Child Mortality in Jamaica

This paper reports on a survey which was designed to compare the circumstances of Jamaican children who die with those of their fellows who survive. The description of the survey and its findings is prefaced by a brief discussion of the information at present available on mortality during infancy and early childhood in Jamaica. Hopefully, this will illustrate the background against which the study was conceived, and the rationale for the choice of a particular age range and specific topics for investigation. BACKGROUND Between 1878, when compulsory registration of births and deaths was introduced in Jamaica, and 1921, the infant mortality rate fluctuated between 220 and 140 per thousand live births, but showed no tendency to decline.' The infant mortality rate fell continuously between 1941 and 1965, when it was provisionally estimated at 37.4 per thousand live births. The infant mortality rate is generally held to be a good index of the health of a community and the quality of its child care and health services. But it is not necessarily the most sensitive index, because as infant mortality declines the proportion of neonatal deaths increases, and the neonatal death rate responds less readily 303