OBJECTIVES: to classify deaths of children under one year old from January to December 2000, at a public Hospital of Pernambuco, according to avoidable basic causes of death. METHODS: descriptive cross sectional study using data from the Information System on Mortality processed at the Hospital. The basic causes stated in Death Certificates collected from the medical records and codified under the rules of the Tenth International Disease Classification were grouped according to the criteria proposed by the SEADE Foundation (1991). The coefficient of hospital infant mortality was calculated based on the hospital admission files. RESULTS: the majority of deaths were classified as deaths avoidable by adequate healthcare, with proportional mortality rates of 77,4% for infant deaths, 75,3% for neonatal deaths and 60,1% for post-neonatal deaths, representing an infant death rate of 103,7 deaths per 1.000 hospital admissions. Approximately half were neonates, of these 31% were avoidable through early diagnosis and care. In the post-neonatal group, 44% were principally caused by intestinal infectious diseases and respiratory diseases. CONCLUSIONS: the results are suggestive that these high percentages of avoidable deaths were caused by difficulties of access to healthcare services, coverage and/or quality of the assistance.
Infant mortality; Hospital mortality; Cause of death
