Infant mortality in a Mexican-American community: Laredo, Texas, 1950-1977.

ABSTRACT

PIP: Infant mortality rate (IMR) and infant mortality probability (IMP) were computed for the border city Loredo, Texas, from an extensive set of genealogies generated from baptismal and marriage records of 12 Catholic parishes from 1850-1977, Loredo death records since the beginning of registration through 1988, and hospital morbidity records from 1910-1980. Data were linked by a computer algorithm and verified manually. 254,000 individuals and 83,000 nuclear families were included. IMRs for Mexican American groups are often much lower than expected for their socioeconomic status. Loredo IMRs until 1940 were much too high, ranging from 173 to 465, because of unreported birth sin private dwellings. Later there were more registered births than baptisms, because Mexican nationals giving birth in Loredo in hopes of getting a U.S. Birth certificate. The 1970 IMR was a 42% underestimate, the 1977 IMR a 54% underestimate. IMPs computed from baptism closely resembled those for U.S. non-whites after 1950. This study shows that currently computed IMRs for border Mexican-American populations may be about 50% of the true risks.