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Abstract
During the early 1970s there was an increase in reported infant mortality rates in the Soviet Union that lead to a discontinuation by the Soviet government in the publication of these rates. The cessation of publication of the rates attracted the attention of many Western scholars who then focused on the levels of infant mortality in the Soviet Union, which were higher than most industrialized countries, and also varied greatly by republic. In the late 1980s, the Soviets began publishing infant mortality rates once again. These new data allow a more in depth study than has been possible in the past.
The main objectives of this dissertation were to examine the trends and differentials in infant mortality among the republics of the Soviet Union for the years 1970 through 1988 and among regions of the RSFSR for the years 1980 through 1988; and to determine what factors could account for these trends and differentials.
With the new data that are available it appears that most of the increase that occurred in the 1970s was due to improved reporting of infant deaths, especially neonatal deaths. The increase was the largest in the republics that were the least developed and the most likely to suffer from under-reporting, namely those in the Central Asian region.
In the multivariate analysis of factors that were related to infant mortality for the 15 republics, health care and nutrition were found to be the most important determinants. For the analysis involving the regions of the RSFSR, health care and the status of women were found to have the largest effects on infant mortality level.
This dissertation concludes with some insights into what infant mortality levels may be in the regions of the new Commonwealth of Independent States and the Baltic nations given alternative scenarios about health care and nutrition.
