Mortality within the first year of life in relationship to the distribution of income and of public facilities, S. Paulo (Brasil)

Abstract

It was made a study to identify the distribution of the infant death rates and the distribution of income, and the distribution of certain public health facilities in the 55 districts of the city of S. Paulo (Brazil) and, then, to analyze the similarity among them. The infant death rates and concentration of low income families increased from the center to the periphery of the city. The public health facilities - water supply, maternity beds, and State health centers - also decreased from the center to the periphery of the city. Both the increasing distribution of income and the decreasing distribution of public facilities were positively related to the increasing mortality distribution. The conclusion, therefore, is that, in S. Paulo, income and public facilities are synergic; that is, they mutually reinforce the inequalities observed through the infant mortality.