We explain what mortality is, what the mortality rate is and what the birth rate is. In addition, infant morbidity and mortality.
What is mortality?
Human beings are mortal, that is, we are going to die, and therefore we have a particular relationship with mortality. This word means, in general terms, the ability of a living being to die, in the sense of being mortal. However, it also has other more specific uses, which have to do with statistics.
Thus, for example, in the field of medicine we speak of mortality to refer to the probability of survival associated with a disease or illness concrete. It is an estimate, which is made from the number of patients who have died from said condition and the number who, on the other hand, survive.
Similarly, in demography, mortality is called statistical calculation of the frequency of death in a given population. The study of these figures reveals a lot of valuable information, given that it has a correlation with health risks and with society's lifestyle.
In very general terms, it is known that human mortality is higher in men than in women except during pregnancy and childbirth. Also that it is greater during the initial stages of life, decreasing with growth until reaching the minimum point between 10 and 12 years of age; then it gradually grows again until it exceeds the initial value during old age. These values, of course, depend on the living conditions of each society.
See also: Population density
Mortality rate
Also known as the mortality rate or crude mortality rate, it is the proportion of people who die in a given country or region each year with respect to the total population, generally expressed in percentage terms (or number of deaths per 1000 inhabitants). This figure can also be expressed in relation to a certain human sector, for example, according to their age or social background. In any case, the mortality rate is calculated from the following formula:
m = (F/P) x 100
Where m represents the mortality rate, F the number of deaths and P the total number of people.
Birth and mortality
Birth rate is, obviously, the opposite of mortality. If this last represents the proportion of deaths in a population the birth rate will do the same but with the proportion of births in the population. And just as there is a crude mortality rate, there is also a birth rate, and the relationship between the two determines whether the population in question grows (birth rate exceeds mortality), decreases (mortality exceeds birth rate) or remains the same ( are the same).
Mortality and morbidity
When we talk about morbidity or morbidity we are referring to the number of people (or living beings, depending on the case) that become ill in a given community. The morbidity rate is an important data in the study of populations since it provides information about the health and hygiene conditions of a community, or even about a specific disease that you want to track. For this, we usually talk about two types of morbidity rate, which are:
- Prevalence The frequency with which cases of a disease occur (as a whole) at a given point in time (point prevalence) or over a specific period (period prevalence).
- Incidence It refers to the speed with which a disease spreads, that is, with which new cases appear during a certain period of time in a certain area.
Infant mortality
Infant mortality is another common and important statistical data, which refers to the frequency of death of newborns (between birth and the first year of age). This rate It is calculated based on 1,000 live births and is a fundamental element in the study of the health of a population, given that the elements capable of causing the death of a neonate are also those that generally afflict people. Likewise, access to medicines, drinking water and adequate food can directly affect child survival.
Infant mortality is, furthermore, one of the problems that States and organizations combat most intensely and openly of humanitarian aid in the most affected and impoverished regions of the world.
Mortality in Mexico
Like most countries in the so-called Third World, Mexico has faced a sustained increase in its total population at the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st despite the fact that it is distributed very unequally in its territory, which causes opportunities to also be distributed unequally. And if the total population increases (in 2015 some 119,938,473 people were registered in the INEGI census), it is logical that the total number of deaths will also increase, although the mortality rate will not necessarily increase (which depends on the total population). .
In 2016, 2,293,708 births and 685,763 deaths were registered in Mexico of which the majority were men: 129.2 for every 100 deceased women. These figures represent an increase of 4.85% compared to the previous year and a mortality rate of 5.3 deaths per 1,000 inhabitants.
References
- “Crude mortality rate” on Wikipedia.
- “Mortality” in World Health Organization.
- “Infant Mortality: Facts about the Problem” in Eunice Kennedy National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
- “Mortality Rate” in ScienceDirect.
- “Mortality” in The Encyclopaedia Britannica.
- “Birth and mortality rates in Mexico” in Merca2.0.
