that the crude death rate as defined above and applied to a whole population of people can give a misleading impression. For example, the number of deaths per 1000 people can be higher for developed nations than in less-developed countries, despite standards of health being better in developed countries. This is because developed countries have relatively more older people, who are more likely to die in a given year, so that the overall mortality rate can be higher even if the mortality rate at any given age is lower. A more complete picture of mortality is given by a life table which summarises mortality separately at each age. A life table is necessary to give a good estimate of life expectancy.

Contents

Statistics

Factors affecting a country's death rate

Sources and references

External links

See also

Statistics

The ten countries with the highest 'infant mortality rate' are:
#Angola 192.50
#Afghanistan 165.96
#Sierra Leone 145.24
#Mozambique 137.08
#Liberia 130.51
#Niger 122.66
#Somalia 118.52
#Mali 117.99
#Tajikistan 112.10
#Guinea-Bissau 108.72
According to the World Health Organisation, the 10 leading causes of death in 2002 were:
# 12.6% Ischaemic heart disease
# 9.7% Cerebrovascular disease
# 6.8% Lower respiratory infections
# 4.9% HIV/AIDS
# 4.8% Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
# 3.2% Diarrhoeal diseases
# 2.7% Tuberculosis
# 2.2% Malaria
# 2.2% Trachea/bronchus/lung cancers
# 2.1% Road traffic accidents
Causes of death vary greatly between developed and developing countries. See List of causes of death by rate for worldwide statistics.

Factors affecting a country's death rate

★ Age of country's population

★ Nutrition levels

★ Standards of diet and housing

★ Access to clean drinking water

★ Hygiene levels

★ Levels of infectious diseases

★ Levels of violent crime

★ Conflicts

★ Number of doctors

Sources and references

★ CIA World Factbook -- Rank Order - Death rate

★ Mortality - The Medical Dictionary by Medterms

★ "10 Leading Causes of Death, United States" from the Center for Disease Control

★ Edmond Halley, ''An Estimate of the Degrees of the Mortality of Mankind'' (1693).

External links

★ Data regarding death rates by age and cause in the United States (from Data360)

See also

★ Biodemography

★ Birth rate

★ Compensation law of mortality

★ Demography

★ Gompertz-Makeham law of mortality

★ Iatrogenesis - more than 200 000 deaths yearly in USA

★ Life expectancy

★ List of causes of death by rate

★ List of countries by death rate

★ Maximum life span

★ Morbidity

★ Mortality