(Population) Death/morality Rate
1st draft
Geography
Akeel guy & Hudon Jack
Definition
The number of deaths in (general, or due to a specific
cause) in some population, scaled to the size of that
population, per unit time is known as the morality rate or
death rate. It is calculated every ten years by people
employed by the government to conduct interviews to gain
information about the country’s citizens especially deaths
experienced in their family. Death/morality rate is typically
expressed in units of deaths per 1000 individuals per year;
thus, a mortality rate of 9.5 in a population of 100,000
would mean 950 deaths per year in that entire population,
or 0.95% out of the total.
The term morality is also sometimes inappropriately used
to refer to the number of deaths among a set of diagnosed
hospital cases for a disease or injury, rather than for the
general population of a country or ethnic group. This
disease mortality statistic is more precisely referred to as
CASE FATALITY.
Some sub topic under death/morality rates are;
 Crude death rate- this is the total number of deaths
per year per 1000 people.
 Maternal morality- the number of maternal deaths
per 100,000 live births in same time period.
 Perinatal morality rate - the sum of neonatal deaths
and fetal deaths (stillbirths) per 1000 births.
 Infant morality rate, the number of deaths of children
less than 1 year old per 1000 live births.
 Age-specific morality rate / (ASMR) - refers to the
total number of deaths per year per 1000 people of a
given age (e.g. age 76 last birthday).
Factors influencing
There are many different factors that can influence death or
morality rate. If it increases the morality rate it is said to be
negative and if it decreases the morality rate it is said to be
positive. Some examples are;
 Birth rates – this can be positive or negative; negative
because when birth rates decrease the death rate
increases unless it’s a live birth it is said to be positive.
 Diseases - according to the “world health organization” the
top two causes of deaths in 2002 were both diseases. They
are ischaemic heart disease and cerebrovascular
disease.
 Availability of health care – in the year 2009 according
to the “American Journal of Public Health”
researchers estimated that 45,000 deaths per year in
the U.S. are associated with not having appropriate
health availability. Since poor health is at the head of
reasons for death, then low availability is definitely
going to increase the morality/death rate.
Case study
This study focuses on the health of the people of east Africa.
When thinking about Africa this first thing that comes to mind
is a picture of a extremely poor family exposed to all the health
risks possible, but above the rest ,sexually transmitted diseases
and malnutrition is most dominant.
In east Africa, Sexuality is a very quiet topic, thus as a result
people usually misunderstand many sexual health matters. Also
cultural sensitivities and taboos about sexuality often hinder
the people from seeking advice and care, which then prevent
the government from addressing the issues. When citizens are
faced with health risks without cure or a place where they can
be closely monitored by doctors, then they are literally left for
the wolves.
According to the, “African recovery volume 16”, unless urgent
measures are taken soon as many as 50,000 lives a month
could be lost to malnutrition. A two year drought, along with a
widespread of poverty, production disruptions and depleted
food reserves, has plugged southern Africa into the driving seat
of food production. The demand to satisfy all of Africa is too
much for southern Africa, hence there are spin offs but with no
other food large scale food producing in Africa, there is still a
food production gap left to be filled. Nearly 16 million people in
seven different countries in Africa are at risk of death from
starvation.
Poorer or developing countries such as India and Africa will
have a much higher morality rate, mostly because of
economical reasons for e.g. State of the art hospitals so that
persons can be accommodated and carefully monitored, media;
the media is educates people everyday about STDs and STIs and
other health risks, but without a jobs you can not buy an
instrument to stream the media. While developed countries
e.g. Europe and its people are economically well off and don’t
really know the true meaning of poverty.