RESUMO
OBJECTIVE: To determine trends of six main causes of mortality in Mexican children < 15 years of age. TYPE OF STUDY: Observational, descriptive and retrospective. STUDY PERIOD: January 1, 1971 to December 31, 2000. Studied Population: Children < 15 years of age, Statistic Analysis: mortality rates were obtained due to perinatal causes, respiratory infections, intestinal infections, accidents, congenital malformations (CM), and cancer (CA). They were stratified according to age groups in < 1 year, 1 to 4 years, 5 to 14 years, and 1 to 14 years of age. Percentage differences were calculated between 1971 and 2000, as were respective trends. RESULTS: Global decrease in mortality was according to age group, 83.5% in 0 to 14-year-old, 71.3% in under one year old, 90.5 in 1 to 4-years-old, 79.2% in 5 to 14-year-old. The largest decrease in all groups was observed for infectious causes (> 90%), and increased CM between 120.1 to 160.5%, and CA between 28.0 to 56.4%. CONCLUSIONS: Mortality in Mexican children has decreased significantly. Infectious causes show the most important reduction, the CM and CA showing largest increase. Accidents, although they reveal some tendency to decrease, are first cause of death in the group 1 to 14 years of age. Present data indicate the need to continue programs to provide care for infections diseases, and to establish new programs that include care for accidents, CM, and CA in children.
