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"Uruguay can be ranked among the countries with fairly reliable vital statistics. The last population census included questions about ever-born and surviving children which allow [the derivation of] independent estimations relative to level and trends of infant and early childhood mortality. The purpose of this paper is to estimate such parameters based on 1985 Census information and compare them with those of 1975. Furthermore, particular interest is paid to the differentials which show that Uruguayan society is no longer the homogeneous society it seemed to be decades ago.... The last chapter is devoted to examining infant mortality by causes of death. This section evaluates the amount of lives that could be saved, if deaths due to exogenous factors are avoided." (SUMMARY IN ENG), (excerpt)

"The paper starts with a brief analysis of the sources and the quality of the data and the mortality indices [for trends in adult mortality from chronic diseases in Chile]....A comparison is made of mortality among the 13 regions of the country and an attempt is made to relate the observed differences to some environmental and life-style factors. Rural-urban and educational differences of mortality by cause of death are also analyzed. The paper ends by comparing mortality by chronic disease in Chile with that of other countries of the Latin American region, noting some difficulties [in] such a comparison and proposing hypotheses for future studies." (SUMMARY IN ENG), (excerpt)

"This paper examines the adult-mortality transition in Costa Rica and its determinants. The risk of dying declined by 80% for young adults and by 40% for old adults from 1920 to 1990. The fastest decline took place in the 1950s for young-adult ages and in the late 1980s for old-adult ages.... By 1990, about 40% of Costa Rican deaths are caused by accidents and violence at young-adult ages and by cardiovascular diseases at old ages. Infectious and nutritional-related conditions (especially respiratory tuberculosis and malaria) account for three-fourths of the adult-mortality decline between 1951 and 1971, but only for 30% since that year on." (SUMMARY IN ENG), (excerpt)

The changes in health conditions that have occurred in most of the countries of Latin America in the second half of the twentieth century are analyzed. "This paper analyzes the main mechanisms involved in the epidemiologic transition, which are: changes in risk factors, fertility decline and improvements in health care technology." The authors use a mortality profile ratio, obtained by dividing the mortality rate due to infectious and parasitic diseases over the mortality rate due to cardiovascular diseases and neoplasms, to analyze trends in 15 countries. "Three distinct groups can be recognized. Each of them represents a different transitional experience. Such experiences are discussed in detail, including a new 'protracted polarized model' of the epidemiologic transition, which characterizes several Latin American countries. Finally, evidence is provided to illustrate the relationship among economic development, fertility change, and mortality profiles." (SUMMARY IN ENG), (excerpt)

"The paper presents the Latin American demographic situation and trends since 1950, with special emphasis on differential mortality across and within countries.... The large declines in mortality, specially those at young ages, are linked to changes in epidemiological profiles which imply a greater relative importance of non-transmissible diseases and a lesser role of infectious and parasitic diseases. Population ageing also contributes to these changes due to the increased fraction of adult and elderly population. In the majority of countries, excessive mortality due to avoidable causes is still present among the poor." (SUMMARY IN ENG), (excerpt)

"This paper begins by reviewing some conceptual frameworks for the study of female mortality and indicates some of its application problems. Next it presents results of mortality of women in reproductive-age classified by age, causes of death, and socio-demographic traits (marital status, schooling, and occupation) for ten states [in Mexico] differentiated according to level of development and well-being. The data suggests differences according to age, marital status, and schooling. Finally, testing of the mutual independence and partial independence hypotheses indicates that age, marital status, and schooling correlate to the degree of development of each state." (SUMMARY IN ENG), (excerpt)

"In a recent paper, Lee and Carter developed a new method for analyzing and forecasting time series of age specific mortality, and applied it to the U.S. population. In this paper, we extend that method to deal with various problems of incomplete data common in Third World populations, and then apply the method to forecast mortality in Chile." (SUMMARY IN ENG), (excerpt)

"The paper examines the relationship between medium and short-term changes in aggregate economic activity, and national morbidity and mortality rates by certain causes. Although overall mortality conditions have continued to improve during the economic crisis of the nineteen-eighties in the three countries studied, mortality by some causes...[has] discontinued [its] decline and [has] even increased [its] rates in some recent years.... The short-term changes in mortality in Costa Rica and Chile are generally lower than in Guatemala, but tend to be more systematic in their inverse relationship with economic fluctuations in the former. Many of the causes studied affect young and older adults, which are groups that have so far received little attention in evaluations of the health effects of economic crises in the region." (SUMMARY IN ENG), (excerpt)

"This paper describes the historical evolution of five populations and analyzes the circumstances under which data on maternal and paternal orphanhood of couples at the moment of marriage were collected and compiled." The data, which concern historical populations in Mexico, Chile, Peru, Brazil, and Argentina, are used to construct life tables for male and female adults. Consideration is given to mortality differentials by sex. (summary in ENG), (excerpt)

"This paper presents six indirect techniques for estimating the degree of death coverage as applied to vital statistics information in Venezuela between 1960 and 1982, collected by two public institutions, namely, the 'Oficina Central de Estadistica e Informatica' (OCEI) and the Ministry of Health and Social Assistance (MSAS).... The results show remarkable improvements in the death registry coverage for both institutions, that amount to 97 or 98 per cent at the beginning of the 80's. Nevertheless, great differences can be observed between them regarding both structure and volume of deaths by sex and age." Among the problems discussed are the impact of immigration and errors in age reporting. (SUMMARY IN ENG), (excerpt)

"This paper analyzes the problems that arise when infant mortality estimates are derived through the probabilities of dying obtained from the application of the Coale-Trussell technique to the proportion of children deceased according to age of mother derived from census or survey data. These problems arise because this operation requires the acceptance of a mortality model by age." The author outlines "some criteria for the selection of the model through the use of information from Vital Statistics and surveys. Finally, it is stated that an alternative for the study of infant mortality trends is the selection of an indicator less affected by the mortality structure by age...." The problems are illustrated using data from selected countries in Latin America. (summary in ENG), (excerpt)