Acessibilidade / Reportar erro

Mortality rate for under-fives proposed by UNICEF: critical analysis of its vality as a health indicators

The relationship between the Mortality Rate for children under age 5 as proposed by UNICEF and classical mortality indicators - infant mortality, mortality rates for children under age 1, for ages 1 to 4, mortality for children under 5, and the probability of death from birth to 5 years of age, is evaluated. The theoretical equivalence between the rate and 5q0 is shown by means of a Lexis diagram. Pratical evaluation is carried out using data from the 24 areas under analysis in the Inter-American Investigation of Mortality in Childhood. Kendall's Correlation shows high agreement between the rate and classical indicators, mainly for the Coefficient for children under 5 and for infant mortality.

Mortality rate; Infant mortality


Faculdade de Saúde Pública da Universidade de São Paulo Avenida Dr. Arnaldo, 715, 01246-904 São Paulo SP Brazil, Tel./Fax: +55 11 3061-7985 - São Paulo - SP - Brazil
E-mail: revsp@usp.br