What explains the decline in mortality in developed countries? Are there lessons to be learned in relation to the poor in developing countries today?
I. Introduction
A. General Information
In general, the mortality level is deservedly considered to be among one of the characteristics that reveals both economic and social health of the certain state and that clearly describes the effectiveness of the policies that governments get used to adopt. In this context, the most significant particular demographic indicators are commonly the following:
1) Infant mortality rate;
2) Maternal mortality rate;
3) Mortality amid able-bodied citizens;
4) Mortality caused by external factors;
5) The difference between expected lifespan of men and women.
Not so much low birthrate as both extra-high mortality and low birth are assumed to be the key reasons why depopulation processes have a tendency to occur. In addition to this, there exists such a thing as the mortality factor. This point appears to be a phenomenon referring to particular groups of people, population itself, and its separate parts in all the sides of the certain country. In other words, this is a reason that comprises general nature, significance, and actions performed. It is possible to single out a place of residence, a level of medical care provision and so on so forth.
Talking about conditions that lead to mortality, it seems worthwhile saying that they are the general principles that unite the whole group of factors, being social circumstances, biological conditions, or physical situation. One or the other factors and conditions are indissolubly connected with the death reasons.
B. Economic Importance
“Mortality decline working through the channels of education and fertility promotes economic growth. As the mortality rate falls, precautionary demand decreases” (Kalemli-Ozcan 15).
C. Historical Importance
There are not so many things that both touch upon and unite everybody under the sun. Still, such factor as death seems to be one of them. Comparing to old times, a present-day society has already got used to face different causes (or reasons) of mortality much less than it was earlier. Nobody will argue such a fact that even in the beginning of the twentieth century nearly every disease could lead to unpredictable circumstances (in this case, it is said about death).
Though high mortality rate has always been a phenomenon that revealed negative sides for countries only, Nazi Germany – commonly the Third Reich – has derived much profit from planned murder cases during the World War II. At that time, the Nazi doctors and military surgeons used people (predominantly people of Jewish nationality) as a guinea pig. Such a kind of informal actions gave a wondrous impetus to the considerable breakthrough of up-to-date medicine. Still, none of political ideas is not worth a human life.
D. Key Line
II. Specification of an Economic Model
Well, if we just proceed to ponder over this constantly emerging problem more globally and more generally, one should undoubtedly mention that mortality has always had an earnest influence on the economic components of any country’s subsistence (notwithstanding is one of them either a superpower, developed, developing, or even poor). As it was mentioned in the “Economic Importance” heading, high-leveled mortality amid able-bodied people have a negative impact on the rate of provision of employment at the local (or state) level.
Although this appears to be a very ambiguous and questionable topic, on one hand, it is important to say that decline of the mortality rate reduces fertility but heightens the economic growth of the country. On the other hand, I have to say that an unsteady mortality tends to persistently decline the results in the raise of the quantity of population. The inside capital fluctuates a little, but not so much as the aforementioned quantity does. Consequently, gross domestic product per capita of any common country tends to decrease that can be absolutely observed in the graphs provided by popular economic editions and institutions.
According to the Lehmijoki’s and Palokangas’s research, “The decline in mortality stimulates investment and the more, the stronger is the desire of status, but if wealth per person grows at the same rate for all families, its marginal utility keeps constant while that of children decreases” (4). In general, such actions take place in the developing world since World War II.
A. Developing Countries
In the last few decades, mortality rates within developing countries has had such a tendency as to slightly decline while birth rates has maintained high. First of all, this is due to the demographic explosion and less important due to the climate conditions (depending on the country’s location). Moreover, both social aid and living conditions that are rendered by developing countries has a positive effect on the mortality rate by decreasing it. Still, the birth rate remains the same as it appears to be a so-called simple tradition of the population of developing states.
As our world is always developing, not lacking movement, and not just marking time, the medicine has had the same impulse. People who lived earlier could not even imagine that some fatal diseases would be cured in the course of time. Moreover, this is our present-day reality we are living in. Thanks to this, the mortality rates in this sort of countries keep step with birth rates creating a favorable area to reside in.
The soi-disant natality occurs because birth rate exceeds the mortality one. In any specific country of any continent, the population growth may happen being a result of either natural increase or population movement from outside. In general, the indicators of population death rates had fallen precisely as from the end of the nineteenth century. The concrete decline, as I have already mentioned, could be spectated at the time the World War II finished. At that time, achievements of modern medicine succeeded to spread all over Europe and globally.
B. Visible Comparisons
As the living conditions are systematically becoming better year by year, people residing in the developing countries may let themselves to give birth to more than one child. However, if Poland can afford people to plan a successful life for almost every family, Ukraine, for instance, cannot. People from the earlier existing Soviet Union may hardly make their living and nourish each other.
The precise death rate can be given by the whole ratio of mortality; that is the amount of deceased people during one exact year per one thousand people comprising local population. The global process of mortality decline leads to the approach of figures within distinct countries worldwide. Moreover, it is worthwhile noting that in some developed states mortality rates are already significantly higher than in developing ones.
One of the main reasons for such a contract is said to be a specific character of the age structure of the population. Most of all, the aforementioned words refer to different shares of contingent of local mature people. Though death is basically considered to be a biological process, but, nevertheless, the conclusive influence upon it is made by both social and economic living circumstances revealing either in a family or in a society. In the first place, the mortality level is caused by the level of the humans’ well-being as well as by the degree of public health care development.
C. Other Interesting Facts
According to the historical data found, many demographists have chosen different age groups in already developed countries in order to get to know more why the decline of mortality had happened some centuries ago. All the presented groups have demonstrated that decrease due to the never yet seen progress in the field of economics and public health. At that time exactly, the gap between expected lifespan of men and women had started (earlier, none of the sexes had their excellence over each other).
It was also clarified that first and foremost the mortality’s distortion touched upon the age group between fifty and seventy years. The main role in this process was played by smoking. The second most popular reason was the diseases that related to cardiovascular system.
Paradoxically, but in spite of the win over dangerous infectious diseases and the rise of the common level of population health, the men mortality has started being onwards and upwards.
III. Evidence and Analysis
A. Russia and Czech Republic
I have decided to choose these countries, as they have always been very similar to each other, being, firstly, representatives of the Slavonic peoples and, secondly, having closely related histories. Both of them are among the developing countries’ list. Still, the degree of development concerning social and economic issues are sufficiently different.
The general statistics I am going to provide below is to show the inequality of the mortality reasons’ structure in various countries. In the structure of economically developed countries and, in our case, Russia, there are such foremost allocated factors as:
1) Problems connected with the blood circulatory system;
2) Neoplasms;
3) Accidents and traumas;
4) Intoxications;
5) All other such.
However, if we just turn upon developing countries, the mortality reasons’ structure will look like:
1) Accidents, traumas, and intoxications;
2) Neoplasms;
3) Problems connected with the blood circulatory system.
B. Russia’s Case
In 2007, the President of Russian Federation affirmed a decision to create a concept of demographic policy for the period until 2025. This was a comprehensive set of measures including the following points:
1) Prophylaxis, diagnostics, and therapy of cardiovascular diseases;
2) Assuring of rendering timely and high-grade medical aid;
3) Decline of both maternal and infant mortality;
4) Risk of accidents on factories along with professional diseases;
5) Creating conditions to motivate people to keep a healthy lifestyle and preserving the health of nation.
Apart from this, the government has decided to approve the whole set of strategies and programs in order to confront socially important illnesses.
C. Unconventional Approach to Estimate Death Rates
Well, first of all, not all the developing states have both an entire and a complete registration of mortality due to which it will be possible to estimate mortality rate thoroughly. Some scientists and politicians are long arguing to implement the following settings (steps) to improve the existing registration database and actions:
1) This step will contain approaches directed to evaluation and regulation of deaths that were not recorded completely;
2) Here, it is important to collect data about mortality by age groups. This step can be also named after certain methodologies that provide alternative data collection;
Notice: the next two steps are also important as well as the first two ones, still not of the first necessity. They are rather good supplement. The reason why I have decided to single out the first two steps is also because a developing country can contribute the information gathered to the HMD (commonly – Human Mortality Database). This should be a wondrous indication of great potential of the country.
3) Approaches of this section concerns asking close relatives or talking to common respondents about the survival;
4) Evaluating deaths from alterations in age allocations.
D. What Developing Countries Have to Learn
Assuming this issue, my point of view has always been the following: if a country is suggested to be developed yet, this actually means that it has already travelled a long way to be of such a type. Earlier, it had obviously been a developing one. To reach its current position in the world it had to improve all many policies concerning political, economic and social issues.
Population of the developed countries could spectate a slight or even a visible decline in mortality rates due to the way of living their states propose them. High security clearance, a worth and a free medicine, social programs, deserving salaries and many other factors resulted in high expectancy of the common lifespan and in low indicators of mortality rate. As a dogma, the human life should always be the main value for authorities despite the citizen’s status in the society.
This does not actually mean that developing countries do not try to perfect their inner systems that already exist. This is rather economic not political factor; still this data does not refer to all the developing ones. The reason can hide within the economic power of the state being, for example, a moderate gross domestic product per capita, salaries, pensions, and benefits lower than in developed countries etc.
IV. Conclusion
Firstly, I tend to think that not all the comparisons have right to live. However, the contrast amid developed and developing countries is very interesting to be pondered over, as it absolutely helps any exact country to set aright necessary amendments (in our case, to regulate the mortality rate artificially).
The issues and the bills local parliaments review and discuss can lead to better life of residents. Both birth and mortality rates strive to higher effectiveness and open up very new vistas.
Secondly, the new advanced standards help the country to integrate into many unions and international departments. The World Health Organization is the best tool that helps countries to orientate in what new laws to implement. Considering the European Union (the predominant majority of developed states occurs here exactly), for instance, it is obligatory to note that the developing country cannot join the union having not provided necessary laws. The laws concerning health care of nation are always in the top of the list, as the value of human health has always been of the first priority.
These standards help to sufficiently regulate the birth rate and the mortality rate, as our environment, our nutrition, and the services our country provide us with have the most significant influence on well-being.
Carrying on my idea, I would like to note that all the developed countries have a very favorable geographic position. Still, Israel, for example, have a nuclear status and during all its history has had a peacetime lasting around four hours only (then, the martial was imposed by the government). In a word, unstable situations can be observed in many developed countries. They can also have a great impact on human lives and the life expectancy.
Works Cited
Kalemli-Ozcan, S. Journal of Economic Growth. Does the Mortality Decline Promote Economic Growth? Web. July 2002. <http://econweb.umd.edu/~kalemli/jegfinal.pdf>
Renton, A. Public Health. Economic growth and decline in mortality in developing countries: An analysis of the World Bank development datasets. 551-560, 560. Vol. 126. July 2012.
Lehmijoki, U. & Palokangas, T. Iza. The Long-Run Effects of Mortality Decline in Developing Countries. Web. January 2011. <http://ftp.iza.org/dp5422.pdf>
