Authors: Richardson Barbara D
Publish Date: 1970/01/01
Volume: 64, Issue: 6, Pages: 921-926
Abstract
Barbara D Richardson Studies on South African Bantu and Caucasian preschool children Mortality rates in urban and rural areas Transactions of The Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene Volume 64 Issue 6 1970 Pages 921–926 https//doiorg/101016/0035920370901136Investigations are being undertaken on interracial groups of preschool children in South Africa to investigate the bearing of socioeconomic rural urban and other factors on the health pattern To throw light on the subject mortality rates of children under 5 were studied among different groups of Bantu and Caucasians As expected a rise in socioeconomic status in the Bantu was associated with a fall in child mortality The relatively small difference between Bantu rural and urban toddler mortality rates was disappointing as it occurred in spite of the far better public health facilities in the urban centres The mortality differential between Bantu and Caucasian children aged 1–4 is believed as by other workers to be a far more sensitive index of the public health situation than that of infant mortality the rate at age 1–2 may even more closely portray the public health state It is concluded that the benefits accruing from enlightened health education and modern hygienic practices will not be fully manifest until there is an improvement in the nutrition of this toddler group and in the adverse effects of poverty ignorance and disease
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