Cohort Profile: The 2004 Pelotas (Brazil) Birth Cohort Study

Abstract
The last decades of the 20th century witnessed a major epidemiological and nutritional transition in Latin America.1–3 Mortality due to infectious diseases and malnutrition declined in most countries and neonatal deaths now account for a growing proportion of infant deaths.4,5 In Brazil, infant mortality fell from 82.8 per 1000 live births in 19806 to 27.4 per 1000 in 2000.7 There were also marked improvements in undernutrition: 37.1% of Brazilian children 8 compared with 10.5% in 1996.9