On May 16, 5:39*pm, "J. Clarke" wrote:
LD wrote:
wrote in message
....
On May 13, 2:44 pm, "HeyBub" wrote:

* The survival rate for many chronic diseases (breast cancer, for
example) is MUCH greater in the U.S. than in Canada.

Not really many, breast cancer survival is one of the very few health
indicators where the US is near the top. In almost all other health
indicators you may want to pick, Canadian outcomes are better, as are
other countries’. The US is at the bottom of rich countries when it
comes to life expectancy and infant mortality. Some third world
countries like Cuba and Costa Rica do almost as well as the US.

Be careful with statistics like those--some countries count an infant that
dies within an hour of birth as a stillbirth for example, that doesn't count
against either life expectancy or infant mortality, while the US counts such
deaths as infant mortality.

You are quite correct in pointing out that we have to be careful with
the source of statistics. In this case, the WHO has fairly strict
definitions about what they mean and how countries should collect and
measure them. See: http://www.who.int/whosis/indicators...ndium/2008/en/
for the details on all the indicators.

In the case of infant mortality, the definition is quite clear:
Live birth refers to the complete expulsion or extraction from its mother of a
product of conception, irrespective of the duration of the pregnancy, which, after
such separation, breathes or shows any other evidence of life - e.g. beating of the
heart, pulsation of the umbilical cord or definite movement of voluntary muscles -
whether or not the umbilical cord has been cut or the placenta is attached.. Each
product of such a birth is considered live born.

So if countries follow the WHO guidelines, then the definition is the
same as in the US.