Mortality, Morbidity and Health Questions and Answers

Answer: B

Goa has the lowest infant mortality rate among the four States named.

The Sample Registration System bulletin of December 2011 gives Goa the lowest rate of the four, a little under that of Kerala, which is often thought to have the lowest because it leads India on most health measures. Manipur and Tripura have clearly higher rates.

So Kerala is the common wrong answer, and the question asks for the lowest rate in this particular bulletin and not the State with the best general record. Manipur and Tripura are wrong because their rates are higher than both Goa and Kerala.

Answer: D

Meghalaya shows the highest death rate of the four States in the SRS Bulletin of December 2011.

Death rates depend on age structure and health conditions. Meghalaya has a young population but poorer health services and higher mortality in the early years, which gives it a higher crude death rate than the other three States in the list.

Goa and Nagaland have low death rates, and Nagaland's is among the lowest in the country. Himachal Pradesh has a moderate rate, higher than Goa and Nagaland but below Meghalaya. So Meghalaya is the right choice.

Answer: C

Meghalaya had the highest infant mortality rate of the four North-Eastern States in 2005-2006.

The 2005-06 national family health survey showed high infant mortality in Meghalaya, among the worst in the region, because of poor access to health care in its hilly rural areas.

Sikkim and Nagaland had the lowest infant mortality among the States named, and Tripura was in between, higher than those two but below Meghalaya. So Meghalaya is the one that fits the question.

Answer: D

The least accurate statement is that life expectancy varies insignificantly by race or sex.

Life expectancy differs a great deal between men and women, women living several years longer in nearly every country, and it differs between racial groups within a country, for example in the United States of America. So the claim of insignificant variation is false.

The other three are accurate. In some countries, notably those hit by AIDS or by social collapse, life expectancy fell over two decades, Japan's life expectancy is longer than that of the United States, and the figure of about 77 years for people born in 2002 in the United States is about right.

Answer: B

If country A has a higher life expectancy but also a higher crude death rate than country B, A's population is probably older.

The crude death rate is the number of deaths per thousand of the whole population, so it depends on the age structure. A country with many old people has many deaths each year even when each person lives longer on average. A high life expectancy with a high crude death rate therefore points to an ageing population.

A younger population would give a lower death rate, not a higher one. A high infant mortality would lower life expectancy, which contradicts the data. So the answer is the one that says A is older.

Answer: B

In a stationary population a death rate of 10 per thousand means a life expectancy of 100 years.

In a stationary life table the birth rate equals the death rate and the population does not change. The life expectancy at birth is the reciprocal of the death rate.

\[ e_0 = \frac{1}{d} = \frac{1000}{10} = 100 \]

So 100 years is the answer. A life expectancy of 50 years would need a death rate of 20 per thousand, 65 years about 15.4 per thousand and 75 years about 13.3 per thousand, so none of those fits a death rate of 10.

Answer: B

According to the Sample Registration System Bulletin of December 2011, the infant mortality rate in urban areas of India was 31 per 1,000 live births for 2010. The rural rate was much higher, at 51, and the rate for the whole country was 47.

The values 25, 35 and 40 are not the urban figure in that bulletin, though 40 is closer to the rate of some earlier years.

Answer: C

Post-neonatal mortality is the probability of dying after the first month and before the first birthday. It covers deaths from 28 days up to one year of age and is separate from neonatal mortality, which covers the first month.

The probability of dying in the first month is neonatal mortality, the probability of dying in the first year is infant mortality, and dying between the first and the fifth birthday is child mortality.

Answer: B

The Coale and Demeny regional model life tables were derived from 192 life tables. They were produced in 1966 from a large collection of life tables, and they group these into four regional families, which are called North, South, East and West.

The figures 176, 186 and 190 are close but are not the number of tables used.

Answer: B

The matching is regional model life tables with Coale and Demeny, logit model life tables with Brass, model life tables with the United Nations, and factor analysis in identifying model life tables with Ledermann, which is the code i iii iv ii. Coale and Demeny produced the regional tables, Brass developed the logit system, the United Nations published a set of model tables, and Ledermann used factor analysis to derive his.

The other codes pair at least two of these names with the wrong system.