Long-Term Reductions in Mortality Among Children Under Age 5 in Rural Haiti: Effects of a Comprehensive Health System in an Impoverished Setting

Henry Perry and colleagues published this study in the American Journal of Public Health in 2007. They collected information on births and deaths in the Hôpital Albert Schweitzer (HAS) service area between 1995 and 1999, added previously published under-5 mortality rates for HAS, and compared them with published national rates for Haiti from 1958 to 1999. Under-5 mortality in the HAS area fell from 249.6 deaths per 1,000 live births in 1958 to 1962 to 56.9 in 1972 and stayed in that range until 1995 to 1999.

In the early 1970s the HAS rate was three fourths lower than the national rate, and more recently it has been one half of the national rate. Child survival interventions in the HAS area were substantially higher than in Haiti nationwide while socioeconomic characteristics and childhood malnutrition levels were similar. The authors conclude that HAS programs have been responsible for long-term sustained reduction in mortality among children under 5.