Türkiye’de illerde bebek ölüm hızı ne kadar doğru hesaplanabiliyor? Bursa’dan bir çalışma

Abstract

Aim: The Provincial Health Authority, declared that in 2008, infant mortality rate was 6,0 per thousand, in Bursa. As this rate is very low for Turkey, there was a need to investigate it. The objective of this study was to estimate the infant mortality rate for 2008, in Bursa.

Material and Method: In order to calculate the infant mortality rate, data was requested from the Provincial Health Authority, Turkish Statistical Institute and the Provincial Population and Citizenship Authority. We also gathered data from every municipality in Bursa.

Results: There were 206 and 235 infant deaths according to the Health Authority and the Population and Citizenship Authority respectively. According to data from the municipalities the number of infant deaths was 795. We estimated the infant mortality rate as 20,8 per thousand.

Conclusions: We found a much higher infant mortality rate than the Health Authority of Bursa. When using health indicators to evaluate the achievements of the health system the most important point is to collect reliable data. It might be appropriate also to use cemetery records while calculating the infant mortality rate.