Descriptive epidemiology of perinatal and infant mortality in various Italian geographic areas

On the basis of the number of livebirths, stillbirths and deaths within the first year of life published annually by the Central Institute of Statistics and data on demographic, environmental variables, general indicators of health organization, and reproductive habits, the descriptive epidemiology of perinatal and infant mortality in Italy between 1955 and 1984 has been reviewed. Although a marked reduction in Italian stillbirth (from 28.4 in 1955 to 7.1/1,000 births in 1984), perinatal (from 46.2 to 14.5/1,000 births) and infant mortality rate (from 51.0 to 11.3/1,000 live births) was observed, still broad differences between geographical areas within the country remained largely unchanged in proportional terms, since perinatal and infant mortality remained substantially lower in Northern, richer areas. Strong correlation coefficients emerged between perinatal and infant mortality rates and general indicators of health care organization such as number of hospital beds/1,000 inhabitants (and less strongly with number of obstetric beds) or per capita health expenditure. If rates from Northern Italy for the year 1984 were applied to the whole of the country, over 1,000 deaths in the first year of life could be avoided.