HO OF BENIH PEN 1.ED LIE BINH
FIGURB 2
INFANT AND NEO-NATAL MORTALITY RATE 1957 -71
Infant Mortality
H
M
OT
9. The infant mortality rate was 13.4 per thousand live births. The steady decline in infant mortality during the year was due to improve- ment in environmental conditions, development of maternal and child health services, and increasing public appreciation of the value of these services in the maintenance of health among infants and mothers.
10. Among the major causes of infant mortality, there were reduc- tions in mortality from preventable diseases, particularly bronchopneu. monia, gastro-enteritis, and tuberculosis. In the last four years, deaths from measles also fell. There has been a steady reduction je mortality from prematurity, due to improvement in the midwifery and maternal health services. As was also the experience elsewhere, congenital malformations and other diseases of the new-born proved during the year to be more intractable, and mortality from those causes was only liule affected.
Maternal Mortality
11. Here also the statistics reached standards prevailing in the technically-advanced countries of the world. The rate in 1971 was 0.14 per thousand total births. During recent years, great reduction in mor- tality rates have been effected in toxaemia of pregnancy, haemorrhage and puerperal sepsis. There was also some reduction in mortality from
abortion and ectopic pregnancy, and deaths attributed to other diseases occurring during pregnancy, or childbirth, also decreased,
General Mortality
12. The marked social and economic changes occurring in Hong Kong during the years following the Second World War were again reflected in the mortality trends and patterns of diseases during the year. These have changed considerably in the past two decades. Improvements in the general level of public health were demonstrated by the decline in proportionate mortality from infectious, respiratory and intestinal diseases, while the ageing of the population-still predominantly young -was reflected in the increasing mortality from heart and hypertensive, cerebrovascular and neoplastic diseases.
13. In all age-groups, malignant neoplasms were the main causes of death, being responsible for 20.9 per cent of all deaths in 1971. The first five leading causes of death were cancer, discases of the heart including hypertensive diseases, pneumonia, cerebro-vascular disease, and tuberculosis-in that order.
14. The death rate from cancer continued to increase, rising from approximately 30 per 100,000 of the population for both sexes in 1950, to 69.7 in 1961, and to 104.7 in 1971. Among women, the common causes of death from cancer were cancer of the breast and cancer of the uterine cervix. In the community as a whole, the common cancer deaths were cancer of the lung, primary cancer of the liver, nasopharyn- geal cancer, and cancer of the stomach.
15. Heart disease, including hypertensive disease, was the second leading cause of death with a mortality rate of 58.9 per 100,000 of the populations in 1961, increasing to 73.0 in 1971.
16. Pneumonia was the third leading cause of death. The disease was a major cause of death in 1955-57, but the mortality rate dropped from 85.8 in 1961 to 55.9 in 1971.
17. Cerebro-vascular disease, fourth in the list, had a mortality rate of 44.2 in 1961. This rose to 48.35 in 1971.
18. Mortality from tuberculosis showed a steady decline, falling from 60.2 in 1961, to 30.9 in 1971.
19. The eighth revision of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases. Injuries and Causes of Death, published by the World Health Organization, came into use on 1st January, 1969. All registered