THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, December 9, 1994 TAG: 9412090572
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A8 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Short : 33 lines
The nation's infant mortality rate dropped to an all-time low in 1993, although the rate is still higher than that of 21 other countries, the government's record-keepers reported Thursday.
The infant mortality rate fell to 8.3 deaths per 1,000 live births in 1993, a decline from 8.5 deaths per 1,000 the year before.
Life expectancy for newborns dropped slightly, according to provisional figures from the National Center for Health Statistics. Babies born in 1993 were expected to live 75.5 years, down from 1992's all-time high of 75.8 years.
A report in the Journal Pediatrics said that one in every five women was childless in 1992, up sharply from one in nine in the 1970s.
The number of marriages in 1993 was the smallest since 1979, said Dr. Myron E. Wegman of the University of Michigan School of Public Health, author of the article.
Wegman said life expectancy fell because of an influenza epidemic in 1993 and because of higher death rates from pneumonia, influenza and chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases. But almost one-third of the babies born in 1993 are expected to reach age 85. by CNB