The infant mortality rate for Charlotte in 1921 was nearly half the rate for 1920, according to Dr. W.A. McPhaul, county health officer, who announced Saturday that the 1921 rate was 58 per 1,000 births as compared with 94 per 1,000 during 1920.
Charlotte’s rate for death of children under 1 year of age was much lower than the rate for 51 cities of the United States.
Reports to the Bureau of Census, United States Department of Commerce, show for the group of 51 cities that the infant mortality rate for 1921 was 74 per 1,000 births. In 1920 the rate was 90 for 44 cities.
Portland, St. Paul and Seattle had the lowest rate in 1921 when only 47 deaths occurred in 1,000 births. With 111 deaths for 1,000 births, Fall River had the highest infant mortality rate for 1921.
According to the government report no city shows a higher rate for 1921 than for 1920, although Albany and Salt Lake City maintain the same rate for the two years, 77 and 72, respectively.
The decrease in the local rate, said Dr. McPhaul, is due to the work of the health department. He pointed particularly to the visits of public health nurses who enter the homes and instruct the mothers in the care of infants. Education has been the force that has reduced the infant mortality rate as well as eliminated deaths among adults from preventable diseases, he said.
From The Charlotte News, Sunday, January 22, 1922
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