We explain what mortality is, what is the death rate and what is the birth rate. 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. By this word is understood, 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, mortality is used to refer to the likelihood of survival associated with a disease or condition concrete. It is an estimate, which is made from the number of patients who have died from this 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. A study of these figures reveals a lot of valuable information, since this has a correlation with health risks and with the life model of society.
In very general terms, it is known that human mortality is higher in men than in womenexcept 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 grows again gradually until it exceeds the initial value during old age. These values, of course, depend on the living conditions of each society.
Mortality rate
Also known as the death rate or crude death rate, it is about the proportion of people in a given country or region who die each year, with respect to the total population, generally expressed in percentage terms (or the number of deaths per 1000 inhabitants). This figure can also be expressed in relation to a specific human sector, for example, according to their age or social extraction. Either way, 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 the latter represents the proportion of deaths in a population, the birth rate will do the same but with the proportion of births of the population. And just as there is a crude death rate, there is also a birth rate, and the relationship between the two determines whether the population in question grows (birth rate exceeds death rate), decreases (death rate exceeds birth rate) or is maintained ( They are equal).
Mortality and morbidity
When we speak of morbidity or morbidity we refer to the number of people (or living beings, depending on the case) that fall ill in a given community. The morbidity rate is an important data in the study of populations, as it provides information on the health and hygiene conditions of a community, or even on a specific disease that you want to track. For this, there are usually two types of morbidity rate, which are:
- Prevalence How often a disease occurs (in its entirety) 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, new cases appear during a certain period of time in a certain area.
Child mortality
Infant mortality is another usual and important statistical data, which refers to the frequency of death of newborns (between birth and the first year of age). This rate calculated based on 1,000 live births, and it is a fundamental element in the study of the health of a population, since the elements capable of producing the death of a newborn are also those that generally afflict people. Likewise, access to medicines, drinking water and adequate food can have a direct impact on child survival.
Infant mortality is also one of the problems most intensely and openly fought by States and organizations of humanitarian aid in the most punished and impoverished regions of the world.
Mortality in Mexico
Like most of the countries of the so-called Third World, Mexico has faced at the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st a sustained increase in its total population, despite the fact that it is very unevenly distributed in its territory, which means that opportunities are also unequally distributed. 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 not necessarily the mortality rate (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 per 100 deceased women. These figures represent an increase of 4.85% over the previous year and a mortality rate of 5.3 deaths per 1000 inhabitants.