Infant mortality rates according to socioeconomic status in a Brazilian city

Abstract
OBJECTIVE: Data from municipal databases can be used to plan interventions aimed at reducing inequities in health care. The objective of the study was to determine the distribution of infant mortality according to an urban geoeconomic classification using routinely collected municipal data. METHODS: All live births (total of 42,381) and infant deaths (total of 731) that occurred between 1994 and 1998 in Ribeirão Preto, Brazil, were considered. Four different geoeconomic areas were defined according to the family head's income in each administrative urban zone. RESULTS: The trends for infant mortality rate and its different components, neonatal mortality rate and post-neonatal mortality rate, decreased in Ribeirão Preto from 1994 to 1998 (chi-square for trend, p