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This is a report on the survey conducted for the United Kingdom Census Office by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) concerning the 1991 census. "The primary task was to solicit views on the priority which [academic social scientists] attached to the proposed topics to be covered by the Census and to ascertain their views on the changes in question wording which are under consideration.... Views were also sought on different methods for giving academics access to individual-level data from the 1991 Census.", (excerpt)

A number of recent analyses have computed present and future costs associated with a risk by estimating what would happen if the risk were absent. Two sources of bias are associated with this approach: (1) differences in confounding factors between present risk avoiders and risk takers, and (2) the difficulty of selecting an unbiased sample of risk avoiders. A staff memo from the Office of Technology Assessment used this approach to estimate mortality due to smoking. Numbers of deaths and age at death distributions of U.S. smokers and nonsmokers for all causes, all cancers, lung cancers, heart disease, and cerebrovascular lesions are used to assess the accuracy of these estimates. Large errors in the OTA estimates are found. Conditions are discussed that might help reduce errors from this approach.

The Global Strategy for Health for All by the Year 2000 by the World Health Organization has revived interest in looking for objective measures of the health status of a given population. According to the WHO definition, health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. This paper attempts to survey existing and proposed health indicators, including mortality and survival, growth and development, and morbidity and disability; and discusses problems associated with them. It concludes that mortality statistics are likely to retain their central place in the evaluation of health progress. With respect to health indicators, problems arise, among other things, from the awareness that health is the continuum between death and and complete health and also that health tends to become more and a matter of social perception and behavioral patterns. Caution and patience are advised in the search for internationally comparable health indicators that are feasible, objective and useful.

"A survey of Spanish immigration in Argentina as compared to other Latin American destinations between 1860 and 1930 is presented here. Statistical sources are examined and compared (inclusions and omissions) and an estimation of migratory balance is presented. Regional differences in emigration flow and variations following shifts in economic trends and in migration policies are considered in [the] search for an explanation [of] the Spanish emigrants' preference for Argentina." (SUMMARY IN ENG), (excerpt)

An investigation into the effect of national death certification and coding practices on published mortality statistics in eight EEC countries is reported. Doctors in each country were asked to complete specimen death certificates for a bank of written case histories. Certificates from each country were coded by their own offices and then by a WHO reference centre. Within and between countries, discrepancies occurred both in the doctors' diagnoses and in the codes assigned to certificates. At an international level these differences had serious implications for the comparability of mortality data for cancers of the cervix and uterus, and for mesotheliomas.

The National Infant Mortality Surveillance (NIMS) project used linked birth and infant death certificates to calculate birth weight-specific infant mortality risks for the 1980 U.S. birth cohort. Record linkage depends on complete registration of vital events, interstate exchange of vital records, accurate information on certificates, and a comprehensive linkage system. States reported 2,604 unlinked infant death certificates for 1980, ranging from 0 to 397 per State. Age at death for these infants ranged from 1 minute to 11 months. More than 41 percent of the unlinked death certificates were for postneonates, compared with 32.5 percent found in the cohort's total infant death experience. Only 38.2 percent of the unlinked infant death certificates showed strictly intrastate events (birth and death occurrence, and residence at death all in one State), compared with 92.9 percent in the cohort's total infant death experience. Estimates of the percentage successfully linked by State ranged from 86.0 to 100.0. After adjusting for the certainly unlinked infant death certificates, nine States' infant mortality risks increased by more than 0.2 per 1,000 live births. Improvements are needed both within and between States to ensure more complete birth and infant death certificate linkage.