JAMA : the journal of the American Medical Association
-
Relative to the countries of northern Europe, the United States has a high crude infant mortality rate. We compared the United States' fetal and infant mortality rates with those of Norway, a nation tht is internationally recognized for having a low infant mortality. ⋯ The adjusted rates, which are the crude rates that would have resulted in the United States if the Norwegian birth-weight-specific rates had been in force, were generally higher than the US rates that were actually observed. Thus, the major reason for the United States' poor international rank is probably its unfavorable birth-weight distributions, and any major improvement in the United States' international standing will likely await a reduction in the proportion of high-risk, low-weight births.
-
The Hypertension Detection and Follow-up Program (HDFP) previously reported a 16.9% reduction in all-cause mortality among its Stepped Care (SC) group, relative to the community-treated Referred Care (RC) group. The current report compares cerebrovascular disease (CV) morbidity and mortality in the SC and RC populations. ⋯ Reductions in stroke rates among SC were experienced for all race-sex groups, all diastolic blood pressure strata, all ages, and among those with or without evidence of long-standing hypertension. Comparisons of the CV death rates for SC (1.06 per 1,000 persons) and RC (1.91 per 1,000 persons) with those obtained for the general US population (0.83 per 1,000 persons) indicate that the CV death rate decreased in the SC hypertensive population to a level approaching that of the general US population.